Over 10,000 orphaned and abandoned children made their way through the halls of the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children between 1886 and 1945. At the time, housing orphaned children in a dedicated facility was a revolutionary idea. Before then, they would have been sent to work farms.
The Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children Museum followed a cottage system, which was designed to provide the children in the state’s care with an atmosphere that felt more like a typical family home. There were 16 cottages on the grounds, each managed by a matron and housing about 20-25 children. The school was to serve as a temporary home that prepared children for adoption.
By 1945, another progression in social development was made that quickly made this once progressive institution outdated. At that time its mission was changed into a vocational school for developmentally disabled individuals.
The facility’s restoration and transformation into a museum began in the 1990s. In the southwest corner of the grounds, there is a cemetery of the children who never found homes.
