Connecting Patient Rooms 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 by architect Warren B. Dunnell in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It follows the Kirkbride Plan, a 19th-century model for asylum design developed by psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride, which arranged patient wards in staggered wings to maximize sunlight and ventilation. The hospital operated for over a century, treating patients with mental illness until its closure in the early 2000s. Rooms like this one, with white oak flooring and tall double-hung windows, were part of the ward wings that extended from the building's central administrative core. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has remained largely vacant since the facility shut down.