serving our community
The St. Cloud Reading Room Society invites various organizations to speak at their monthly meetings. A speaker’s topic will often serve as a springboard for new Reading Room Society projects. For example, support was inspired for an Alzheimer’s disease forum at The St. Cloud Library, donations to the local police organization for homeless children, and financial support to Camp Bliss to help military veterans transition back to daily life.
Other projects include The No-Worry Book project, created by members to provide gently-used books for children, ages pre-school through sixth grade, in the St. Cloud area. Financial donations are given in support of The St. Cloud Library. Also, the Society provides cultural opportunities for members to stay informed on current issues that affect the local community, as well as the nation.
history
The St. Cloud Reading Room Society began in 1865 by a group of educated women, recently relocated from Eastern states, who wanted to bring literacy and culture to the pioneer town of St. Cloud. They began as the Library Association and raised money to begin purchasing books and soon had an excellent library for the use of borrowers. In 1884, the St. Cloud City Council voted to establish The St. Cloud Public Library. The Library Association changed their name to The St. Cloud Reading Room Society and donated their books to this library. The new library was located in the West Hotel, but was tragically destroyed by fire in 1901.
Help for a new library was requested from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who donated $25,000.00 for the building. The St. Cloud Reading Room Society raised $5,000.00 and purchased the site on Fifth Avenue and Second Street in St. Cloud. The library opened in 1902.
The St. Cloud area continued to grow over the years, and the needs of the population outgrew the library. In 1965, The Reading Room Society was part of a movement to build a new library. Years of efforts were rewarded when the new library opened in 1979 at Fourth Avenue South and St. Germain Street. The Carnegie Library was demolished in 1982.
The St. Cloud Public Library became part of the new Great River Regional Library System, serving a large portion of Minnesota, and based in St. Cloud. To serve these larger needs, a new library was built at 1300 West St. Germain and opened in 2008.
The Reading Room Society was also instrumental in other civic work in the St. Cloud area. They worked to help create a beautiful park system; sponsored cleanup days, leading to regular garbage collection; campaigned to bring about practices to assure food safety for food stores and restaurants; and worked for changes in public school curriculum to keep music and arts programs.