1933-1934 — Four requests in four years

In 1933 the Business Men's Club of La Crosse took up the library's cause and appointed a committee of two — Professor H. G. Hayden, principal of the Franklin and Roosevelt schools, and the Reverend H. R. Kinley of the Caledonia Street Methodist church — to find out whether the federal government would help pay for a building. On September 7, 1933, they reported back. The Depression had put other projects ahead of the library. There would be no money.

In April 1934, at the resolution of Alderman Warren Smith of the fifth ward, the architect Otto Merman drew up sketches and estimates for an adequate north side library. The council ordered them placed on file.

They stayed on file for eight years.