Brooklyn Center Library Records

Library service in Brooklyn Center began with a bookmobile. Brooklyn Center Junior Chamber of Commerce members believed that a library was an essential community resource, and met with Helen Young, Director of Hennepin County Library, to learn about what was required to launch the library in the mid-twentieth century. The first library in the Village of Brooklyn Center (as it was then known), at 5601 Osseo Road (subsequently named Brooklyn Boulevard), opened on December 29, 1965. It was the first public library built in the United States which received funds from the 1964 Library Services and Construction Act. The $250,000 price tag was funded in part by the Federal Library Services Act ($60,000) and by bonds sold by the Village of Brooklyn Center ($190,000). Designed by Cerny and Associates, the building was was 12,718 square feet (1,181.5 m2). Books, staff, and furniture were all provided by Hennepin County.

By agreement of the city council, in January 1969, Brooklyn Center’s library was sold to Hennepin County for $185,505 and the library’s land was sold for an additional $34,745. By the summer of 1973, plans were published to replace it with a new regional Hennepin County Library structure, similar to the Southdale Hennepin Area Library that opened in July 1973. The Brooklyn Center Library closed with the opening of the Brookdale Library at 6125 Shingle Creek Parkway in August 1981. The Girl Scouts purchased the building on Brooklyn Boulevard, and it became the headquarters of the Greater Minneapolis Girl Council (now Girl Scout Council of Greater Minneapolis).