Dr. Gann’s “Gift of Love”
Pictured above: Dr. Dewell Gann Sr.
By Cody Berry
Eighty years ago on April 18, 1946, the Benton Courier reported the office of the late Dr. Gann, Sr. was to be given to the City of Benton by his son Dr. Gann, Jr. and his wife. The Gann Building was considered very “dear to the hearts of the people of Benton and Saline County,” as was the memory of the doctor himself. Dr. Gann’s son wanted the building to continue its usefulness as a public service and to be a memorial to his father who spent most of his life serving humanity.”1
Dr. Gann Sr. started his practice in Benton on March 1, 1890, at a time when there were “800 people, one railroad, and no industrial plants.”2 The Gann Building housed Dr. Gann’s medical practice from 1893 until his death in 1945. Then his son decided to give the building a new role in the history of Saline County. It was to house the library.
The library was established in March 1931 by the Junior Fortnightly Club. They wrote letters to 22 local organizations asking for donations of books. 600 books were collected and members of the club gave another 300 books. Those books formed the library’s first collection. The late Dr. J. W. Walton’s estate let the library operate out of the Walton building in Downtown Benton. In 1936, the newly named Benton Public Library moved to a small building on South Street next to City Hall, which was by the Palace Theater at that time.3
In 1946 the library had 2,643 volumes. A year before it had “a circulation of 15,728 books, 9,400 juveniles and 6,328 adults.”4 In 1950, Anna Nash Yarbrough wrote that the finished Gann Memorial Library was presented to Benton Mayor Henry Finkbeiner in 1948, but the plaque outside the Gann’s front door says the building itself was given to the City of Benton by “Dr. And Mrs. Dewell Gann, Jr.” in memory of his late father on April 19, 1946.5
While the original building was designed by Dr. Gann Sr and is believed to be the only bauxite building in the world, the 25×45 expansion on the rear of the original building was added later to become the library’s reading room. The rooms back then were “tinted green, the furniture, modern.”6 By 1950, the Gann Memorial Library held over 6,000 books with around 3,000 being checked out at the time.7 The Gann still serves Saline County as part of the library.
Citations:
1 “Benton Landmark Is To Be Dr. D. Gann Memorial Library Gift of Dr. And Mrs. Gann, Jr.,” Benton Courier, April 18, 1946, p. 1.
2 “Benton Landmark Is To Be Dr. D. Gann Memorial Library Gift of Dr. And Mrs. Gann, Jr.,” Benton Courier, April 18, 1946, p. 1.
3 “Benton Landmark Is To Be Dr. D. Gann Memorial Library Gift of Dr. And Mrs. Gann, Jr.,” Benton Courier, April 18, 1946, p. 1.
4 “Benton Landmark Is To Be Dr. D. Gann Memorial Library Gift of Dr. And Mrs. Gann, Jr.,” Benton Courier, April 18, 1946, p. 1.
5 “Benton Landmark Is To Be Dr. D. Gann Memorial Library Gift of Dr. And Mrs. Gann, Jr.,” Benton Courier, April 18, 1946, p. 1. and Plaque, “Gann Memorial Library Presented to The City of Benton…,” April 19, 1946.
6 Anna Nash Yarbrough, “Benton Pridefully Presents the Gann Memorial,” Arkansas Democrat, June 4, 1950.