Willmar State Hospital

Originally structured as a small farm for the treatment of alcoholism, Willmar State Hospital expanded its client base and operations as conditions declined through the first half of the twentieth century. Following reforms in the 1950s, it introduced innovative treatments for alcohol and drug dependency, the “open-door” model of psychiatric care, and the physical rehabilitation of disabled people.

In the 1880s and 90s, Minnesota committed the “inebriate” (a category that included anyone we would today call chemically dependent) to a special ward at Rochester State Hospital. When that ward closed in 1897, the state attempted to subsidize treatment for committed alcoholics in small, private “liquor cure” facilities, but this was declared unconstitutional in the same year.

After a decade of failed attempts to establish a special institution, the state legislature passed a law to establish a “Hospital Farm for Inebriates” in April 1907. In 1909, the state used revenue from a 2 percent tax on liquor licenses to purchase 482 acres of land on the Tallman Stock Farm in Willmar. It hired architect Clarence H. Johnston in 1910. Johnson designed the Willmar State Asylum according to the cottage plan, which organized its facilities in smaller buildings arranged on a campus.

The Willmar Inebriate Farm opened to patients on December 26, 1912, with a fifty-person capacity. Under the first two superintendents, treatment emphasized two concepts: the water cure and the benefits of labor. The water cure consisted of drinking copious amounts of cold water, bathing daily, and using steam rooms and vapor cabinets to cleanse the body. In most cases, a minimum of two months' labor on the farm was required to receive parole, the idea being that hard work, meaningful exertion, and time away from drinking could cure acute cases of alcohol addiction.

Due to overcrowding in Minnesota’s psychiatric institutions, lawmakers had tried to open Willmar’s doors to surplus patients since it opened. They succeeded in 1917. Operating as the Willmar State Asylum, administrators separated the inmate population into two distinct groups: inebriates and the chronically mentally ill. Between 1919 and 1930, Willmar was consistently under construction to accommodate its rising population. It ballooned to nearly 1,500, most of whom were chronic patients arriving from other institutions.

This practice of “dumping” patients effectively ended the inebriate programs at Willmar. By 1935, less than 1 percent of the patient population was committed for drug- or alcohol-related offenses. Rapid growth and the resulting lack of a coherent treatment plan degraded services and led staff to start using restraints and more aggressive treatments (shock treatments for psychiatric patients and lumbar puncture for withdrawal, for example). Staff shortages during World War II exacerbated the problem.

Things changed rapidly in the 1950s. Building on the fact that alcohol-dependent patients had established an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group at Willmar in 1947, the new superintendent, Nelson Bradley, and his work partner, Daniel Anderson, transformed Willmar into one of three facilities responsible for developing the Minnesota Model, alongside Pioneer House in Plymouth and Hazelden in Center City. Central to the model were the tenets that alcohol and chemical dependency are multifaceted phenomena involving a person’s biology, spirituality, and psychological/biographical history.

Bradley and Anderson unlocked wards, removed most restraints, hired former alcohol and drug users as counselors, attempted to segregate patients according to required treatment, and invited local townspeople to visit to foster better relationships and counter the prison-like feel of the space. Attempted escapes and violent episodes plummeted.

After Bradley, Vera Behrendt became the first woman to serve as a superintendent in Minnesota in 1961 (one of only two in the country). This title was soon after abolished in favor of the more specialized “medical director.” In her first year, Behrendt made Willmar Minnesota’s first “open-door” institution, meaning that staff no longer locked doors on the wards, and abolished many time- and movement-based restrictions.

Willmar continued to differentiate its treatments through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, creating an adolescent unit, a geriatric care unit, and a training center for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Although Willmar maintained high patient-to-staff ratios compared with other Minnesotan institutions through the 60s and 70s, patient populations began to decline through the 80s, resulting in multiple vacancies. In 2006, Nova-Tech Engineering and Life-Science Innovations purchased thirty-seven of these buildings and created the MinnWest Technology Campus. The remaining seven buildings were purchased by Kandiyohi County, which uses them for youth behavioral services and community addiction programs.