The Linden Heritage Foundation is the sole non-profit organization in Cass County for the protection and promotion of cultural resources and adaptive use of historic sites designed as economic development tools. Founded in 1848, Linden is rich in natural and historic attributes, including surviving late 19th century and antebellum structures. It has a unique inventory of Public Works Administration era features. The historic Cass County Courthouse, located at the heart of the city, was constructed between 1859 and 1861. It is Texas’ only surviving antebellum county courthouse. This structure served as the base of the area’s Civil War preparations — early mustering, arming, provisioning as well as later widow/orphan relief activities.
Linden’s boundaries comprise two vast land patents earned in the period of the Texas Republic. The broader history of the ground on which Linden is built reaches farther back to the period of Spanish exploration and to pre-historic eras when Native American societies flourished on the wooded and well-watered local landscape. Those tribes left behind many cultural objects and folk traditions – some of them still legible today through their descendants and other followers of tribal ways. A few of those traditions are so interwoven with present day lifeways that their original source is no longer recognized by the average resident. The Linden Heritage Foundation will work to make all these continuities better understood and appreciated.