Waiting Room Chairs, Fergus Falls Kirkbride Building, Minnesota

The Fergus Falls Kirkbride Building was constructed beginning in 1888 as the Fergus Falls State Hospital, designed under the Kirkbride Plan that shaped American asylum architecture in the 19th century. That plan called for long, staggered wings meant to give patients access to natural light and air, arranged around a central administrative pavilion. Rooms like this one served as gathering and waiting areas for patients and staff during the facility's operation, which continued under various names into the late 20th century. The hospital complex closed in the 2000s, and the building has sat largely vacant since, with preservation groups advocating for its reuse. Furnishings such as the mismatched chairs seen in former waiting spaces date to the facility's later decades of use as a state treatment center.

Photo taken in June 2014.