Curved Window Nook with Built-In Steps at Fergus Falls Kirkbride Building

The Fergus Falls Kirkbride Building, part of the former Fergus Falls State Hospital, was designed by architect Warren B. Dunnell and completed in 1890 under the Kirkbride Plan, a 19th-century model for asylum design that prioritized natural light and ventilation as therapeutic tools. The plan's staggered, echelon layout allowed patient rooms and common areas throughout the building to receive direct sunlight, an approach considered central to the "moral treatment" philosophy of the era. Round and segmental arched window openings recur throughout the structure, a hallmark of the Richardsonian Romanesque style applied to its brick construction. The hospital operated for over a century before closing in 1999, and the building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.