ALLENTOWN, Pa. - If you didn't know better, you would think it was a family reunion. Which wouldn't be too far off the mark.
A crowd of people hugging, laughing and taking pictures at the edge of the old Allentown State Hospital property.
These folks all have a personal connection to the Allentown State Hospital.
"We met here and we've been married and we've been married 40 years," said former employee Debbie Krauss.
For the most part, this crowd is former hospital employees.
But Steven Royer wrote a book about it.
"Just seeing what they did compared to what other state institutions were doing, and it was special and it resonated with me," said Royer.
Thumbing through its pages you'll find pictures of the Allentown State Hospital being built and opening in 1912.
It was known for treating mental illness with homeopathy, the first facility in the country to end patient seclusion and confirmed Alzheimer's disease as a cause of dementia.
"The first African-American psychiatrist in the nation worked here so this impact this hospital is huge," said Pennsylvania Historical Museum commissioner Kim Bracey.
The hospital closed in 2010 and was torn down in 2020.
Even so, former workers wanted something on the property to honor the hospital's achievements.
And after an arduous three year process with the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission, they got their wish.
A historic marker now sits on the edge of the property.
And while this marker is one of 26-hundred across the Commonwealth, for these folks it's the most important of them all.
"This is our remembrance now to the way it'll be for us now," said former employee Jeff Krauss.
Soon construction will begin on a massive retail and residential development on the site.
The former employees say they hope developers will name a few of the streets after key figures in the hospital's history.
