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Five Minneapolis public libraries gained historic status simply by sticking around.
But the new Pierre Bottineau Library in northeast Minneapolis will start out historic.
Construction begins this month on an effort to fashion a new home for the branch library from a combination of buildings at the former Grain Belt brewery complex, an area that's already on the National Register of Historic Places.
The brewery's former millwright and wagon shops will form the core of the new $3 million branch library, which when finished next summer will be six times bigger than the current Bottineau branch, located since 1957 on NE. 2nd Street.
The project is the first branch library to be funded with money from $140 million in library construction bonds authorized by city voters in November 2000.
The Library Board hired RSP Architects to design the new Bottineau Library, a choice influenced by the firm's involvement in the rehab of the landmark Grain Belt brew house next door, which it now occupies.
Neighborhood residents strongly backed the decision to reuse two outbuildings of the complex for the library. The extra expense was eased by a $500,000 historic preservation grant stemming from a 1995 state law seeking new public uses within the complex.
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What's what
The 1913 millwright shop and...