Butterfield Stage; Gainesville, Texas
Posted by: 
boatchick
N 33° 37.399 W 097° 08.547
14S E 672305 N 3721938
A women's literary club brought public library service to Gainesville, Texas.
Waymark Code: WM7CNX
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/05/2009
Views: 12
The XLI Club of Gainesville, Texas was a women's group interested in opening a public library. Gainesville already had a subscription library , established 1903, but a permanent, free library was sought. The group, headed by Lillian Gunter, raised money in 1911 to purchase a lot at Denton and Main Streets near the Methodist Church. A $15,000 Carnegie grant was secured in 1912, and the new library was opened in 1914.
Abigail Van Slyck's Free to All details the original layout of the Gainesville library. Built after James Betram became involved in allocating library grants for the Carnegie Corporation, the building's exterior is a fairly simple brick structure without embellishment. The interior, says Van Slyck, reflects the special status of the XLI Club women and the social conventions of the time. Ms. Gunter, head of the XLI Club, served as librarian until her 1926 death; her desk was the focal point of the first floor. The children's area was bounded by this desk and by staff offices, while the adjacent adult area was more open and less supervised. The basement was largely occupied by a stage and large assembly room accessed by a basement entrance under the exterior stairs to the first floor entrance. Two club rooms, used mostly by the XLI Club, were located next to the assembly room. In the back of the basement were several rooms accessible by a separate entrance: a work room, a janitor's room, and a "Negro" reading room. While the latter room was designated for such segregated use, it was never opened to the African-Americans of Gainesville because the county commissioners opposed the possibility that the races might encounter each other. Not until 1924 was a reading room opened in the Gainesville Colored School to bring library service to all residents of the town.
Lillian Gunter went on to pioneer county library systems in Texas; the Gainesville Library gave rise to the Cooke County Library in 1920. She continued library work until her death in 1926. The library moved in 1963. Since 1979, the building has been home to the Butterfield Stage Players, an amateur theatre group.
References:
Van Slyck, Abigail. Free to All: Carnegie Libraries & American Culture 1890-1920
Cooke County Library Historical Information
Texas State Historical Marker