Library service to the Hopkins, Minnesota community was established more than 100 years ago, when the library was housed in City Hall. The library moved to the historic Dow House in 1948 and then temporarily to a vacant restaurant in 1963. The library opened in its current location in 1968 and was renovated in 2002. The library joined Hennepin County Library in 1973.
The beginnings
In 1910, the population of the Village of West Minneapolis, as Hopkins was first called, was 3,022. But the settlement was bustling: The Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company, which moved to the village in 1887, was manufacturing harvest equipment for farmers throughout the western prairie; the raspberry farms were thriving—and bars, churches, banks and other businesses were sprouting up everywhere. But something was missing from the village: There wasn't a library. In 1912, The Women's Improvement League , led by Mrs. W.B. Anderson, convinced city officials that space for a library should be set aside in the newly built city hall building on 8th and Excelsior Avenue (now Main Street). Three rooms were reserved, and soon the league and Hopkins high alumni stocked books, organized shelves and began children's story hours. The first librarian of this volunteer-based library was Lillian Wheeler. By 1915, the village had budgeted $700 a year to fund this young library, and there were some 800 books on the shelves. About 458 were checked out each month and, in just three years, 1,050 library cards were issued.
Children's story hours were put on by the League with up to 175 children attending. Along with donated and purchased English-language books, a collection of 1,200 Czech-language books were donated by the Western Bohemian Fraternal Association of Glen Lake. This was very helpful for the large population of Czechoslovakians that immigrated to Hopkins to work for the threshing machine company, in the raspberry fields and for businesses opening in the village. The Czech-language books were a source of pride for the immigrants, as well as a reminder of their Bohemian heritage.
The Merger Controversy, Part 1
In 1931, a lively debate was sparked in Hopkins over whether the city library should merge with the Hennepin County Library system. The county system was formed just after the Hopkins Library opened, and it was the only suburban library that still was independent.
According to The Hennepin County Review circa 1931, the Hopkins Village Council spent many hours hearing debate on the issue. The meetings were long and heavily attended; the citizenry was very invested in the outcome.
Those opposed objected to higher taxes as well as the loss of control: they wanted the autonomy to stock the titles they wanted, notably the Czech books. Those in favor supported the merger for expanded access to reference books for local schools, which were provided by the county—as well as for greater resources for local students. The Library Board voted in mid-March to approve the merger by a vote of 8–1. Mayor Hagen commissioned the village council to study the measure—and ultimately, the village council rejected it on a 3–2 vote. At the next meeting, Miss Lindborg, principal at the Harley Hopkins School, expressed great regret at losing the service of the county system. Its loss, she pointed out, would greatly limit reference reading, because without the support of county funding the city simply couldn't stock as many volumes.
Finally, on April 28, the village council opted to let the public decide the matter—and set a special election for May 23, 1931. The two sides squared off respectively in The Hennepin County Review and The Minneapolis Journal—and the factions were equally passionate in their viewpoints. But perhaps the most compelling arguments came from The Hopkins Taxpayers League, formed specifically to oppose the merger. The league argued in The Hennepin County Review that increased county taxes would be burdensome and strongly objected to “outside” entities controlling town-owned assets. They even went so far as to point out that Hennepin County, at that time, had no board—and therefore would have no governance. The argument turned personal when the league questioned Mayor Hagen's loyalty to the village, pointing out that previous mayors had “deemed it disloyal to consider giving away the Hopkins Library.”