external links & other places to explore
Cambridge State Hospital - now mostly demolished, located in Cambridge Minnesota.
- Cambridge State Hospital Blog including a brief history of the Cambridge State Hospital as well as exterior photographs of the hospital that I took (low quality small thumbnail scans).
- Historical Maps and Photos of the Cambridge State Hospital.
- The Cambridge State Hospital Facebook Page for people who might be interested.
- The Minnesota Historical Society has most of the archives and a wealth of information.
I began taking photographs inside the empty buildings of the State Hospital in Cambridge, Minnesota in 1998. My interest in the project expanded as I explored the decaying buildings and researched the history of the institution. I kept returning to the buildings and shot hundreds of photographs, mostly using a large-format 4x5 camera. In 2003, the Minnesota Legislature approved funding to demolish the old brick cottages. In an effort to preserve a piece of the history that was erased, I set up this site to share some of the information I gathered and to show a small sample of the photographs I took in those five years.
I am currently working on putting together a book of the Cambridge State Hospital photographs from this body of work. I am completing this project with the generous help of an Artist's Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Kent Anderson is a fiscal year 2010 recipient of an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
1919
Minnesota Legislature authorized the State Board of Control to select a site from public lands for a feeble-minded colony and a colony for epileptics.
1923
The law was amended to permit the purchase of land for an epileptic colony.
December 1923
323 acres of land was purchased for $37,065 from T.C. and Adelaide C. Blomgren near Cambridge for the Minnesota Colony for Epileptics.
April 1925
Cottage 1 completed, built by the Askov Construction Company.