September 3rd, 2008
Saint Peter State Hospital: Still Standing
Continuing a theme from my last post, I have it from a good authority that the Kirkbride building in Saint Peter, Minnesota is still partially standing. I had it down in the demolished column, but it turns out I was wrong once again! I’ve updated the list of Kirkbride buildings accordingly. Sorry about that…
The administration center is what remains. The wings were torn down in the 1960s and 70s. I haven’t seen it for myself yet (obviously), but I’m told there’s a museum there which can be visited by appointment. The hospital itself is still active, so I recommend making that appointment before going to take a look. Call 507-931-7182 for more information.
The only semi-recent image of the building I’ve been able to find online is this one (which I found here). It looks a bit on the plain side, but if you live in the area it’s be worth going to see, especially for the museum.
I’m a little embarrassed over being wrong about the status of this building and the one in Anna, Illinois, but I actually hope I turn out to be wrong about even more Kirkbrides that I’ve listed as demolished. It’s a nice surprise to learn that a building I thought was gone is still standing, even if it isn’t quite what it used to be. Still, I don’t think there’ll be many more popping up like this unfortunately.
I wouldn’t feel to bad about mislabeling them as demolished as for all intensive purposes the “hospital” is gone. It is an interesting side not to learn that there are a lot of little Kirkbrides odds and ends floating around out there!