Minnesota Security Hospital


The Minnesota Security Hospital is a secure psychiatric hospital located in St. Peter, Minnesota. It serves people who have been committed by the court as mentally ill and dangerous. It was established as St. Peter State Hospital in 1866 under the Kirkbride Plan. The original building is mostly demolished though the hospital is still active.

History

In 1866, the Minnesota Legislature approved the building of a state hospital for the insane, hoping to reduce the growing amount of mentally ill people in jails throughout the state. They first had to find an area willing to deed of land for the hospital. St. Peter leaders bought a farm for $7,000 and lent it to the state.
The hospital was constructed in 1866 in the Kirkbride design. A fire destroyed the men's ward of the hospital on November 15, 1880. Dr. C.K. Bartlett was the superintendent of the hospital in its early years before resigning in 1894.
Its first patient checked in December 6, 1866. The hospital soon became overcrowded, so the state built 3 other facilities in Rochester, Fergus Falls, and Anoka. The St. Peter location remained the main hospital. Other hospitals also opened to reduce the population of patients but either closed or turned into retirement homes for the elderly.
In 1911, the Asylum for Dangerous Insane officially opened on the campus of the St. Peter Hospital. The name was later changed to the Minnesota Security Hospital in 1957.
After the attempted assassination of Bishop Patrick Heffron of the Diocese of Winona, Reverend Louis M. Lescher was committed to this hospital until his death in 1943.
In 1982, the current MSH building opened. The original hospital has since been demolished. The coordinates of the original hospital are.

Records

Records documenting the population and activities in the security hospital, including admission and transfer book, admissions index, daily movement of population record, dangerous insane, and scrapbook kept by longtime Medical Director Dr. Charles G. Sheppard are available for research use.