Editing Brooklyn Center, Minnesota (section)

==History==
Pioneers organized town governments for Brooklyn Township and Crystal Lake Township when Minnesota became a state in 1858. Osseo Road was a main thoroughfare that brought settlers to an area centered around their school, post office, store, meeting hall, and Baptist and Methodist churches. That location thrived as a market gardening community. It abutted the encroaching development of Minneapolis to the south.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47669661|title=The Brooklyns : a history of Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, Minnesota|date=2001|publisher=Brooklyn Historical Society|others=Daniel John Hoisington, Brooklyn Historical Society|isbn=0-9708439-0-9|location=Brooklyn Center, MN|oclc=47669661}}</ref>

Steps were taken to protect the area from annexation by Minneapolis and to retain "simpler public business methods, and extra police protection" by incorporation.<ref>{{Cite news|date=February 20, 1911|title=County Lets Two Villages|work=Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota)|url=https://startribune.newspapers.com/browse/star-tribune_4474/1911/02/20|access-date=November 30, 2021}}</ref> The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners accepted a petition to incorporate the Village of Brooklyn Center on January 16, 1911.<ref>{{Cite news|date=January 20, 1911|title=County Commissioners Board|work=Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota)|url=https://startribune.newspapers.com/browse/star-tribune_4474|access-date=November 30, 2021}}</ref> An election followed, the boundaries were set, and documents filed with the state on February 18, 1911. P.W. Reidhead was the first president. The population was 500.<ref name=":0" />

By 1940, the village saw a need for more organized planning to deal with issues such as sewage and traffic. In 1942, a Planning Commission was established. Farmers were selling their valuable land to housing developers. The decade saw unprecedented population growth, reaching 4,000 by 1950. Brookdale, a new shopping concept by [[Dayton's|Dayton’s]], was constructed in 1960<ref>{{Cite news|date=September 28, 1960|title=Work Begins at Dayton's Brookdale Shop Center|work=The Minneapolis Star (Minneapolis, Minnesota)|url=https://startribune.newspapers.com/browse/the-minneapolis-star_4473/1960/09/28|access-date=November 30, 2021}}</ref> when the population had grown to over 24,000.  In 1963, even more new opportunities for commercial development were presented with the estate of Earle Brown, deceased, the heir of [[John Martin (businessman)|Captain John Martin]] who had been one of the wealthiest men in Minneapolis.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hallberg, Jane, Leone Howe, and Mary J. Gustafson.|title=History of the Earle Brown Farm|publisher=Brooklyn Center, Minn.: Brooklyn Historical Society|year=1966}}</ref>

Heritage Center of Brooklyn Center was the former Cap Martin country estate, built in 1878 and willed to his grandson Earle Brown in 1901. The buildings included the family home, office and garage, housing for the workers, a pump house, multiple barns, a hippodrome, an antique carriage collection, and a restored lumber bunkhouse and cook shanty. It is now a historic site in Brooklyn Center owned by the city and developed into a conference and event center. 
  
In April 2021, [[Killing of Daunte Wright|Daunte Wright]] was killed by a city police officer.  Due to elevated racial tensions and anti-police sentiment because of the concurrent [[Derek Chauvin trial]], riots and looting broke out.  California Congresswoman [[Maxine Waters]] traveled to the city to hold a rally for the protestors, which only encouraged the rioting.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/19/politics/maxine-waters-derek-chauvin-trial/index.html | title=Waters calls for protesters to 'get more confrontational' if no guilty verdict is reached in Derek Chauvin trial &#124; CNN Politics | website=[[CNN]] | date=April 19, 2021 }}</ref>  The city worked with [[Juxtaposition Arts]] on a permanent memorial to Wright.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 18, 2023 |title=Brooklyn Center unveils design for memorial to Daunte Wright |url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/07/18/brooklyn-center-unveils-design-for-memorial-to-daunte-wright |access-date=November 10, 2023 |website=MPR News |language=en}}</ref>