Twin Cities' oldest library is being reborn as a job skills center

When Mike Wynne moved in 2007 to his office at the newly rehabbed landmark commercial building at W. Broadway and Emerson Avenue on the North Side of Minneapolis, he immediately set his eyes on the chateau-like red brick library across the street.

Seven years later, the historic North Branch Library is nearing its rebirth as the career and technology center for Emerge, the community development corporation that Wynne heads.

Rehabbing a 19th-century building for 21st-century job skills training has created more than a few surprises.

Bad weather and unexpected problems added both delays and cost. The building's presence on the National Register of Historic Places required the rehab to get scrutiny from preservation officials.

What was projected to be a $3.9 million project in 2008 turned into a $6.5 million endeavor.

The 1894 library is the oldest surviving public library building in the Twin Cities. Library officials also claim it was the nation's first branch library to allow visitors to pick their own books from shelves instead of having a librarian fetch them.

"We put our money where our mouth is because we believe in it," Wynne said during a tour of the building, expected to open in late January.

Public grants contributed $3.3 million, foundations another $2.1 million, but Emerge has borrowed another $1.9 million for its current headquarters and the new library building.

"We have stuck our neck out to do these projects," Wynne said.

The rehabbed 13,000- square-foot former library will hold a number of Emerge's programs designed to prepare a North Side workforce that still struggles with high unemployment.

Some are discouraged workers no longer looking for work, some seek to improve skills for new jobs, and still others are for teens looking for first employment. Emerge has been particularly successful in training the latter group; city records show that teenagers who come through the program get top marks for sticking with employers.

The new facility will offer a public-access computer lab where people gain basic computer skills and master common programs, a place to counsel people on improving their financial skills, and custom job training program for specialized skills, such as one in manufacturing skills offered by Hennepin Technical College or another in building maintenance.

A North Side small-business training nonprofit will occupy some of the vacated space in Emerge's Broadway building, and Wynne is seeking a tenant for streetfront space formerly occupied by a credit union.

The former library was the first branch built in Minneapolis, four years after the main library downtown. It got an addition in 1914; a more prosaic postwar garage added to house bookmobiles. That space is becoming classrooms.

The Library Board closed the building in 1979, eight years after opening North Regional Library. It occupied such an important place for area residents that their memories of the building were recorded at a preconstruction open house.

Former Police Chief Tim Dolan recalls being sent there with his brothers when his mother wanted them out of the house; each was required to return with a book as proof he'd visited.

The cost of the rehabilitation project is high, about $500 per square foot. Wynne attributes that largely to rising construction costs, and the hidden surprises of an old building.

For example, a preconstruction probe of the building's foundation happened to hit its best section. A closer look later found much of the foundation needed significant work and waterproofing. The chimney's inner brick was so deteriorated that it needed rebuilding. The gutters that Emerge hoped to reuse were held on by rust, and needed replacement.

Each surprise required time to consider and price alternatives, then get signoff from historic preservation officials.

Their requirements also drove up costs. For example, hopes of insulating the roof from inside were nixed because that would partly hide the ceiling's massive trusses and beams. So a 10-year-old roof had to be replaced to add insulation from outside.

Maintaining the building's character despite stripping it to install modern mechanical systems presented other challenges. For example, bookshelves were built in one section to camouflage a heating vent. The building also features a number of curved windows in the turret, a major feature in its Medieval Revival architecture. Those were too far gone and had to be replaced.

"We're afflicted by the need to fix up old buildings around here," Wynne said. "These physical assets are a real part of the revival of the Broadway corridor."

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438

Twitter: @brandtstrib