The Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children was a residential and educational facility for wards of the state from 1886 to 1945, located in Owatonna, Minnesota, United States. The State School was created by an act of the Minnesota legislature in 1885 as an effort to provide safe, transitional housing for the state's orphaned, abandoned, and abused children. The goal was remove to at-risk children from bad situations and place them in the State School, where they would reside in a home-like setting, receive an education, and eventually be placed with suitable farm families. Over 60 years of operation, the State School was home to a total of 10,635 children.The facility closed in 1945 as adoption and foster care came to be preferred over institutionalization. The State School complex became the Owatonna State School for children with developmental disabilities. The OSS closed in 1970. After four years of vacancy, the campus was purchased by the city of Owatonna to serve as its new seat of government. The complex was renamed West Hills. The Minnesota State Public School Orphanage Museum on the grounds interprets the history of the site.The main Administration Building of the State School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The larger complex of 19 surviving buildings, including the previously listed Administration Building, were added to the National Register as a historic district in 2010.
Continue reading...From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.