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History

The Kingston Community Library,

a brief history:

1983-2023

Introduction:

The history of our town’s library, the Kingston Community Library, can be told in three “chapters,” each one highlighting the important developments as the library grew from one location to another, from its bookmobile beginning in 1983 to its present home on the square with its next-door neighbor, the Annex.

Though the physical structure of the library has changed from location to location, what hasn’t changed is the steadfast commitment to its original mission and purpose: to provide the Kingston community with free and open access to information. To fulfill this purpose the library has always worked to bring the public to the library and the library to the public through programs, events, and outreach activities that are sometimes informational, sometimes educational, sometimes entertaining, but always offered with the Kingston community in mind. It is not by accident that the name of the library is the Kingston Community Library, a name that emphasizes “unity,” for the library is and always will be open to everyone.

The corresponding scrapbooks, Volumes 1-4, offer a great deal of visual history: the original minutes of the very first meetings to bring a library to town, the early coloring contest and essay contest entries, the many articles in the Madison County Record, and countless colorful photos. As you look through the scrapbooks you’ll see some friends and neighbors from forty years ago, some from last year, some have passed on, many are still here with us, and many are now quite grown up and very much a vital part of the Kingston community.

It would have been difficult, and risky no doubt, to attempt naming the many individuals who have brought the Kingston Community Library to where it is today. Reading through the minutes of the first few meetings in 1983 will make it clear that the original group of residents called themselves the Friends of the Kingston Community Library. Some of the original Friends are still with us, but two who are not must be recognized here before going any further:

                                  Marian Jazbinschek and Hazel McCollough.

                           To them we dedicate this brief history of our library.

The Bookmobile: 1983-1988

For some years prior to 1980, the North Arkansas Regional Library System, based in Harrison, had a bookmobile bus that traveled to several small towns throughout the area, including a two-hour stop in Kingston every month. By late 1982, Kingston had become of the busiest stops with more and more circulation, but after so many years on the road the old bookmobile had become more and more unreliable and more difficult and expensive to repair.

In the summer of 1983, some of the regular patrons of the bookmobile discussed the possibility of bringing a more permanent library to Kingston. NARL agreed to bring the bookmobile from Bull Shoals, and Curtis and Donnie Jean Grigg, who owned the property where the Kingston Station now sits, volunteered a space for it.

On August 16th, 1983, the newly-formed Friends of the Kingston Community Library decided on the location and put together an economic plan to cover the cost of electric hook-up, insurance, and “fix-up” costs of painting and maintaining the old bookmobile. They also set up an account at the Kingston Bank and soon began receiving donations from the community to help bring Kingston its first public library.

On October 11th the Friends held a Special Meeting to finalize plans as NARL would be bringing the bookmobile the next day, October 12th.  Lots of volunteers came and helped out when it arrived, and for the next several weeks they hooked up the electric, set the vehicle on blocks, removed the old battery, provided a few stairs for both front and back entrance, and built a book-return drop box. The Kingston 4-H washed and waxed the red and white bus and Sally Clark painted its new name: KINGSTON COMMUNITY LIBRARY.

On November 5th the Friends hosted an open house to celebrate Kingston’s first public library. The Friends staffed and maintained the library, opening it for sixteen hours a week at regular times to accommodate morning, afternoon, and early evening patrons as well as Saturday mornings when kids would come and spread out on blankets on the grass for story-time or special activities and programs.

During these early years the Friends participated in the new event in town: Kingston’s Fair-on-the-Square. They held an annual book sale as well as coloring and essay writing contests for various grade levels.

Above the Fire Department: 1988-2005

      “Kingston’s Community Library has been such a success it is being forced to vacate its

        present quarters . . .Plans are underway to relocate the library in the Kingston Firehouse

        and Community Center.”        

                                                          Madison County Record article, March 3, 1988

The new room above the Kingston Volunteer Fire Department building would almost double the shelf space and provide room for a few programs. To cover the relocation costs the Friends set up a special fund at the Kingston Bank and soon raised about $600. Because bookmobile shelving is specially designed for movement and travel, the major portion of the funds would go to building all new shelves for the new space. The funds would also be used to improve access into the building.

NARL agreed to donate the books already in the bookmobile and haul the old bus away by June 1st. The Friends moved quickly to get new shelves built and positioned in their new location. Transferring all the books was a huge task so volunteers in the community brought bags, boxes, and their pick-ups to help with both the move-out and the move-in. On Saturday, June 4th, 1988, the Friends held a Grand Opening and celebrated the “new” library with the community. (The old bookmobile was moved to St. Paul where it served as that community’s library until about 2008.)

Once the “dust had settled” after the move, the Friends worked on the access ramp up the west side of the Fire Department and installed a window-unit air conditioner. Gary Bunch, president of the Madison Bank and Trust (formerly Bank of Kingston), presented the library with a new wooden sign “KINGSTON COMMUNITY LIBRARY.” That same sign now hangs atop the front façade of our current library on the square.

Through the following years the Kingston Community Library continued to be run by the Friends volunteers. One of the Friends worked in Harrison and transported crates of special requests, inter-library loan books, and “weeded” books in exchange for new ones from NARL. The collection also grew with community-donated books and materials purchased with donations. The Friends staffed and managed the library, its finances, collection, and programs for over fifteen years until the late 90’s when it became a branch of the Madison County Library system. In 1998 the Madison County Library Board provided the Kingston Community Library with a small book budget and its very first paid librarian, Janetta Madewell.

In late 2000, the North Arkansas Regional Library System disbanded. In August of that year, several NARL member libraries joined together to form the Carroll and Madison Library System, CAMALS. It is still the center point of shared resources among its six member libraries, three in each of the two counties. In late 2001, the Carroll and Madison Public Library Foundation was established to help ensure the financial stability of CAMALS and its six libraries. With the Kingston Community Library now a member of CAMALS it had access to a broad base of resources, materials, and support and could now share its resources with its “sister” libraries.

On the Square: 2005-2023

By 2005, our library realized that its location above the Fire Department made access difficult for many patrons. Circulation and program attendance had slowly declined to a point where the Madison County Library board called for a town meeting to gauge public interest in the library and to discuss a possible new location. That June, 2005, meeting was filled to capacity. Frank and Linda McCollough, son and daughter-in-law to Hazel McCollough, a founder and long-time Friend of the library, offered the use of their building right on the Kingston Square. Madison County agreed to a lease with the McCollough family. With their generosity the Kingston Community Library had found a new home.

That summer the Friends cleaned and renovated the building, which had recently been a florist shop, and again with much help from the community they hauled shelving and books from the Fire Department to the new location. When all was ready, on October 12th, 2005, the Friends held a Grand Re-Opening and formally dedicated the Kingston Community Library to Hazel McCollough.

Being on the square greatly improved access and parking, and it wasn’t long before programs and activities re-energized library service and community participation. The variety of programs, for all ages, is too wide-ranging to list here, but they are well displayed in our scrapbooks. These programs included many hands-on craft activities, presentations on local history, local plants and wildlife, guest speakers from different backgrounds and different professions, Kingston school teachers “Welcome Back” open house, Fall Festivals, Toddler Story Time, Teddy-Bear-Tuck-In sleepovers. Among the many highlights are the school visits, the Game Nights for kids and adults, the Music-on-the-Square summer concert series, the annual Fair-on-the-Square Book Sale, the annual Summer Reading programs, and the annual Textbook Scholarship program for local students whether they be current graduating seniors or graduates from long ago now re-entering post-secondary certificate or degree programs.

Improvements to the library during those first five years on the square included adding a covered 8’ x 30’deck (a project led by a local Eagle Scout), expanding interior shelving space, providing an ADA access ramp, and greatly improving and updating the collection.

In October, 2010, the Friends hosted another Open House to celebrate the library’s fifth year on the square and to open the newest addition: The North Wing. The North Wing, formerly a beauty parlor just to the north and across the road from the old Grigg-McCollough store, provided more space for programs and meetings, additional shelf space for the Friends on-going book sale, and (most importantly!) a restroom facility since there had been none available in the library to patrons and staff.

On October 12, 2013, the Kingston Community Library celebrated its “30 years of service” to the community. As an article and an editorial in that week’s Madison County Record put it: “It’s extremely impressive that the ‘little library that could’ started out as a bookmobile and now is basically the epicenter of the Kingston area (along with the school, of course). These folks love their library.” To help celebrate the day, many of the Friends original founders were present, two of whom were Marian Jazbinschek and Reba Bolinger. Another honored guest was Madison County Judge Frank Weaver who presented a certificate “Proclamation of October 12 as Kingston Community Library Day.”

As the library expanded its collection and increased its circulation and program attendance numbers, it also, once more, outgrew its space. By late 2014 the Friends and the Madison County Library board applied for and received funds to begin work on adding a 14’ by 37’ expansion to the library. Local carpenter Buddy Shute was awarded the bid. The work was completed only with the generous support of the Kingston community who volunteered financial assistance and, again, much help in building new shelving, moving books, cleaning, painting. When it was finished, the Madison County Master Gardeners volunteered to plant and maintain a beautiful garden in front of the library.

The library had also expanded its open hours to twenty-seven per week to accommodate weekday mornings, afternoons, and Saturday mornings. The Madison County Library Board approved nineteen hours paid and Friends of the Library volunteered the remaining eight.

These were busy years and the library buzzed with new programs such as Coffee House, an evening of poetry, storytelling, and music; the C&K club, a time of crocheting, knitting, and sharing patterns and maybe some gossip too; and Tai Chi, a morning of slow and relaxed movement and stretching to start the busy day. Music-on-the-Square, the last Friday of the summer months, continued to bring in more and more musicians both local and from Fayetteville, Rogers, and even Tulsa. The audience, too, grew to several hundred gathered on their lawn chairs or tailgates around the square.

At the end of 2018, the owner of the North Wing suddenly and drastically changed the terms of the lease agreement with the library in such a way that it became unaffordable. This unfortunate turn of events, though, soon brought a most welcome addition to the library’s history.

By early 2019 what had been the old feed store building (across from and part of the former Grigg-McCollough store) came up for sale. The building originally was Boydston’s Drugstore, built in 1912, and had been in relative disuse for several years since it had sold to Joyce and Joel Bunch in the early 2000’s. The Friends had long thought the building would be a fine addition to the library since it was right next door and offered ample green space for outdoor programming and events. Having saved funds whenever possible since their beginning years, the Friends found themselves in a position, in April of 2019, to purchase the “Feed Store.”

Because the building needed a lot of work inside and out, fundraising became top priority for most of 2019, and, as had so often happened in the past, donations large and small started coming in from the Kingston community. The Friends got to work cleaning out the space, measuring, planning where to locate a restroom and a small kitchen and storage area. An important goal was to preserve and highlight as much of the “old” while incorporating the “new.”

What happened next was totally unexpected: by early spring, 2020, everything came to a halt, a halt that became a long standstill because of the Covid-19 pandemic. As with so many businesses, schools, places of worship, clubs and organizations, the Kingston Community Library had to reconsider its ability to serve the public in such a way that ensured safety for patrons and staff. Along with libraries across the state, the country, libraries in Madison County were closed, all programs cancelled. The libraries did develop a “curbside” service that allowed patrons to request via phone or email certain materials which were then left in a crate on the front porch for pickup.

If there is a bright side to this period it is that the Friends could work on rehabbing the Feed Store in relative isolation for most of 2020 and into 2021. The building itself is 20’ wide and 40’ long, a large, wide-open space with, when purchased, a single breaker electric box and a few bare light bulbs strung across the ceiling. The Friends wanted to keep as much of the open space for future programs but realized the need for an ADA compliant restroom facility for patrons and staff of the library as well as a kitchen and storage space. The outside needed new windows, some roof repair and new roof coatings, a new side entrance rather than the elevated, front loading-dock door, and an ADA ramp. With the exception of major electrical and HVAC work, a pump-out tank installation, and some sheet rock work everything was done by volunteers. This included interior wall construction, insulation, woodwork and bookshelves, plumbing and appliance setting, laying tile, painting, and decorating. The goal, as mentioned above, was to preserve as much of the building’s long history in such a way that showed off its original architecture and design, its simple and reserved lines, and yet make it a modern and comfortable, clean and well-lit welcoming place for library programs and activities. The new interior, in fact, has many features fashioned from the building’s past, some obviously on display in the old window frames, some more subtle and discreet.

After over a year’s hiatus, and with direction from the Madison County Courthouse and Library Board, the Kingston Community Library finally re-opened to the public in April of 2021. Slowly, patrons returned and programs resumed with limited numbers. As the weather improved that spring the Friends hired a local family, the Burnetts from the Huntsville area, to scrape and paint the exterior a clean, fresh white, much as it looked in 1912. The construction of an ADA ramp up the south side of the building completed the “Feed Store” project, and the Friends hung a new sign on the upper façade: the “Kingston Community Library Annex.”

Our Library Director Linda Davidson, who came on in 2007 after Janetta Madewell retired, also retired at the end of 2020 after almost fourteen years of library service. In 2021 LouAnn Nolan and Stacey Reynolds followed in Linda’s footsteps and now, in 2023, we are glad to welcome Julie Tempel as Library Director of the Kingston Community Library.

Through these forty years the Friends have continued with their dedication and commitment to their original goal: to provide the Kingston community with the best library service possible. Certainly, libraries have changed in many, many ways since the pre-computer, pre-internet, pre-CD audio books and pre-DVD video days, since the days of punching patron cards in Gaylord machines and writing names and due dates on orange cards kept in book pockets and alphabetical desk-top box files.

Two vital keys, two strengths that have led to the success and longevity of the Friends of the Kingston Community Library and the library have become clear throughout these forty years.

One is the Kingston community itself. Without the support of our community, the “unity” we put in our name forty years ago might not have carried on for as long as it has. We are very grateful. Thank you.

The second strength lies in the inter-generational nature of our commitment. We have always worked closely with the Kingston school to ensure that every young learner has access to the library, and we now have many of those young learners bringing their own children in for a library card and a book to check out on it for the first time. Thank you, grandparents, parents, and kids. You are all always welcome

It is our hope that we can continue our success in bringing our library to the community and our community to the library, in providing free and open access to information to all, young and old, who seek it.

Compiled and written by William Horrell, March 2023, for the fortieth anniversary of the Kingston Community Library