The long-vacant Llewellyn Library building at 907 E. Russell Ave. in Bay View could soon have new life as housing. A proposal now pending at Milwaukee City Hall calls for redeveloping the former library branch into 25 apartments, remodeling and expanding the existing structure with a new addition.
The plan, first reported by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Daykin, would keep the two-story library building in place while adding a three-story expansion, according to urbanmilwaukee.com. The site sits on a lot of roughly 17,300 square feet in the heart of Bay View, per a separate Urban Milwaukee report, which also notes the existing library building itself measures 8,234 square feet.
A Library With a Long, Layered History
The building at 907 E. Russell Ave. first opened to the public in 1914, with a major addition to the front completed in 1959, the same Urban Milwaukee account states. Milwaukee Public Library shut the branch down in 1993, moving operations to the current Bay View Library on Kinnickinnic Avenue. Since then, the building has sat largely unused, most recently serving as home to the Redcat Academy program before that effort wound down more than a decade ago, according to a report from TMJ4.
With the building empty and the Milwaukee Public Library board having declared it surplus, the city cleared the way to sell the property, the station notes. The Milwaukee Department of City Development issued a formal request for proposals for the site, according to onmilwaukee.com, inviting developers to reimagine the old library for new uses.
Housing Among the City's Preferred Uses
That 2024 request for proposals called for reusing the existing library structure, though it also allowed for an addition or separate structure to be built on a small grass area to the east of the building, the same Urban Milwaukee account states. Suggested uses in the RFP included housing, office or commercial space, and live/work or studio space, the outlet reported, leaving room for exactly the kind of residential conversion now under consideration.
Then-Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic told Urban Milwaukee in 2023 that she expected the property would ultimately be reused as housing. City appraisals at the time valued the site at $490,000 as a high-value apartment development opportunity, but only $330,000 if a buyer were required to reuse the existing building, the outlet reported. Reported asking prices for the property have varied: TMJ4 reported the library was listed for $300,000, while Urban Milwaukee reported an asking price of $330,000.
Fits a Broader Pattern Near Bay View
The idea of combining library buildings with housing isn't new to Milwaukee. A four-story, 31-unit apartment building already sits immediately east of the former Llewellyn Library on a separate lot, Urban Milwaukee has reported. Across town, the city's rebuilt King Library branch took a similar approach, pairing a new library with a four-story, 42-unit apartment building known as MLK Library Apartments, according to another Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report.
