The Minnesota State School for Dependent and Neglected Children was located in Owatonna

Owatonna

Owatonna is both a city and a township in Steele County, Minnesota, in the United States:*Owatonna, Minnesota*Owatonna Township, Steele County, Minnesota...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 from 1886 to 1945. During those years, it was home to a total of 10,635 children who were orphans or had been abused

Child abuse

Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...

 or abandoned. Both the administration building and school are on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.
The Minnesota State Public School Orphanage Museum is located on the former State School grounds. Visitors can learn about the history of the school and the orphans, watch a 1930s video about the children and walk the grounds.

Several former residents have written memoirs of their time at the school.

In recent years, the State School cemetery has been restored.

External links

• Minnesota State Public School Orphanage Museum home page