The sanitarium was founded in 1905 by Doctors Jesse C. Coggins and Cornelius DeWeese to treat patients with mental illness and addiction.

Doctors Coggins and DeWeese bought the property at auction in 1906 and moved the building in late 1908 and early 1909 from its 5th and Talbott Street location to their sanitarium's campus off Route 1, where it became a men's dormitory.

Part of the grounds was sold to Prince George's County Board of Education and in 1965 became a new location for Laurel High School.

[1] The facility ceased operations in September 1963 after the death of Coggins, and the historic structure was eventually demolished by controlled fire in August 1964 to make way for new housing; the Middletown and Avondale high-rise apartments are now there.

However, it was determined that the money would go to the University of Maryland Medical Systems as the will did not maintain the same racial clause to this alternative beneficiary.