Early Beginnings
On Feburary 29, 1888, members of the Pacaha Club, a local literary society, met at the home of Sally Sanders with 40 other prominent women of Helena to address the recently closed city library on Perry street. Under the direction of Pacaha Club President Louis McGowan Stephenson, the ladies organized into the Women’s Library Association with the express purpose of operating a public library for the betterment of the citizens of Helena. By March, they had taken control of the former Helena Library’s books and were operating a reading room on the second floor of the Grand Opera House on Porter street.
On Pecan Street
In September of 1891, the WLA opened Library Hall. A stately 2 1/2 story French Mansard building, it served as both the city library and civic center for many years. The library and reading room as well as an events hall were on the first floor and a theater on the second. Nine local fraternal groups (The Royal Arcanum, American Legion of Honor, B’Nai Brith, Masonic (possibly Scottish or York Rite Masons), Golden Rule, Knights of Honor, Knights and Ladies of Honor, Reynold Lodge No. 7, Knights of Pythias, Junior Lodge No. 15, Ancient Order of United Workmen) rented the theater for their meetings to help pay for construction costs.
A New Fundraiser Every Week
Though the WLA now had a building to house their books, the library and reading room only made up a small part of the building’s activiites. From opening day on September 11, 1891 to early 1914, there was a new fundraiding event in the main hall of the building every week. Anything the WLA could conseive of was put on. Concerts, poetry readings, charity baazars, cake walks, they even turned the main hall into a skating rink for a few days. In 1914, the WLA fufilled its longtime dream by ceasing the majority of its fundraising and moving the library and reading room into the main hall.
A Place for Culture
The WLA had been receiving artwork and historical artifacts since their first meeting in 1888, and they had been doing their best to display the items in the main hall. However, by 1916, the WLA, now called the Helena Public Library Board, realized that they needed a dedicated space to display their collection. Initially they operated a small art gallery in the building, but they had bigger plans in mind. In February 1930, they completed construction on a 1 1/2 story addition to house the Phillips County Museum. This was the first purpose built museum in the state of Arkansas. Andrew Coolidge was the building architect and John Highberger was the landscape architect.
Growing Pains
In 1948, the Helena Library founded the Phillips County Library, with branches in West Helena, Lexa, Marvell, Lake View, and Elaine. Shortly after, the Helena Public Library Board ceased operating its lending library to focus soley on operating the county museum. In 2010, after the Phillips County Library moved into more modern facilities on Columbia Street, a tornado swept through Helena and ripped the roof off the building. This allowed water to poor into the building and threatened to destroy the artifacts inside. Thanks to the efforts of the Helena fire and police departments and other citizens, lasting harm was prevented. However, it took major grant funding from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program and many months of work to open the museum to the public again.
A Place to Preserve The Past
Today, the Helena Museum of Phillips County works with other cultural institutions in the Arkansas Delta to ensure that the past of the Arkansas Delta is not forgotten, but saved for future generations. We will always strive to be a place to share our culture and history in the coming century, as we did in the last.