The first Little Free Library was built in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin. It was built by Todd Bol. Bol put a wooden container on a post on his lawn and filled it with books. It was designed to look like a one-room schoolhouse. The library was to honor his mother. His mother was a school teacher who had recently died and she loved books. Bol and his partner built and installed more of the libraries in different areas of the Midwestern United States.