Minnesota State Public School Orphanage Museum

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 to remove at-risk children from harmful 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.