Newbern City Library to hold open house Sunday, dedicate resource room

Janice Peevyhouse, Newbern City Library director stands next to the library's original bookshelf in the new Tommie and Thomas Hart Resource Room. The library will be holding an open house to celebrate the opening of the room on Sunday, Dec. 13, from 1-3 p.m. Christmas food will be served and the public is invited to come and join in the celebration and take advantage of all it has to offer. The shelf Peevyhouse is standing next to, once held all of the books of the Newbern Library. Most people knew the library when it was in Hart's Cleaners during the '60s. When the new library was built in 1979 the shelf was able to hold the whole children's section. It was painted yellow and had Raggedy Ann and Andy on each side. [Click to enlarge]

"Anybody that wants to come is welcome," said Janice Peevyhouse, Newbern City Library director.

The resource room will be called the Tommie and Thomas Hart Resource Room. The Harts owned Hart's Cleaners and it was one of the most recognized businesses to house the non-stationary Newbern Library back in the '60s.

The new resource room will hold two computers, Tennessee genealogy books and reference materials.

"Kids can come in here and sit somewhere quiet and do research," said Peevyhouse.

The room is dedicated to the Harts for the work and assistance they gave to the community.

"He (Thomas Hart) would be the first to tell you that he didn't read much," said Peevyhouse. "But his wife and daughters liked to read and he wanted to make sure that people who wanted to read had somewhere to get books. He worked very diligently to get us a library in Newbern."

Peevyhouse said the library has grown over the years, from 200 books to over 20,000 volumes.

The library also boasts wireless Internet throughout and a variety of academic and professional practice tests are available on the library's computers.

The current location of the Newbern City Library at 220 East Main St. was built in 1979. The bank that occupied the building next door, donated the building to the library when it moved its branch. It soon became the Juanita Campbell Children's Room in 2003, in honor of the former library director. Campbell started in 1969 and Peevyhouse remembers her literally dragging her into the library in 1972 to start reading. In 1997, Peevyhouse started working at the library and became the director in 2000.

The new resource room is located in the back, where the bank's offices were. One neat aspect of the library is it still has the vault from when the bank was there.

For more information contact the Newbern City Library at 627-3153.