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Placeography is a wiki where you can share the history of and stories about a house, building, farmstead, public land, neighborhood or any place to which you have a personal connection. If you don't have a place to contribute, please enjoy learning about others.

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State‐sponsored treatment of the mentally ill became a national trend during the late nineteenth century, and asylum buildings and mental hospitals were built in large numbers across the U.S. The Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center was built in 1888,accepted its first patients in 1906, treated thousands of the state’s mentally ill, and sustained the local economy with hundreds of jobs until its closure in 2005. The Fergus Falls complex was built using a model developed by Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride, based on the belief that building design aided in the recuperation and maintenance of mental health. The Fergus Falls building remains one of a handful of intact Kirkbrides in the Midwest, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Between 2002 and 2006, the state legislature approved $7 million in bond funds that were to be used for disposition of the RTC buildings and related infrastructure improvements. Ownership of the property was transferred to the city in 2007. The City Council of Fergus Falls will demolish the historic complex in the summer of 2012 unless an alternative solution is found. The Friends of the Kirkbride group was formed to advocate for the buildings and stop the demolition.

• this text is courtesy of the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota.

The Minnesota Historical Society's 1968 Exhibit explores a pivotal year in history, covering everything from the volatile Vietnam War to the music, movies, fashion and more that defined a generation. While the exhibit takes a look at the year 1968 on a national level, we decided to hunt down what places in the Twin Cities were important, influential and just plain interesting to our state in 1968. Minneapolis's West Bank neighborhood was considered the Haight-Ashbury of the Twin Cities, and this tour begins in the West Bank, the focal point of Minnesota's counterculture movement, due partially to the proximity of the students at the nearby University of Minnesota. Two of the most powerful forces in the 1960s were activism and pop culture, and Minnesota was no exception. This tour examines many locations of local anti-war and civil rights demonstrations as well as centers of music, theater and more that helped make 1968 a pivotal year locally as well as nationally. All of these 1968 sites listed in this tour have spaces available to add memories or stories, so please feel free to add your own reflections.

ARCH 5670 Class Project
See what the students in Arthur Chen's ARCH 5670 class at the University of Minnesota have done!