When we think about the history of the Fort Smith Public Library, the original Carnegie City Library at 318 North 13th Street may come to mind most often.  The story of Fort Smith’s first truly public library is an interesting one, and many people in our area have vivid memories of visiting the Carnegie Library with its magnificent stairs, impressive music room, and longtime library director Miss Gladys Krone. 

The belief by community leaders in the importance of the public library and their persistence in tirelessly advocating, first for its existence and then for its growth, are common threads throughout our library’s history.  In many ways the next chapter in the library’s history, the “new” library located at 61 South 8th Street, was equally consequential in the library’s evolving story. 

By the early 1950s, it was apparent that the Carnegie building was too small for our growing community’s library needs.  In 1965 the library purchased over two acres of property on South 31st Street, across from the Creekmore Park swimming pool, with the intention of building a new library there.  They sold the Carnegie building to KFSA (later known as KFSM-Channel 5) with the provision that the library could remain in the building until April 30,1968, to allow time for the construction of a new library building.

Initially the library pursued a federal construction grant through the Arkansas Library Commission, but their request was rejected.  The Commission felt a downtown location would be more suitable than the location near the park.  They also thought the size of the building they planned to put at the site, about 34,000 square feet, was too small. 

Library leaders soon turned to Plan B: asking Fort Smith voters to approve a temporary millage increase to fund a $500,000 bond issue for the construction of the new library. Downtown business owner Joshua Cohn strongly and vocally opposed the effort, believing the new library needed to be located downtown.  In a special election marked by turnout of just 25% of registered voters, the request was rejected, losing by just 234 votes.

Though library leaders were disappointed, they didn’t give up on finding funding for the new library building.  On June 29, 1967, just a year after the bond request was defeated, Senators John McCellan and J.W. Fulbright announced approval of a $626,000 federal grant from the Economic Development Administration for a new “regional library and computerized information center” in Fort Smith.  The library would be located downtown, at what would become 61 South 8th Street.  The total cost of the project was estimated at $1,253,264.  The city’s contribution of the land for the building and an associated parking lot constituted part of the matching funds that were required. The sale of the South 31st Street property and money already in hand by the library provided the remaining funds for the project.

The new Fort Smith Public Library opened September 8, 1970, with hundreds of people visiting on the first day.  The architecture of the 34,000 square foot building was described as “contemporary with white columns and portico,” quite a contrast to the design of the Carnegie library building.  The formal dedication was November 13, 1970.  Sen. John L McClellan and Sen. J. William Fulbright were both in attendance, with Sen. McClellan remarking that the opening of a new public library is “an important event to any community since it reflects the spirit and character of the people in the community.” 

For many people who grew up in Fort Smith, the 8th Street library was “their” library.  Memories most often center around the building’s open stair design.  The stairs led up to the 2nd floor Reference and Genealogy collections.  The stairs also led down to the basement, where the public meeting room was located and perhaps more notably, the Children’s Department -- where more often than not Miss Louise Turner and Mrs. Drusie Appleyard were eagerly waiting to offer a warm welcome and a book recommendation for the library’s youngest visitors. 

For more information on the history of the Fort Smith Public Library, visit our FSPL History web page. 

Information for this column came from the Fort Smith Public Library’s digitized newspaper collection.