Texas first lady to be in Linden
LINDEN, Texas—Texas first lady Cecilia Abbott will visit Linden on April 18 to tour the newly designated Main Street city.
An outdoor ceremony for the visit is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Cass County Courthouse, in the center of Linden's historic downtown. Speakers will include Abbott, elected officials and the Texas Historical Commission.
After the ceremony, a public reception will take place inside the courthouse—the only continuously functioning antebellum courthouse in Texas. The building, at 100 E. Houston St., was restored by the county under the THC's Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.
A public reception will immediately follow the ceremony on the first floor of the courthouse.
Linden, the seat of Cass County, was established in 1852 by Major Wood, who named the town after his former home in Tennessee. Later, after the opening of a post office lured the first hand-sawed lumber business to town, Linden quickly became an important part of the East Texas forest industry.
Visit the THC's website at thc.texas.gov/mainstreet for program details.
The THC's Texas Main Street Program is an economic development, revitalization and preservation program for historic downtowns and commercial neighborhood districts. The goal is to help a community maintain its authenticity while promoting job creation and economic development.
The first lady's Main Street Tour is an annual tradition of the Texas Main Street Program. Since 1981, every first lady of Texas has participated in the event, which features a public ceremony and reception to celebrate a city's entrance into the Main Street program. The event is sponsored by the Independent Bankers Association of Texas, the largest state community banking organization in the nation.
Texas Main Street is one of the oldest and largest in the U.S., with 89 fully designated communities; Linden is the 88th addition.
Texas Main Street communities have created more than $3.4 billion in economic reinvestment, 35,490 local jobs and almost 9,000 small businesses.