List of Hennepin County Library branches

[2] Four branches (Central, Franklin, Hosmer, and Sumner) were originally founded as Carnegie libraries.

[5] During the 1890s, many areas of Minnesota, especially rural zones, lacked free libraries.

Over the course of the decade a patchwork of private and legislative efforts sought to deal with the dearth.

[7][8] Hennepin County established a library service of its own in early 1922, which entailed taking control of some of the smaller cities' branches (including Robbinsdale's) as well as the creation of a bookmobile which was scheduled to run nine routes per month by 1926.

[12] Due to concerns about properly serving the residents and city of Minneapolis, the merger debate ended in 1974, keeping both groups separate.

A black-and-white photo of a four-story stone building from across an empty street; a church stands off to its left and several two-story houses sit to the right down the street.
Original Minneapolis Public Library building from the early 1900s
A black and white photo of a truck with a rounded front sitting in the snow in front of a one-story brick building with the words "CANNING SETS" on its outer wall
Historic Hennepin County Library bookmobile