Texas’ oldest working courthouse

Linden leader, historian and researcher Sue Morris Lazara provides the following insight about how to refer to the historic Cass County Courthouse “The county courthouse in Linden has actually not been in ‘continuous use.’ Its service life has been interrupted several times -- at least once in each of its three centuries,” Lazara begins. “For renovations, for tornado and fire repairs, as examples,” she said.

“Whoever came up with that phrase managed to make it stick, but the phrase is easily disproven.

“What is true is that this is Texas’ sole surviving antebellum county courthouse, and therefore the state’s oldest working county courthouse.

“There may be older courthouses -- federal ones, temporary ones, etc. But this is the state’s oldest surviving county courthouse owned by a Texas county.

“And the only one in Texas that was erected prior to the Civil War.”