Magness’ vision continues to enrich Warren County

In the dark days of 1931, as the U.S and global economies were lurching toward the depth of the Great Depression, McMinnville entrepreneur-philanthropist William H. Magness Jr. committed to donate $60,000’a king’s ransom at the time ‘ to endow the building and future operation of the library and community house that has served our community for 75 years.

To many of his contemporaries, such a generous act of civic spirit probably seemed irrational, and perhaps reckless, when families and businesses were struggling to survive economically. The last three-quarters of a century has proved, however, the enduring value of his vision and generosity.

Warren County’s public library began with a socially progressive vision 20 years earlier, when Mary Cunningham, a charter member of the McMinnville Women’s Civic League, spearheaded the establishment of a women’s and children’s restroom and parlor on South Court Square. The day after the facility opened, books were offered on loan so patrons could inform and entertain themselves by reading while husbands, brothers and fathers attended to trade and other business matters in town.

The ceremonial opening this weekend of the new Col. Gentry Moffitt Wing of Magness Library, one of the handsomest classically-inspired buildings in the South, reaffirmed the value and energy of vision and imagination. With its powerful new exterior lighting, the majestic edifice is resplendent at night, echoing of the glories of Golden Age Athens and its summit of civic pride, the Acropolis and Parthenon.

Ms. Cunningham, Warren County’s founding librarian, initiated the idea, which Magness later considered worthy of his philanthropy. Since the laying of the cornerstone in November 1931, many other public-spirited supporters have made pivotal contributions, including, of course, the late Colonel Moffitt, as well as the late teachers Ione Youngblood and Kate Dodson Smith, banker Jesse Walling and the late engineer and library trustee and tireless champion Marvin Campen.

Another influential supporter of the library in its nascence was Laura Davis Worley, who also gave to McMinnville in 1913 such enduring symbols of community life as the statue of Hebe, Greek goddess of youth and cupbearer to the Olympian gods, and the newly restored three-tiered fountain.

Appropriately, the grand opening of the Moffitt Wing was celebrated with creative energy and imagination. The immensely accomplished husband-and-wife duo of Windell and Deanna Little, playing piano and flute respectively, thrilled a standing-room-only audience with sparkling performances of 20th Century music at the Thursday evening gala. The adventurous culinary art of caterer Steve Grove and his staff drew the admiration of guests.

The exuberant, evocative acrylic paintings and watercolors of Warren County native Jerry Walker provided a visually stunning backdrop for the gala and the open-house Friday. From his studios in Sarasota, Walker decorates the homes and offices of the rich and famous, and his paintings are in some of the most prestigious collections, both public and private, in America.

Walker’s extensive exhibit will remain at the library for free public viewing into October. Southern Standard news editor Charlie Johnson takes a look at the show and reflects on the artist’s rise to professional fame on the front page of today’s edition.

As the center of literary and cultural life in Warren County, the enlarged Magness Library also offers potential as a magnet for commercial and industrial development as it represents, with irresistible energy, the potent combination of imagination, vision and civic cooperation. Carnegie Mellon University professor Richard Florida, in his Rise of the Creative Class (Basic Books, New York, 2002. pp 293 ff), emphasizes the business-recruitment benefits “in developing a world-class people climate’.”

“By this I mean a general strategy aimed at attracting and retaining people ‘ especially, but not limited to, creative people. This entails’ investing in the lifestyle amenities that people really want and use often, as opposed to using financial incentives to attract companies,” such as public financing of sports stadiums and shopping malls. Walking paths, like McMinnville’s greenway, bike trails and aquatic complexes, not to mention libraries, benefit a “wide swath of the population” and “last for generations,” Florida notes. And they cannot be expropriated, sold off or abandoned if business conditions turn down occasionally.