This article was originally published by MNopedia on June 10, 2025.
Quatrefoil Library is a non-profit lending library and community center in Minneapolis that specializes in LGBTQIA+ material. Its circulating collections include books, DVDs, and CDs, but patrons can also access non-circulating periodicals, comics, zines and Quatrefoil’s founder’s archives on site at 1220 East Lake Street. Open since 1986, it is the third-oldest library of its kind in the US.
Dick Hewetson and David Irwin proposed the idea of a Minnesota gay lending library at brunch with friends on September 11, 1983. By that time, the couple had amassed a large collection of gay and lesbian fiction and books, which they loaned to friends. Lawyer and brunch attendee Ann Richtman quickly drafted the original articles of incorporation for the library as a non-profit. Irwin insisted that the library be named for Quatrefoil, a gay pulp novel by James Barr (the pseudonym of James Fugaté) published in 1950; Irwin believed Quatrefoil depicted homosexuality more positively than other books of its time.
In 1985, Matt Stark, the executive director of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union and a friend of Hewetson, offered two rooms of rental space for the library in the MCLU’s new building at 1021 West Broadway in North Minneapolis. Quatrefoil formally opened to the public on February 4, 1986, and held an opening celebration the following May. Thanks to donations, by the end of 1986 Quatrefoil had expanded to include 2,500 books crammed into five rooms at the MCLU building.
Related: LGBT history is lovingly preserved at Quatrefoil Library on Lake Street
In June 1987, Quatrefoil moved to the third floor of the remodeled Richards Gordon Building in St. Paul at 1619 Dayton Avenue. In the same year, the library implemented a new cataloging system and began to charge late fees for unreturned library material. In 1991, it moved from the third floor to the basement level of the Gordon Building to accommodate the continually expanding collection.
Volunteers are an intrinsic part of Quatrefoil’s history. Staff and leadership roles at the library have been unpaid volunteer positions since the library’s founding, excluding several short-term, grant-project positions. In 1988, Quatrefoil established elections for a board of directors to join the Cooperating Fund Drive (CFD), a grassroots community fundraising group. After this change, the CFD summarily accepted the library’s application to be a member in 1989. Overall, volunteer numbers remained steady in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 1992, seventy volunteers donated 2,935 hours; in 1997, sixty-three volunteers logged 2,123 hours; in 2001, sixty-five volunteers worked a total of 3,352 hours; and in 2006, eighty volunteers contributed 4,296 hours.
By the mid-2000s, the library had outgrown the Gordon Building and needed a community meeting space. Then, in December of 2012, staff announced that they would be moving to the Spirit on Lake building on East Lake Street in Minneapolis the following year. After a coordinated volunteer group effort, Quatrefoil closed the Gordon Building location on September 23, 2013, and the library officially reopened to the public on November 1 on East Lake Street. After moving back to Minneapolis, it has increasingly become a community center that hosted myriad speaker events, workshops, community groups, and book discussion groups in Spirit on Lake’s community room.
In 2002, Quatrefoil volunteers created the library’s first website. They further updated their technology by implementing electronic barcodes to catalog and check out library materials in 2012; by launching their online Library World electronic catalog for patrons in 2013; and by making a new website in May 2014.
More recently, Quatrefoil has increased the public’s accessibility to its collections. In 2019, the library abolished, and offered full amnesty for, all overdue fines. In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it closed but offered curbside pickup for members. To remove financial barriers to access, the library began to offer free membership in 2021, and in 2022, it introduced a free e-book and audiobook service to all members residing in the United States.
Since its founding, the library has consistently supported the broader LGBTQIA+ community of the Twin Cities and Minnesota. Volunteers from Quatrefoil have regularly attended and hosted events at Twin Cities Pride since at least 1988, and since 2016, Quatrefoil volunteers have attended Pride events throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin on behalf of the non-profit. Since 2019, Quatrefoil has awarded an annual competitive scholarship for LGBTQIA+ students attending Minnesota colleges and universities.
Bibliography
Gay Bookworm (Quatrefoil newsletter), 1986–1990. Quatrefoil Library.
Gehlen, Iggy. Conversation with the author, March 15, 2025.
Hogan, Karen. Conversation with the author, March 10, 2025.
Keim, Adam G. History of the Quatrefoil Library. Friends of the Bill of Rights Foundation, 2008.
“Minneapolis’ Quatrefoil: America’s 2nd-Oldest LGBTQ Library.” CBS News, July 29, 2017.
Montes, Ollin. Conversation with the author, March 16, 2025.
Quatrefoil Library collection development policy, May 10, 2024. Quatrefoil Library.
Quatrefolio, (Quatrefoil newsletter), 1991–2025. Quatrefoil Library.
Robbins, Kathy. Conversation with the author, February 28, 2025.
Sturdevant, Andy. “LGBT History Is Lovingly Preserved at Quatrefoil Library on Lake Street.”
Sturdevant, Andy. “LGBT History Is Lovingly Preserved at Quatrefoil Library on Lake Street.” MinnPost, April 17, 2014.
Van Cleve, Stewart. Land of 10,000 Loves: A History of Queer Minnesota. University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
Related Resources
Secondary
Sheffield, Rebecka Taves. Documenting Rebellions: A Study of Four Lesbian and Gay Archives in Queer Times. Litwin Books, 2020.
Web
Gerber/Hart LGBTQ+ Library and Archives.
ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. “History.”
Sanders, Josh. “The Nation’s Oldest LGBTQ+ Lending Library Is One of Philadelphia’s
Hidden Gems.” CBS News, October 24, 2024.
