page_title: Northeast Library
section_title: Previous Northeast Minneapolis libraries, 1892–1972
hierarchical_section_title: Northeast Library / Previous Northeast Minneapolis libraries, 1892–1972
caption_attribution_description: English: With community support and funds from Andrew Carnegie the Central Avenue Branch of the Minneapolis Library opened on November 15, 1915. It stood until 1972 when it was razed for Northeast Library.
context_page_description: Northeast Library is a public library in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the Hennepin County Library system. Since opening in 1973, Northeast Library at 2200 Central Avenue Northeast in Minneapolis serves a vibrant metropolitan community, Northeast, Minneapolis. At 15,275 square feet, the space held about 30,000 books and featured a fireplace to welcome patrons in winter. The 1973 building was itself a replacement for a Carnegie library which was on the site from 1915 until 1972.
context_section_description: The first library service for the "New Boston" community in Northeast Minneapolis was a deposit station "H," located at Moody's Drug Store, 25th and Central in 1892. In the early 20th century, Gratia Countryman, Director of the Minneapolis Public Library, tracked patron metrics of branch libraries and determined that the New Boston Branch, which had opened in January 1907, was busy enough to warrant moving from a rented space at Central Ave. and 24th Ave. NE into a purpose-built library. The Central Avenue branch, the second of Andrew Carnegie's four libraries in Minneapolis, opened on November 15, 1915 and quickly became one of the most active and important branches of the Minneapolis Public Library System.
  The Carnegie building served newly arrived immigrants of German, Polish, and Scandinavian descent, hosted programming for adults, and collaborated with the neighborhood's schools. The branch held weekly storytimes for children and Americanization classes. Initially, all library services were held on the main floor of the library and the basement held a meeting room and an auditorium, but eventually the children's room was moved to the basement. Mirroring
  the Minneapolis Public Library's other Carnegie branches, children constituted
  a significant portion of the library's patronage, and many children who grew up
  in Northeast Minneapolis before the library was razed, remember the Central
  Avenue branch as their neighborhood library.
  The Central Avenue branch was the only Carnegie library in Minneapolis to be torn down. The building was in
  very poor condition at several points in its existence, and multiple
  renovations of the branch in 1936 and 1950 could not keep it from falling into
  disrepair again by the 1960s. In 1970, Minneapolis Public Library Director Ervin Gaines announced that the cost of renovating the Central Avenue branch
  was higher than the cost of a new building. The Central Avenue branch was razed
  in 1972, and in 1973 Northeast Library was dedicated on the same site.
caption: With community support and funds from Andrew Carnegie the Central Avenue Branch of the Minneapolis Library opened on November 15, 1915. It stood until 1972 when it was razed for Northeast Library.
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