Our People

Our library staff: Library Director Jaymey Boston, and Library Assistants Dawn White and Lori Johnson

Our Mission

The mission of Gentry Public Library is to promote intellectual freedom, encourage life-long learning, organize cultural and leisure activities, and increase public awareness of the Library’s and our City’s resources and attributes.

Our History

Since its organization in 1975, the library has served Gentry and its surrounding communities. Originally the library was administered by the City of Gentry and library board of directors and staffed primarily by volunteers. The library experienced continual, significant growth and change. In 1998, the board decided to hire a part-time librarian. In April of that year, Darla Threet was hired to oversee daily operations. Two years later the position became full-time. The library was located at 112 E. Main St.

The library continued to flourish, and a larger building was needed. Beginning in February of 2000, James Furgason, library board director, and Darla attended meetings with area librarians and worked for passage of a county-wide mil tax dedicated to Benton County libraries, but those efforts were defeated twice. Benton County is one of three counties in the State of Arkansas that still does not have a mil tax that supports county libraries. A county mil tax is required for libraries to receive state or federal support.

In July of 2000, library volunteer, Joe Carl, offered to sell his empty building across the street from the library for $120,000. Gentry citizens pledged nearly $30,000 during the kick-off fundraising campaign, and in following months, raised an additional $25,000 with a gala and auction, car show, rummage sales, and miscellaneous fundraising events and memorial donations. In 2002, the citizens of Gentry voted for a sales and use tax for the purpose of constructing, equipping, operating, and maintaining a new library.

Joe Carl was paid in full for the building and then donated $20,000 for the project. The architect selected for the project was Marlon Blackwell of Fayetteville. Bonds were bought by Arvest Bank in 2003. Construction bids were let but came in too high. In July 2004, a second set of bids let, also came in too high.  In May of 2006, the Gentry City Council accepted a bid from SSI Construction and in June, Benton County prisoners arrived to start demolition on the building. The library board received a $250,000 donation from McKee Baking Company for the renovation of the Community Center.

Renovations for the building began. The renovations included refurbishing the tin ceiling on the main floor, rebuilding the center pillars, restoring the original second story wood floors, salvaging the internal brick, and saving the original elevator lift that once transported supplies and buggies to the second floor. In the summer of 2007, the building was finished. The old library closed in September and the new library opened in November of 2007. The city became the single administrator of the library.

Gentry United Way and the Gentry Public Library Association (GPLA) (formerly the library board of directors) contribute annual funds for the purchase of new materials, equipment, and events. Grants, book sales, memorial donations, as well as private and corporate donations provide additional funding. The City of Gentry contributes librarian staff salaries and other financial needs of the library including building and grounds maintenance.

In 2008, Donna Coonrod was hired as a part-time library assistant and in 2014, long-time volunteer Betty Adair accepted the second part-time library assistant position. Dozens of people volunteered over the years with patron assistance, shelving, summer reading programs, and other activities. Darla retired in 2018. Currently, the library staff includes director Linda Crume and library assistants Jamie Montgomery and Hannah Pennington.

Building History

Gentry Hardware was founded in February of 1902 and was located on the north center of Main Street. It was opened by Thomas Marvin Carl, and for the first eight years, he had three partners, the third being his father, Jesse J. Carl. T.M. was a cooper and plied that trade at night making apple barrels to pay for merchandise for his hardware store. In 1910, Jessie Carl traded his interest in the store to his younger son R.H. “Bob” Carl, receiving in trade his old home place.

In 1912, R.H. “Bob” and T.M. “Marvin” built a new building at 105 E. Main St., and in 1927 added the east section which became the McKee Community Room. Gentry was mostly swamp land, so the site had to be filled. There were no rocks in the immediate area, so they hired teams and wagons to haul gravel from Flint Creek. The fill work took longer than the actual construction of the building. The poles holding up the warehouse roof were made of bull pine and hauled from Beck Mill on Flint Creek south of Colcord.

For the next 44 years the Gentry Hardware (better known as Carl Hardware), under the partnership of Marvin and Bob Carl, offered the Gentry farm community machinery such as Springfield wagons, buggies, McCormick-Deering mowers, rakes and binders along with all types of plows including Oliver, John Deere, Alexander and Chattanooga. They also provided spray materials for orchards and sold miles of wire for northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma.   In 1955, because of ailing health, T.M. Carl passed his interest of the store to his son, Hugh R. Carl, and with Hugh’s son, Joe Marvin Carl, purchased their Uncle Bob Carl’s share. This partnership of father-son operated the hardware for six years until the death of Hugh Carl in 1961. Joe, a fourth generation Carl to own the hardware store, ran the operation until 1992 when he sold the inventory at public auction and closed the doors. In 2002, Joe Carl sold the building to the city of Gentry. In 2007, the building opened as the new home to the Gentry Public Library.