The complex was located within Patapsco Valley State Park and along its southern end runs CSX's Old Main Line Subdivision and is very close to the Henryton Tunnel.

The establishment of the Henryton Sanatorium was one of the final steps in Maryland's program to treat all of the state's tubercular patients.

[1] A refrigerated morgue was demanded after the hospital cremated and disposed of the remains of an African American child before the parents were contacted.

[4] The American mindset in the late seventies and early eighties shifted from institutionalization to more outpatient and home care which led to decreasing resident numbers at Henryton.

In the decades since the facility's closure, the Henryton State Hospital complex had become popular with urban explorers, vandals, drifters, and drug addicts.

Visiting the Henryton State Hospital complex without the express written consent of the Maryland DHMH is trespassing, but the possible charges and fines seem not to deter most vandals.

However, the decades of wear on the buildings without maintenance and the presence of large quantities of asbestos made Henryton a dangerous place to explore.

[5] The blaze raged for three and half hours, caused heavy damage to the main building, and took eighty firefighters from three counties to extinguish.

[6]The hospital was one of many historical buildings in the region with valuable real estate that was lost to arson, including Troy Hill (1990), Avondale Mill (1991), Ammendale Normal Institute (1998), Phelps Log Cabin – moved from North Laurel to Elkridge (2001), and Thistle Manufacturing Company (2003).

[7] After closing, several groups and individuals showed interest in buying the property from its owner, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

[8] With an increase of recurring vandalism and the costs and risk to firefighters, the Carroll County Government once again pushed for demolition of the property.

The schedule for the Maryland Department of General Services originally showed that the buildings were to be demolished in May 2014, according to testimony from the FY13 capital budget proposal.