New York Public Library

The New York Public Library, previously known as Akiva, was a coffeehouse on Cleveland Ave. near Buford Street, across from the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Campus.

Brian Morgan was a co-owner, and described the scene in about 1963:

The after-the-bar crowd was big.  We gave Lazy Bill Lucas his first solo work here.  the university pressured us out of business after about a year and a half because they didn’t like that “degenerate” coffeehouse across the street.  (Minneapolis Star, December 16, 1975)