Spark HouseWhere Creativity WorksHeritage, books, and community in Isanti
Spark House is gathering the history of this special place and the wider Isanti community while welcoming Isanti Library activity at 110 2nd Avenue NW. Help preserve the stories that connect generations.
Contributors choose how their materials may be credited, shared, or kept private.
Current priority Susi's story within Isanti's wider heritage
The work in front of us
Long before it was called Spark House, this place held classes, conversations, library work, celebrations, and everyday moments. Susi's is our current focus, and every contribution can also help recover the wider history of Isanti—its people, families, businesses, organizations, neighborhoods, and traditions.
Preserve Susi's story
Photographs of a class, a familiar room, a library activity, or a neighborhood gathering can reveal details that no official record contains. Fronts, backs, captions, and memories all matter.
Add the story behind the image
Even a short note about who was present, what was happening, or why the moment mattered helps future readers understand the people and relationships connected to this place.
What belongs in the collection
A thoughtful heritage process
Upload a digital file or arrange a visit for photographs, albums, documents, objects, or an in-person memory.
Tell us who, when, where, and why—the context that turns an image or document into a community story.
Volunteers record permissions, organize files, and digitize physical materials without altering the originals.
With the contributor’s permission, materials can support local history, library learning, and future generations.
Our starting place
Preserving a Sense of Heritage: Isanti, Minnesota Centennial, 1899–1999
This book is our starting reference for gathering Isanti's wider story. The City of Isanti uses it as the source for its published history excerpt and invites residents to review the complete book at City Hall.
Spark House can help carry that work forward by gathering the photographs, documents, objects, corrections, and personal memories still held by families and neighbors—especially the stories that never made it into print.
Read the City's history excerptBooks belong here
Susi helped found the Friends of the Isanti Area Library. Hosting library activity here carries that spirit forward by connecting books, local knowledge, and neighbor-to-neighbor learning.
Read
A familiar local setting for the Isanti Library to connect readers with books, ideas, and one another.
Gather
A welcoming place for library activities, conversations, and learning across generations.
Remember
Community-contributed photographs, documents, and stories preserve the history surrounding this place.
Belong
Heritage and library activity meet in a place shaped by Susi’s generosity and Isanti’s participation.
Something easy to join
Heritage is also made in the time people spend together. A puzzle, a deck of cards, a chessboard, or a favorite game can make it easier to meet someone, trade stories, and feel at home.
Add a few pieces to a shared puzzle while visiting, talking, or simply enjoying a quiet moment.
Bring a familiar game, learn one from someone else, or join a relaxed hand already underway.
Play a thoughtful match, teach a new player, or watch and help think through the next move.
Pick a board or tabletop game that makes it easy for neighbors, friends, and generations to play together.
No special expertise is needed. Come for one round, stay for conversation, or invite someone who would enjoy joining you.
Ask about a visitThe Spark House story
Spark House brings Susi's story, wider Isanti history, and library learning together. Children, parents, grandparents, neighbors, readers, volunteers, and longtime visitors all carry pieces of the story.
The work begins with respect: for original materials, contributor choices, the people represented in the collection, and the community relationships that keep knowledge alive.
Put useful creativity to work
Learn where help is needed, create a named volunteer account, and move into one shared workspace for heritage appointments, library hospitality, assignments, role boundaries, and team coordination. New profiles are reviewed before private visitor information becomes available.
Named accounts, written roles, and review before access help protect families, visitors, and historical materials.
One connected volunteer pathway
Help recover the story of this place
Spark House is collecting photographs, documents, and memories from the years this place was known as Susi's. Your contribution can help document the people, gatherings, classes, celebrations, and everyday life connected to the property. We also welcome material from the wider Isanti community. Please share both the front and back of photographs when they contain notes.
You can mark material private, identify how it should be credited, and decide whether Spark House may display it publicly.
Come by Spark House
Request a visit to scan physical photographs, documents, or keepsakes; take a small tour; or meet with the Spark House team. A volunteer will review your preferred times and contact you when the appointment is confirmed.
Bring original photos, handwritten notes, albums, or other items that need careful digitization.
Tell us about Susi's, the library, the property, or another person, place, and moment from Isanti history.
Request time for a heritage contribution, library connection, volunteer question, or community conversation.
Requests are not confirmed until a volunteer follows up.