News Posts

Linden becomes a Texas Main Street City

~ lindenheritage

tmsp-165pxThe Texas Historical Commission (THC) has officially designated Linden as a 2017 Texas Main Street City.  The announcement came just one day after the Linden Heritage Foundation received notice that the 1939 Linden Firehouse will receive a prestigious Planning Grant from the THC’s Texas Preservation Trust Fund.  These two news items significantly elevate Linden’s visibility statewide as a City working to employ its past towards a brighter future for its citizens.

The Texas Main Street Program is a national award-winning revitalization program for historic downtown commercial districts.  Every year, the THC selects one to five Texas cities for official Main Street designation.  Two were selected to enter the program in 2017 – Linden and Buda.

Starting in January, Linden’s Main Street Program will receive a range of services and technical expertise from the THC – including building facade design work, marketing promotion training, and aids to heritage tourism development.  The program’s resources are designed to stimulate private-sector downtown reinvestment, new businesses, and related new job creation.  Overall, the Main Street Program places high value on a town’s unique qualities and history in ways that encourage a synergy of new investment, historic preservation, and economic growth.

The Texas Preservation Trust Fund Grant just awarded to the Linden Firehouse will provide funds toward professional architectural planning of a building restoration fully in keeping with national preservation guidelines.  Following this approach will enable the Foundation Board to apply in the future for major grant funding to support actual construction work on the Firehouse site.

Our community has work to do in 2017; and these special state resources will amplify the long-term success of local efforts.  The Linden Heritage Foundation hopes you will join in this work – either by becoming a member or by renewing your existing membership.  The Foundation was formed in September 2015 to encourage the preservation of Linden’s historic structures, archeological sites, objects and customs relating to the heritage and uniqueness of Linden.  We are therefore a natural local ally and local partner to the Texas Historical Commission.

As a town, Linden is daily gaining momentum towards true revitalization; and we hope many of you will offer your talents to help claim the future that Linden and its citizens deserve.  Please consider serving on a Foundation committee, such as the Firehouse Rescue Committee or the Main Street/Downtown Building Survey Committee that will launch in January 2017.  If you have a question or wish to volunteer, send an email to ContactUs@LindenHeritage.org or call 888.334.9284.

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Texas Preservation Trust Fund Awards Grant to Old Linden Firehouse

~ lindenheritage ~ 7 Comments

The Texas Historical Commission has notified the Linden Heritage Foundation that the 1939 Linden Firehouse was chosen to receive a planning grant from the Texas Preservation Trust Fund.  This grant will fund a professional preservation plan called a Historic Structure Report (HSR for short) which is a comprehensive study of the building and the recommended restoration work to be performed to keep the project in conformance with national preservation standards.

Conceptual computer-rendered image of 1939 Firehouse after restoration.
The above rendering by Lucas Allen is a preliminary idea of how the Old Firehouse could look after it is restored. At that point, the Foundation will put the building into commercial service of some kind – retail, food service, business office, etc. – allowing the historical building to become a lasting improvement to the face of Linden and a boost to the local economy..

An HSR is led by architectural professionals with preservation credentials. The architectural firm leading the Firehouse HSR will be Architexas of Dallas. The cost of the architectural work to lead the HSR is $11,200. The Foundation has already raised the necessary match funds.  Jo Anna Duncan will provide photographic services; and to top off the HSR effort the Foundation’s local research team – Kay Stephens, Gail Dorgan, and Sue Lazara – will provide the required historical documentation.

Last January, the Old Firehouse was officially determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, which was a prerequisite to apply for this particular Texas Preservation Trust Fund grant.  This prestigious grant award has very specific eligibility requirements, so only a finite number of Texas properties can qualify to make application.  Once the HSR is completed, the Old Firehouse will be allowed to reapply for a larger grant from the same Texas Preservation Trust Fund, toward the actual restoration work.

The award letter from Mark Wolfe, Executive Director of The Texas Historical Commission, is available for viewing as a pdf file at tptf-award-old-linden-firehouse.

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Save the Date: It’s Time for a Clean-Up at Old Linden Firehouse on Saturday, Nov 5th!

~ lindenheritage

firehouseVolunteers are needed to assist in an exterior clean-up of the Old Linden Firehouse chosen by Preservation Texas for its 2016 Texas’ Most Endangered Places list in the local public building category. The Linden Heritage Foundation is supporting the restoration of the Firehouse.

When: Saturday, November 5th, 9 am -12 pm

Where: 1939 Firehouse under the old Water Tower

Bring: Gloves, wheel barrows, and garden implements

Refreshments: Water, coffee, hot chocolate, and donuts

Spread the word! Invite your family, friends, students, customers, and non-profit groups who are interested in preserving this building that is of historical significance to Linden.

Can you help? Call or email Joe B. Lovelace (512.799.6294 or Joe.Lovelace@LindenHeritage.org) to get on the list.

Thank you to the City of Linden for assistance they will be providing during the clean-up!

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Wells Fargo Bank Donates to Firehouse Rescue Fund

~ lindenheritage

Wells Fargo Bank donates $500 to Firehouse Rescue Campaign

Kaoline Parsons, Texarkana Regional Banking District Manager (left) and Kimberly Duncan, Atlanta Branch Manager (second from right) for Wells Fargo Bank presented a $500 donation to the Linden Heritage Foundation’s Firehouse Rescue Fund on August 5, 2016.  Jana C. Bounds (left) and Charlotte Wells (right) accepted the check on behalf of the Linden Heritage Foundation. Kimberly is also a proud member of the Foundation.

The Linden Heritage Foundation is working toward full restoration of the 1939 Linden Firehouse, a New Deal Era civic building that has been officially determined eligible to the National Register of Historic Places.  At the time this structure was completed to serve the people of Linden, the City population was 900.  The volunteer firemen had a sleeping room upstairs and the city owned a single fire engine – first purchased in 1935 and kept in a rented facility until the Firehouse could be completed in early 1939.

The people of Linden and members of the Linden Heritage Foundation greatly appreciate Wells Fargo and all the other Firehouse Fund donors who readily support projects that make our towns more livable and our local heritage more palpable.

Photograph courtesy of Jo Anna Duncan’s Front Porch Treasures Studio on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FrontPorchTreasuresStudio.

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Happy Anniversary – The Linden Heritage Foundation is one-year old!

~ lindenheritage ~ 1 Comment
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Foundation was incorporated as a nonprofit charity in the State of Texas on September 1, 2015 by four founders: Sue Morris Lazara, Sam L. Higdon, Joe B. Lovelace, and Dr. James S. Jacob.  During this initial year, the support of our 245 individual and 7 organizational members has been amazing as has the record of accomplishments by our hardworking Officers, Directors, and Committee Members.  A summary of special successes to date follows.

  • Saved Linden’s 1934 Water Tower from a demolition order passed in July 2015 by a 3-2 vote of Linden City Council and then facilitated the acquisition of additional City land to expand the water tower site and make future commercial development there more attractive to potential investors.
  • Took ownership and responsibility for the preservation of Linden’s 1939 Firehouse.
  • Formed a hard-working Historical Research Committee in late 2015, which has documented the 1934 Water Tower and the 1939 Firehouse along with other New Deal era town features. This work has ensured the eligibility of a future Linden National Register Historic District.  The committee has expanded its scope to 1) work on documenting two African American historical sites, Macedonia School and the Carver Center; and 2) gather additional documentation on two key archeological sites in downtown Linden.  Those sites are the 1856 Veal Brickworks and the 1856 Dungeon with Iron Cage, a feature of the County Jail facility of the middle 19th
  • Qualified both the Water Tower and Firehouse for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
  • Secured a place for the Firehouse on Preservation Texas’ 2016 List of Most Endangered Places.
  • Released a request for proposals to invite commercial development of the Water Tower and Firehouse and thereby to help revitalize Linden’s economy.
  • Successfully completed the Step I application to the Texas Historical Commission for a Texas Preservation Trust Fund grant for our historic Firehouse.  This grant is being sought to fund professional planning services in the form of a Historic Structure Report on the Firehouse. The Step II application for this grant was submitted on July 12, 2016 and final grant awards will be made this coming fall.
  • Developed a Firehouse Rescue Fund Campaign that has secured major grants and donations.
  • Successfully promoted and then helped write the City of Linden’s application to become a Texas Main Street City in January of 2017. That detailed application was just submitted on July 27, 2016.

If you are one of the many who have contributed to these special efforts and successes over the past year of excitement, we thank you wholeheartedly.  If you are not yet one of the members who have been integrally involved with Foundation work, please jump in for this second, very important year.  We have so many talented members.  Our collective imagination is the only limit on how much more good work can be accomplished!

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