Downtown Library

Because education has always been important to Minneapolitans, the downtown library has been a civic landmark, even when not an architectural landmark. The new downtown library is both.

The first Minneapolis library was a private athenaeum (which now a department in the downtown public library). The first public library opened at 10^th and Hennepin in 1889. A robust, Richardsonian Romanesque design located at a street-grid break, this was a physically prominent landmark. Nevertheless, it was torn down after a new library opened in 1959, on an urban-renewal site along Nicollet between 3^rd and 4^th streets. Architecturally lackluster, the 1959 library was busy and well-used; its planetarium introduced countless thousands of school kids to the wonders of the night sky.

Functional limitations led to a successful campaign to replace the 1959 library with an up-to-date model, which opened in 2005. This is quite sleek and elegant, an architectural statement as desired. Unfortunately, concurrent budget problems resulted in the disincorporation of the city's library board, and all city libraries are to be absorbed into the Hennepin County system.

To Visit the Downtown Library website click HERE