The hulking red brick Old North Branch Library has won a $1.15 million federal grant towards its planned rehab into a career and technology center on the North Side. Emerge Community Development Center long has been trying to raise the necessary $4.8 million budget for the project, but still has not raised the final funds needed, even with the federal help. The grant is made by the Economic Development Administration. The medieval revival building at 1834 Emerson Av. N. opened in 1893, when it was recognized as the first building in the county to be erected solely for use as an open shelf public branch library. It won designated for the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
