How Minneapolis became home to one of the oldest LGBTQ+ lending libraries in the country

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