Sunlit Attic Landing at the Fergus Falls Kirkbride Building

The Fergus Falls Kirkbride Building was completed in 1890 as the main structure of the Fergus Falls State Hospital, designed under the Kirkbride Plan that shaped American asylum architecture in the 19th century. Architect Warren B. Dunnell drew up the building in a Romanesque Revival style, using local fieldstone and brick for its long, staggered wings. The hospital operated for over a century, closing its doors in the early 2000s after the state consolidated mental health services elsewhere. Upper-level spaces like this one, tucked beneath the roofline, were used for storage and overflow staff quarters rather than patient care. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, and preservation groups have since worked toward its restoration and reuse.