Minnesota's Third Hospital for the Insane, 1890–2005 — A Kirkbride Fortress That Outlasted Its Era by a Century
1400 N Union Ave, Fergus Falls, MN 56537
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Exterior grounds accessible; interior tours offered by Friends of the Kirkbride on a limited basis.
Access
Limited Access
Open campus grounds; interior of main building is not publicly accessible without a guided tour
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · Kirkbride Plan Asylum Architecture · Minnesota Mental Health History · National Register of Historic Places · On-Site Patient Cemetery
The Third Minnesota Hospital for the Insane opened its doors on July 29, 1890, receiving a transfer of patients from the St. Peter facility the following day. Architect Warren B. Dunnell designed the complex in the Kirkbride tradition — a central administrative block flanked by long radiating wings, each wing designed to house a different patient population. The Beaux-Arts and Chateauesque main building dominated the Fergus Falls skyline and contributed directly to the town's population more than doubling between 1890 and 1930.
Women were not admitted until 1893, when 125 patients arrived by transfer from the southern state facility. The hospital grew steadily; by the late 1920s, the patient population had reached approximately 1,700, making it the largest mental health hospital in Minnesota at the time. The first electroshock treatment was administered at the facility in 1939, the same year that the main building was placed under observation for structural concerns.
In 1971, following the national shift toward deinstitutionalization, Fergus Falls became Minnesota's first regional treatment center, expanding its mandate to include patients with developmental disabilities and chemical dependencies. The facility was renamed the Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center in 1985 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year. Deinstitutionalization accelerated through the 1990s, and the last patients were relocated to community-based settings in 2005. The state transferred the property to the city of Fergus Falls in 2007.
Since 2014, Springboard for the Arts has operated Hinge Arts at the Kirkbride, an artists' residency program based in the former nurses' dormitories. The main Kirkbride building itself has proved difficult to repurpose; demolition of portions of the complex began in 2018 after a hotel and spa development proposal stalled. More than 3,000 patients who died at the institution are buried in the hospital cemetery on the grounds.
Sources
The Fergus Falls State Hospital has accumulated a reputation as a paranormal hotspot over the two decades since its closure, fed in large part by the building's Victorian-Gothic architecture and its history of difficult institutional episodes. Local oral tradition has circulated accounts of patient deaths, escape attempts, and controversial commitments — including the 1893 case of Frank Hoskins, a newspaper editor whose wrongful confinement was eventually overturned by the state Supreme Court — as the raw material for the facility's dark legend.
Paranormal investigators who have documented their visits report the building as a productive site for electronic voice phenomena (EVP). Accounts consistently reference unexplained sounds in the patient wings, cold spots in the lower corridors, and what visitors describe as a pervasive sense of unease in the building's interior spaces. No peer-reviewed investigation has been conducted at the site.
The hospital cemetery, holding more than 3,000 patients buried through more than a century of operations, draws visitors drawn to its documentary record of forgotten institutional lives. The Bemidji Pioneer and MPR News have each covered the building's haunted reputation, anchoring the stories in the documented history rather than invented claims. The facility remains a regional reference point for discussions of Minnesota's mental health history and its unresolved architectural legacy.
The exterior of the sprawling Kirkbride campus is accessible for self-guided exploration. The hospital cemetery, where over 3,000 patients are interred, sits on the grounds. The main building remains off-limits without an arranged tour. Hinge Arts at the Kirkbride occasionally hosts public events in the former nurses' dormitories.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Anoka, MN
Opened in 1900 as Minnesota's first asylum built to the cottage plan, Anoka State Hospital housed patients deemed incurably insane and later expanded to include electroshock therapy. It closed in 1999 after a century of operation; several of its original cottages now serve as veteran housing and county offices.
Faribault, MN
The Faribault State Hospital, founded in 1879 as the Minnesota Experimental School for Imbeciles, acquired 507 acres in Walcott Township in 1909 to establish a colony farm for its highest-functioning residents. The institution became the center of Minnesota's eugenics sterilization program.
Hot Springs, AR
The United States Army-Navy General Hospital at Hot Springs opened in 1887 as the nation's first joint Army-Navy medical facility, built to take advantage of the city's therapeutic mineral springs. Rebuilt as a 412-bed brick complex in the early 1930s, it treated more than 100,000 veterans during World War II before closing permanently in 2019.