Founded in Owatonna as a state alternative to county poor farms, the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children operated from 1886 to 1945 and housed 10,635 children who were orphaned, abandoned, abused, or otherwise made wards of the state. Built on a cottage system of smaller family-like units, the campus grew into a large, nearly self-sufficient institution with cottages, school, hospital, workshops, and farmland, where children also supplied much of the labor. After closing, the site became the Owatonna State School and later city property. Its unusually intact buildings, museum, restored cottage, and cemetery preserve this difficult history.