A new Little Free Library now sits outside the Saint Paul Police Department's Western District Headquarters at 389 N. Hamline Ave., inviting passersby to take a book or leave one behind, no card or due date required. The wooden box was built and donated by Cops n Rodders, the car club that has spent years pairing hot rods with charity work for local law enforcement.
A Book Box With an Official Address on the World Map
The library was officially registered and mapped under charter number 224599 in August, according to a Cops n Rodders Facebook post. That charter status means the box is now searchable on the worldwide Little Free Library map, letting anyone track it down as an official stop in the global book-sharing network. A photo post from the Saint Paul Police Department shows the finished library with its simple instructions painted across the front: take a book, share a book.
Painted on the box is a line often mistaken for a different Dr. Seuss title: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go!” The quote actually comes from Seuss's 1978 book *I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!*, not *Oh, the Places You'll Go!*, according to EasyBib. It was published by Random House to encourage young readers to keep building their skills.
The Car Club Behind the Box
Cops n Rodders operates under the CnR Foundation, a Minnesota 501(c)(3) nonprofit that unites vehicle enthusiasts and law enforcement supporters to fund public safety initiatives, per the organization's own account of its mission. The library is only the latest project in a longer running relationship with SPPD. The club previously donated more than 1,300 toys in November 2024 to the department's Cops & Kids program for pediatric hospital patients, a contribution Hoodline reported at the time delivered directly to kids staying in local hospitals.
Beyond seasonal drives, club volunteers have spent hundreds of hours restoring and maintaining the Saint Paul Police K9 Cemetery and training grounds, and they built a custom squad-car door display used at K9 public events. The group also ran its 2026 Night to Unite Car Show on August 4 at Joseph's Grill in Saint Paul, collecting children's books and toys alongside car entry fees earmarked for law enforcement programs, according to a listing from CarCruiseFinder that noted the show featured 21 award categories and live entertainment.
Rooted in a Twin Cities Literacy Tradition
The installation also plugs into a movement with deep local roots. Little Free Library was founded in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin, and is now headquartered in Saint Paul, having grown from a single handmade wooden schoolhouse built as a tribute to an educator into a network of more than 200,000 registered book-sharing boxes across 128 countries as of 2025. The boxes run on an honor system, meaning users take or leave books freely with no library cards, late fees, or return deadlines involved.
Placing a chartered library outside a working police precinct gives residents a low-key, year-round point of contact with the department, distinct from its formal public forums. The Western District station also hosts monthly community meetings on the third Tuesday of each month at 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., according to the Highland District Council, giving neighbors a separate, scheduled venue to raise public safety and crime prevention concerns.
The book box arrives against a backdrop of other recent SPPD moves aimed at building community trust, including a January directive requiring that routine traffic stops be conducted only in marked police vehicles, a policy change Hoodline covered as part of the department's push for clearer, more transparent public interactions. It is not yet clear whether SPPD or Cops n Rodders plan to install similar libraries at the department's Eastern or Central district stations, or how book restocking at the Western District box will be handled going forward.
