Around Swedish America in 548 Days - Day 40

Day 40 - Fergus Falls

In 1900 Swedish Lutherans founded Northwestern College. A two-year academy and business school, it closed in 1932 for financial reasons. Some 1,500 individuals attended Northwestern during its existence. Today, an apartment house known as Northwestern Manor, at 418 E. Alcott Avenue, owned by and adjacent to the Broen Memorial Home for the elderly, uses the former school building.

Other Swedish Lutheran educational academies existed in northwestern Minnesota. The Red River Valley Conference of the Augustana Lutheran Church was not only involved with Northwestern College, but also North Star College in Warren, about 140 miles north of Fergus Falls in Marshall County. Swedish Lutheran pastor S. J. Kronberg organized the Lund Academy at rural Christine Lake in Otter Tail County in 1898, but it closed in 1901. Hope Academy in Moor- head was founded in 1888.