- Hi, I'm Chris Schuelke with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, and this is our Artifact Spotlight.

(upbeat music) So in the summer of 1885, a Minnesota Legislative Commission visited Fergus Falls with the intent of finding a location for the state's third state hospital.

Fergus Falls was awarded that state hospital, and in 1890 the Fergus Falls State Hospital opened.

So the state hospital represents treatment of the mentally ill in which people were in an asylum-type setting.

Now, in previous generations, they were often kept in almost prison dungeon-like settings.

But the state hospital was definitely an innovation in that patients were treated well and they wanted them to move on out of the hospital and into general society.

So the hospital is designed based on the principles of a man named Dr. Thomas Kirkbride, who was an innovator in the mental health landscape in the mid 19th century.

He believed in having lots of windows, lots of air, lots of ventilation for patients.

So his design was really based on a central administration area flanked by patient wings.

And they were connected almost in a U-shaped facility.

The state hospital in Fergus Falls is one of the few remaining examples of Kirkbride-inspired architecture left in the United States.

For over 117 years, the hospital was a cultural, economic icon in the community.

It dominated the landscape.

Over 2,000 patients often at one time were at the hospital.

It was essentially a self-contained community.

So for instance, you had to do laundry, thousands of pieces of laundry.

And so here's a laundry basket that someone just donated to the Historical Society a couple weeks ago.

Of course, it says Fergus Falls State Hospital.

It's a canvas laundry basket, one of course many that were used.

And so it's just a a piece that shows the daily operation at the hospital.

There were three superintendents at the state hospital.

The third one was a man named William Patterson.

He was educated out in Boston, came to Fergus Falls in 1912 with the intent of just staying a few months and going back out East.

But he ended up staying until his retirement in 1968, at the age of 88 years old.

So we have a couple items that belonged to William Patterson.

One was his doctor's bag 'cause he was hired as a physician.

And another item that he had was a cane.

Now, William Patterson was well known for taking daily walks around the hospital with his dog and his cane.

Legend has it that he would actually greet patients and staff alike by their first name.

Now, when you consider there were anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 patients there and hundreds of staff, how in the world could he remember people's name?

But that's the legend that William Patterson garnered.

So the hospital offered a a variety of services.

It was really an innovative institution.

For instance, one of the items we have here is this unbelievable clipper ship that was made by a state hospital patient, a Norwegian man, in about 1920.

We believe he was a sailor and that for some reason, he came to the state hospital for mental health issues.

And as part of his occupational therapy, he constructed this ship, which again, to the detail is unbelievable.

Part of the occupational therapy program was also art.

In fact, just couple years ago we unearthed several paintings, and these were done by a woman named Chloe Richards.

One is labeled 1932.

We're not sure, was she a patient or did she work in the occupational therapy department?

That's more research that has to be done, so we're not sure.

And another piece that I would like to point out that was donated to the hospital was the cemetery.

Now, there was a cemetery.

Over 3,200 people are buried at the Fergus Falls State Hospital Cemetery.

And there were no markers when people were buried.

What was put in when people were buried at the hospital was a wrought iron marker with a number in the middle.

And this is it, no name, no date, just a number, number 31.

We do know, there was a map, and we do know the people who were buried there.

And we are doing research to try to bringing back the names and lives of people that are buried at the state hospital cemetery.

So the state hospital, it represents a part of our history that really is gone.

And for the Fergus Falls State Hospital, these pieces that are here represent a part of our heritage that needs to be saved so we can learn from that hospital, learn from the treatment, learn from the daily operations that were there because if we didn't have them, that piece of our history would otherwise be gone.

The hospital closed in 2007.

It was given by the state to the City of Fergus Falls.

It's kind of a reminder of the importance of that complex to the city of Fergus Falls.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.