Demise
Richard Norris and Son was the largest locomotive maker in the United States, if not the world, during the 1850s. Employing many hundreds of men, the factory consisted of some ten buildings spread over several city blocks at what is now the campus of the Community College of Philadelphia. The firm reached its peak in 1857-58, after which time, the Norris family seems to have lost interest in the business. Manufacturing quality and output fell during the Civil War and the plant closed in 1866, although deliveries continued for a year or two.
The property lay idle until the adjacent Baldwin Locomotive Works (which had surpassed Norris as the largest locomotive builder in the US) acquired the site in 1873. The Norris buildings stood until 1896, when part of the property was cleared for construction of the third United States Mint in Philadelphia. (Still standing, that building has been adapted as part of the Community College of Philadelphia.) Today, no trace of either the Norris or Baldwin factories remains in that part of downtown Philadelphia.
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