UAFS professor buys former Carnegie Library, KFSM building

Diana Sims on Wednesday (Aug. 7) was the top bidder with $149,000 in a public auction to buy the former KFSM-5 facility in downtown Fort Smith. She is not yet sure what she’ll do with the building, which was originally one of four Carnegie Libraries in Arkansas.

Sims, a University of Arkansas at Fort Smith accounting professor since 1982 who also provides accounting services, has since 2022 been on a mission to save historic properties after St. Scholastica was demolished.

The 82,000-square-foot monastery at 1301 S. Albert Pike Ave. – near Trinity Junior High School – was the former home of the Benedictine Sisters. The Sisters announced on May 10 their intention to demolish the almost 100-year-old building that is on the National Register of Historic Places. After several failed efforts by state and local officials to convince the Sisters to not destroy the historic building, it was demolished in July 2022.

“So after that, I just thought that if I could do anything to keep something like that (St. Scholastic demolition) from happening to anything else, I’m going to try,” Sims said during a Thursday interview.

She formed in August 2022 the nonprofit Saving Historic Places Inc. to begin buying and renovating historic structures. In addition to the KFSM building, she has acquired the historic Thomas Quinn Guest House, built in 1856, in downtown Fort Smith, and the historic Kress building on Garrison Avenue in downtown Fort Smith. Sims has renovated much of the Quinn house, but has yet to settle on renovation plans for the Kress property.

Sims also has no “concrete ideas” about what she plans to do with the 21,000-square-foot KFSM building, which includes an attached building that was a dental office. The roof and a few rooms need immediate repairs, and she plans to remove the old carpet. She said there is mosaic tile and other types of flooring under some of the carpet she wants to restore. She stressed that she doesn’t have “deep pockets” but will begin doing what she can afford.

“I just love the old building, and I don’t like to see things like it be allowed to just sit around and fall apart,” Sims said. “You know, it’s not in real bad shape, except for that (roof damage) and maybe a couple of rooms.”

She said one idea is to convert the building into a multi-use meeting space and use the revenue to fund improvements to the building and the other historic properties she owns.

BUILDING HISTORY
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, there were four “Carnegie Libraries” built in Arkansas between 1906 and 1915 using grants from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The libraries were in Eureka Springs, Fort Smith, Little Rock and Morrilton. The buildings in Eureka and Morrilton are still open as libraries.

The Carnegie Library location at 318 N. 13th St., in Fort Smith, was once the home of Federal Judge Isaac Parker. That home was destroyed in an 1898 tornado. According to the Fort Smith Public Library (FSPL), the local library board bought the property for $4,750.

“The cornerstone of the new building was laid on March 23, 1907, a gala day in Fort Smith history. The building design was modeled after that of the Carnegie Library in Guthrie, Oklahoma, which opened in 1902. The Carnegie City Library opened its doors for business on January 1, 1908, and the formal dedication was on January 30, 1908,” according to the FSPL.

The total cost of the building, including the land deal, was $37,933, and was used as the library until a 34,000-square-foot library at 61 S. Eighth St., in downtown Fort Smith, was opened in April 1969. American Television Studios, which then owned KFSM, acquired the building and converted it into the station’s headquarters and primary studio.

KFSM abandoned the Fort Smith property after opening its new facility in Northwest Arkansas (Lowell) in June 2019.