Polk Center (Polk State School and Hospital)

Large, homelike structures behind the administration building give the campus a collegial air. Circular, one-story structures with conical roofs accommodate meeting rooms with interesting interior trusswork. Samuel D. Brady and Louis Stevens worked with Osterling on the early-twentieth-century additions: Murdoch Hall (also called the Hospital and the Nursery building), built between 1902 and 1903, and School Hall and the auditorium.

Polk was occupied by 1897, and over the years has housed over 13,000 developmentally disabled persons. The complex was almost self-sufficient, with its own spring-fed water source, a power generation plant, hospital, sewage plant, greenhouse, laundry, garage, and farm. Residents were trained in various skills, including shoe cobbling and sewing. At its peak in 1953, the campus had 102 buildings, 3,490 residents, and a staff of 1,955 in an area intended to house 1,200. In the 1970s, the state changed the name to Polk Center and community-based treatment became the norm. The trend in treatment shifted over the years from a medical model to a rehabilitative and then an interdisciplinary model. To facilitate the newer form of treatment, an indoor pool facility was completed in 1995 by I. J. Chung Associates. For the past thirty years, Polk Center's population has grown significantly smaller. In 2000, there were 478 residents and 1,137 staff in 90 buildings on 802 acres.