Former North Dakota Governors' Mansion

Before Bismarck was declared the state capital, it was a relatively small town dependent on the railroad, steamboat trade, and providing goods and services to military posts built along the Missouri River, which were established to protect settlers and railroad construction into Indian territory. Bismarck saw a short period (until 1885) of rapid growth after it became the capital, which is why Fisher (and three others) built large homes here. The state bought the home in 1893 and subsequently 20 governors and their families would live here; the last governor to live here was John Davis. 

From 1960-1975, the State Health Department converted the home into the North Dakota Psychiatric Clinic until 1972, the state's first outpatient mental health clinic and among the first in the country to try talk therapy (the clinic was part of a national pilot program, spearheaded by President John F. Kennedy, implemented by the Federal government to develop new treatment techniques for mentally ill patients).