This parlor sits within the Fergus Falls State Hospital, a Kirkbride-plan asylum designed by architect Warren B. Dunnell and built between 1888 and 1902. The hospital followed the Kirkbride Plan, a 19th-century model that called for staggered wings to give patients access to natural light and air, a system credited to psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride. Fergus Falls State Hospital operated continuously until 2005, later functioning as the Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center before closing. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural and institutional significance in the history of American mental health care.
Photo taken in June 2014.