Mosaic-Tile Hallway Beside Peeling Walls at Fergus Falls Kirkbride

The Fergus Falls Kirkbride Building was designed by architect Warren B. Dunnell and completed in 1890 as the main structure of the Fergus Falls State Hospital. Built on the Kirkbride Plan, its staggered wings were meant to give patients access to light and air, a design philosophy pioneered by psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century. The hospital operated under various names, including the Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center, until state officials ceased using the building in the early 2000s. Constructed of granite and brick quarried near the Otter Tail River, the building spans roughly a third of a mile end to end, making it one of the largest Kirkbride-style asylums ever built in the United States.