Whose precinct would you rather live in?

[Ban my account ffs!]

The Fergus Falls State Hospital in Fergus Falls, MN is still there and still in use (well, most of it is mothballed.. only about 200 people are in it, mostly for drug rehab, compared to a capacity of over 2000).  It is a Kirkbride building completed in 1906 after the Rochester and St. Peter mental asylums were over crowded.  The original two have since been demolished while this one has quite a following of people hoping to keep it standing and operational.





Here it was during construction in 1895.  Back then, the area was mostly treeless prairie, but over a century of cultivation and fire prevention have meant much of the area has now become forested.  When I saw the building in 2002, the whole area around Fergus Falls was forest broken by farm fields.