Coleraine Carnegie Library - Coleraine, Minnesota - Minnesota Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

"Coleraine Carnegie Library, 203 Cole Street. John C. Greenway reserved two village lots for a library and in 1909 began negotiations for a $15,000 gift from Andrew Carnegie.

Four hundred volumes of books purchased in 1909 for $315 would form the nucleus for the new library, which was completed in 1910 at a cost of $17,537.

The doors opened January 2, 1911, with Mrs. W. C. (Jennie) Bollinger as librarian. Three years later, the library began serving rural schools by boxing up 25-40 books and sending them on buses to and from the buildings for use by students and teachers.

Meeting rooms, a fireplace and furnishings were added to the basement in 1923, and the renovated kitchen became a fully equipped facility that could serve 60 people.

From 1953 to 1967, the library was responsible for service to cities in Itasca County without library facilities, and again boxes of books were carried to each station, this time once a month. It has since joined a regional library courier system.

On permanent display is a quilt of Coleraine landmarks made by volunteers and presented to the city during its Diamond Jubilee celebration in 1984.

The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

In an article in the September-October 1989 issue of Architecture Minnesota magazine, Coleraine Carnegie Library Simon Pepper, a senior lecturer in architecture at the University of Liverpool in England, described the Coleraine library as “one of the best preserved Minnesota Carnegie libraries.” Pepper had visited Coleraine during research on the architectural and social history of the American Public Library." - text of marker

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