If you’ve driven down Main Street in Boonville any time in the last 65 years, you’ve probably ducked into the Boonslick Regional Library’s Cooper County branch — a converted grocery store that’s held the shelves, the story hour, and the genealogy files for two generations of Cooper County readers. That building is about to go quiet. The books are moving.
The library’s new home is a few blocks away at 707 Third St., inside the Historic Kemper Campus — a three-story redbrick building raised in 1906 that’s more than double the size of the old grocery-store branch, according to KOMU 8. The renovation wasn’t paid for with a bond or a grant — it was funded entirely by $1.46 million in private community donations, covering the basic structural work to turn a century-old school building into a modern library.
“All of this shelving…can be redesigned in just a few minutes…as the needs of the community changes, we’ll be able to change accordingly,” library director Linda Allcorn told KOMU. The new space carves out dedicated zones the old grocery-store building never had room for: a children’s area, a young-adult section, a genealogy research room, and space for community meetings.
“We’ve gone from a building that is less than half the size to a wonderful space here,” said Mary Pat Abele, who chairs the building committee.
Getting the collection from one building to the other is becoming its own community event. Rather than boxing everything up for a moving truck, the library is planning what it’s calling a “Bookworm Relay” — volunteers lining up along the route between the old branch and the new one to pass the final books hand to hand, all the way to their new shelves. The Boonville Daily News reports the relay is planned for July 30. If you’ve ever wanted to be part of a library’s history rather than just a patron of it, this is the low-key way to do it — show up, grab a book, hand it down the line.
The grand opening is targeted for fall 2026, once the last of the furniture arrives. Until then, expect a stretch where the Cooper County branch is between homes — worth a call ahead if you’re planning a visit in the next few weeks.
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