The Norristown State Hospital in Norristown, Pennsylvania was officially opened in 1880 and was the first in PA to be built in the “cottage plan” in which patients were separated by building based on their level of functionality and “insanity.” The buildings were connected through a network of steam tunnels like most “cottage plan” hospitals in the United States, which were expanded accordingly as buildings were added to the 200 acre campus over the course of the hospitals life. The patients of the Norristown State Hospital were rewarded special privileges such as more social opportunity, outside time, and recreational opportunities based on their functionality, and behavior. At a time, the hospital featured recreation options such as the bowling, baking, church services, cooking, and gardening, and more. The hospital also had a separate unit built for criminally insane patients who committed serious crimes as a result of their mental illness. In the 1930’s, a medical/ surgical facility was built in an art deco style, in order to perform operations, and examinations on patients of Norristown. While the hospital served the mentally ill in the Philadelphia area greatly, there is no hiding the fact that mistreatment took place within its walls, such as drug experimentation, electroshock therapy, and lobotomies. At the hospital’s peak, there were almost 5,000 patients being treated for different types of mental illness in all different buildings across campus. However, like many other state-run mental institutions across the country, the Norristown State Hospital began to see a decline in patients as psychotropic drugs became available. Patients were beginning to be released back into society around the 1970’s, and by the 1980’s, and 1990’s, buildings across the campus were closing down due to the huge decrease in patients. The “civil section” of the hospital eventually closed down in 2018, however many buildings still remain active, including the forensic unit of the hospital. Up until recently, the majority of the property was littered with abandoned buildings that had been closing down overtime since the hospital’s decline. The medical/surgical facility was closed in the 70’s, but small sections of the building were used as offices into the early 2000’s before it also closed down, and was left abandoned along with the other buildings. In 2022, demolition began of the abandoned buildings of the Norristown State Hospital in support of a new development plan to incorporate 728 residential units, 60,000 square feet of commercial space, as well as an “office and industrial tech complex.” Today, the demolition has not been complete, but it has been far underway, and the life for the remaining abandoned buildings appears to be dim. Until the remaining abandoned buildings are demolished, they will continue to present as “eyesores” to neighbors, and attractions to explorers seeking a photography opportunity. However, security guards make frequent rounds to keep trespassers out of the buildings. But not for long, as the lost structures of the Norristown State Hospital will be and are becoming a faint memory..