Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylum Architecture

There’s still a long way to go to cover the funding gap for Fergus Falls, and not much time to do so either — only a day or so left. I’m starting to sweat like Jerry Lewis at the end of a telethon…

If you’ve ever considered donating but put it off for later, please do it now.

If you can only afford to give $5 or $10, please do. Every little bit helps.

I apologize for the negativity, but I feel compelled to admit I’m depressed by the lack of response to this fundraiser. In spite of what seems to have been a pretty active campaign to get the word out, not much money has been donated. There’s been talk of the deadline being extended, but I don’t know how likely that is if there’s not a substantial amount donated by the end of the year. I don’t know what the current total is unfortunately, but judging by the GoFundMe page, it’s not very significant.

So please, donate now. Please share the GoFundMe link and ask others to donate now. Otherwise, get ready to say goodbye to yet another Kirkbride.

To those who have already donated, either online or by sending a check directly, and to those who have encouraged others to donate, to Historic Kirkbride LLC, and to Gene and Maxine and all the other Friends of the Kirkbride who have worked hard to get things to this point: THANK YOU! I sincerely wish there were more people like you.

The Friends of the Kirkbride are trying to raise $700,000 to cover a funding for redevelopment of the Fergus Falls Kirkbride. Read more about the story here: Fergus Falls Citizens Group to Raise $700K to Save Kirkbride.

Please consider making a donation. Any amount you can afford will help. The full $700K must be raised by December 31st. There are two ways to donate…

Send a Check

Otter Tail County Historical Society
1110 W. Lincoln Ave.
Fergus Falls, MN 56537

Make checks payable to: Otter Tail County Historical Society
Memo: Kirkbride

Donate Online

Visit this GoFundMe page.

Colliers International has launched a website as part of their campaign to find a developer for the Fergus Falls Kirkbride: Historic Campus Opportunity. It’ll be interesting to see if Colliers is successful. I believe it’s the first time a Kirkbride has been the subject of such a large scale marketing campaign. Hopefully it’ll result in the right developer finding out about the property and saving it.

If you own a website, or even just a Facebook page, please consider spreading the word by linking to the site.

A flash mob is being planned for 11am this Saturday, July 14th at the Fergus Falls Kirkbride. Hug the Kirkbride will involve a human chain linking arms around the entire building. A video of the event will be distributed online with the hopes of garnering national attention for the threatened Kirkbride.

If you live within reasonable driving distance of Fergus Falls — or if you can afford to spend the time and money to make a longer trip — please attend and participate! They’re going to need A LOT of people to completely surround such a huge structure.

After the flash mob event, “mini tours” of the building will be given between noon and 4:00PM. For more information, check out the Facebook event page: Hug the Kirkbride. And don’t forget to join the Friends of the Kirkbride Facebook group if you haven’t already.

At the May 7th Fergus Falls City Council meeting, the council voted unanimously in favor of drawing up demolition plans for most of the city’s beautiful, 100+ year-old Kirkbride building. The central administration section will probably be preserved, but the wings will be destroyed under the proposed plan. This vote came in spite of a substantial showing of public support for full preservation. According to the Fergus Falls Journal, about 200 people showed up for the meeting and the council chamber was filled to overflowing.

So yet another Kirkbride is likely fated to become to a mere fragment of its former self. Such a shame that something couldn’t be done to save it. It is some consolation that at least a part of the structure would be saved. Hopefully that at least will happen. In my opinion, it’s really the wings that are the most beautiful part of the Fergus Falls Kirkbride though, at least in terms of the building’s exterior.

There’s been a flurry of activity regarding Fergus Falls lately. If you haven’t heard, things aren’t looking for preservation. The Fergus Falls City Council rejected the only submitted reuse plan, and has started discussing demolition.

If you live in Fergus Falls and want the building saved, please attend the city council meeting on Monday, May 7th at 5:30PM to show support for preservation. The meeting will be taking place at Fergus Falls City Hall.

There’s also an online petition you can sign to show your support, even if you don’t live in Fergus Falls. Please take a minute to sign it. I know online petitions aren’t the most useful thing in the world, but signing one can’t hurt, and it might do some good. (Note that after signing, you’ll get an email with a request for a $5 donation. That donation is for the petition site, NOT for saving the Kirkbride.)

Every year around Halloween there are stories in the papers about old asylums. And I always find myself grimacing over the inevitable few that invoke the supernatural. Although I can sort of understand the desire to connect asylums to paranormal activity, I think actually doing so cheapens the real history of these places—especially when it’s done just to get something spooky out for Halloween. This year however, I was pleased to find this article: Former Fergus Falls State Hospital Source of Many Legends. It relates a few unusual (but obviously very real) occurrences at Fergus Falls State Hospital as told by Chris Schuelke, executive director of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.

Speaking of Fergus Falls, if you haven’t already, please join the Friends of the Kirkbride group on Facebook to get the latest news about the building and to show your support for its preservation.

Just thought it was worth noting that the former Fergus Falls State Hospital campus is being offered for sale on Craigslist: $1 Historic Fergus Falls State Hospital. Alhough I have a hard time believing its fair market value (as the ad states), $1 is quite a bargain. It’s too bad “a plan for development and proof of private development capital is also required.”

As has long been suspected, the Chinese language immersion school that was supposed to take over the Fergus Falls Kirkbride is just not going to happen. Redevelopment of other buildings on the property is moving forward, but there are no plans in the works for the Kirkbride. Demolition is the only option on the table. Although it’s not a done deal just yet, things are not looking good for the preservation of Minnesota’s last intact Kirkbride building. You can read a little more about this here: RTC Development to Move Forward; Chinese School Nixed.

Things have been a little slow in the Kirkbride newsroom lately. Aside from last week’s excitement over the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, there haven’t been many new developments in the world of Kirkbrides—just some rehashing of the same old news.

So here’s a post about more old Kirkbride photos on the web that people might not be aware of. In a previous post on the same topic, I mentioned that I couldn’t find some photos of Worcester State Hospital which I had come across earlier in the American Memory Collection. I found them again fortunately. As stated before though, the quality isn’t so hot. Maybe the originals are good (it might be worth getting copies), but the electronic versions available on the web site aren’t. That said, here are the links. (more…)