Artist captures building’s history in paintings

A Linden, Texas, building lost to history lives again in several mural-size memory paintings, thanks to a distant artist who is also a Don Henley fan and, therefore, fond of Linden.

Chad Buice, a schoolteacher, artist and musician living near Atlanta, Ga., has recreated three scenes at the abandoned Linden ice house building, which is now owned by Lindenite Sue Morris Lazara.

Buice worked with her on the project, with Lazara providing photographs and details of the scene.

In return, Buice painted several of Lazara’s relatives into the murals. The man in the doorway of the Linden Ice Co. is the image of Charley Wiley, Lazara’s grandfather. The girl with an ice cream cone at the door of the Sweet Shop is Lazara’s sister Becky Morris, who died an accident in 1958.

In the third panel, a couple of icemen work on machinery to “score” the ice for dividing into 50-pound blocks.

According to Lazara’s and Gail Dorgan’s research, the ice house opened in 1937 and was the second ice production plant in Linden.

“An earlier and smaller-capacity production plant was located along the railroad track in the building later known as the Claude Hall Machine Shop at 301 West Rush,” Lazara said.

H. O. “Pug” Richey and Harold Smith completed the new plant on Houston Street in 1937. Today, the business sign that announces the ice house business again is authentic in its own way. It was created by artist Buice using script that was modeled after a published ad for the company.

Both ice plants used hollow clay-tile walls because the double-air chambers kept the interior cool, Lazara wrote.

“Linden ice was delivered to homes, where every family had an ice pick to chip ice from the blocks that came to their homes’ back porches,” she said.

C.E. Bell acquired and operated the ice house in 1955. There were several owners to follow, including John D. Harris, Charles Cox and Leonard Boney. Lazara purchased the property in 2002 from Boney.

More about the Linden Ice House and Sweet Shop can be read on the Linden Heritage Foundation Website in an article published by Joe Lovelace titled “Linden’s Ice Co. and Sweet Shop: Frozen in Time.”

Lazara said Buice is not finished with his artwork and plans to return in July to complete the undertaking.

Of his work, Lazara wrote, “Chad has been perfectly wonderful to work with and the hearts of the entire Wiley/Morris/Lazara family are warmed by his tribute to our beloved Charley and Becky.”

Staff photos by Neil Abeles ■ Linden’s Ice House and Sweet Shop on Houston Street has taken on new life again, thanks to mural artist Chad Buice, who is from Atlanta, Ga.

■ Artist Chad Buice has memorialized Becky Morris, sister of Sue Lazara. She is pictured entering the old Linden Sweet Shop business.

■ The artist’s rendition of Charley Wiley is on the door to the former Linden Ice House. Artist Chad Buice based the interior look on photographs. Wiley was the grandfather of Sue Lazara, owner of the building.

■ Looking through the window (apparently) at the Linden Ice House, workmen are operating the machine that scores the ice blocks, making them capable of being divided into 50-pound blocks.