Webber Park Library

Webber Park Library is a public library in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Its primary service area is the Camden, Minneapolis community. The library was one of thirteen branch libraries established under the leadership of Gratia Countryman, the chief librarian of the Minneapolis Public Library from 1904 to 1936. After starting as a delivery station in a drugstore and being housed in two buildings within Webber Park, it was in temporary quarters in a shopping center from 2014 to 2017. The current building opened in May 2017 on the site of the previous buildings.

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(Music in) As a Carnegie library, we were actually endowed by Andrew Carnegie in 1918 to build this building. However; 1918 was the beginning of World War I when the Carnegie Foundation decided that it was going to cut all of its library funding. So, right as ground was about to be broken they needed to redo all the paperwork and it was finally actually finished in 1922, making this the last Carnegie library to be fully completed in New York State. This is the stone marking the site of the Potter's field or Pauper's graveyard that the library was originally built on. When Lackawanna was founded this was the location where people would be buried who were not affiliated with one of the many churches or those who could not afford their own burial would be interred here. When the library was constructed much care was taken to make sure any remains were dealt with respectfully. They have been removed by a set of grave diggers and relocated and reinterred to the corner of our building where they will rest from now until the end of time or something like that. Here we have an image of our library founder, Miss Clara Whealen. She was the founder of the Pioneer Study Club for Women in this town and she was the one who originally petitioned the Carnegie Foundation for the funds to actually build this library. Here we have many artifacts of the early library when it was actually under her tenure. Perhaps one of the most impressive things was a letter, over here, directed to Miss Whealen, signed by Teddy Roosevelt, congratulating her for actually receiving the funding for this library. Now the Carnegie Foundation, how it worked was, people would petition for money to build the library, but they needed to fill it with books themselves and the gentleman who donated his substantial amount of books, about 10,000 volumes, to form the original collection was Colonel John Webber, most famous as the first commissioner of Ellis Island. A portion of his collection can be seen in these cases over here. They mainly involved the Civil War, Naval history and other things that were of interest to him, because he was actually a commander in a Calvary Regiment, a Massachusetts Colored Regiment during the Civil War. You listened to me talk quite a bit about all of the stuff we have here, but the one thing that's missing is, you guys. If you really want to experience all the awesome things we have, come on down! 560 Ridge Road, Lackawanna. Museums, collections and all of the awesome things this County has to offer. Come on in! (Music out)

Delivery Station E, Camden Place, 1895–1910

The minutes of the Minneapolis Library Board from May 6, 1895, noted that the residents of Camden Place had petitions for a library station in their area. The Camden Place library station was approved by the Minneapolis Library Board at the July 1, 1895 meeting. The 1895 Annual Report noted that Delivery Station E, Camden Place opened in September 1895 and was housed in Coffin's Drug Store.^[1] William A. Coffin was a druggist and the postmaster for Camden Place. His store was located at 4169 Washington Avenue North, between 41st and 42nd Avenues N.^[2] From 1897 to 1900, store ownership was taken over by Leslie A.Hanes.^[3] After 1900, the store was owned by Nels A. Winslow.^[4]

Despite a call to temporarily suspend the station in 1905, it remained active until a permanent library was created in 1910.^[5]

Camden Library, 1910–1954

The Webber Park field house was built in 1910 and the newly created Camden Branch of Minneapolis Public Library was housed in the second floor. The Camden Library was part of a larger park project spearheaded by Charles C. and Mary Webber, who donated the funds for the library in memory of their son John Deere Webber, the great-grandson of tractor and farm implement magnet John Deere. The park was named Camden Park from when it was first planned in 1908 until 1939 when it was renamed after the Webbers. This library was created in the effort by library director Gratia Countryman to have libraries created throughout the city of Minneapolis. By the 1930s the population of the Camden community had grown to the point that more space was needed.^[6]

Webber Park Library, 1954–present

In 1954 the library acquired the rest of the building from the Minneapolis Park Board and renamed it Webber Park Library. In 1979 the field house was razed to make way for a new swimming pool and a new Webber Park Library was built in 1980.

Webber Park and 14 other libraries of Minneapolis Public Library were merged into the combined urban/suburban Hennepin County Library in 2008.

The 1980 structure began to fail in 2013 and was closed and razed. A temporary location opened in December 2013 at Camden Center, 4203 Webber Pkwy. A new library building was built with a building project process of community engagement.^[7] The temporary location closed on April 29 and the new location on 4440 Humboldt Ave. N. opened on May 18, 2017.^[8]

The new library on Humboldt has an exterior includes a veneer of Lake Superior green granite, echoing the composition of the Victory Memorial Parkway sign that is nearby. Other materials include zinc panels and Douglas fir wood columns that support the porch canopies. Inside, wood-finish ceilings, granite accents and fir structural columns echo the look and feel of outdoor spaces, as well. Window walls bring natural light into the indoor spaces. The library's early literacy play space for the youngest readers also works to bring the outside in. Children can pretend they are at a ranger station, a veterinary office or anywhere their imaginations take them. Providing inviting indoor and outdoor reading and gathering spaces, the building has a wraparound porch, facing Humboldt Avenue North, which echoes the fronts of the homes in the neighborhood. The new library has twice the space of the 1980 structure and open hours increase from 3 to 6 days a week.^[9]

References

^ "Sixth Annual Report of the Minneapolis Public Library for the Year ending December 31, 1895." Minneapolis Library Board.
^ Minneapolis City Directory, 1894.
^ Minneapolis City Directory, 1898
^ Minneapolis City Directory, 1910.
^ "Minutes of the Minneapolis Library Board," May 5, 1905.
^ Benidt, Bruce Weir (1984). The Library Book: Centennial History of the Minneapolis Public Library. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center. ISBN 0961371609.
^ Brandt, Steve (November 27, 2014). "Long wait but Webber Park library finally on track". Star Tribune. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
^ "Temporary Webber Park Library closing soon".
^ "Webber Park Library fact sheet" (PDF).

45°01′55″N 93°17′19″W / 45.031823°N 93.288517°W / 45.031823; -93.288517

This page was last edited on 6 June 2023, at 17:11

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