Editing Norristown, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
[[File:Montgomery County Courthouse 2.JPG|thumb|Montgomery County Courthouse]]
Present-day Norristown was originally owned by the family of [[Isaac Norris (statesman)|Isaac Norris]]. Along with [[William Trent]], Norris purchased the land on October 7, 1704, for 50¢ per acre. In 1712, Norris acquired Trent's share and established a [[gristmill]] at the foot of present-day Water Street.<ref name="Pennsylvania Guide">{{Cite book|title=Pennsylvania: A Guide to the Keystone State|last=Federal Writers' Project|date=1940|publisher=Oxford University Press|edition=1st|page=427|location=New York}}</ref>

Named the county seat in 1784 when [[Montgomery County, Pennsylvania|Montgomery County]] was formed, Norristown was incorporated as a borough in 1812 and subsequently enlarged in 1853.  About 500 people lived there at the time of its incorporation.  Growing rapidly after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], it swelled to 22,265 people by 1900. By 1940 it was home to 38,181 Norristonians, making it the most populous borough in Pennsylvania before declining in the decades after World War II, and in fact it was described in that year as "the most populous independent borough in the United States."<ref name="Pennsylvania Guide"/>

At its height, Norristown was an industrial, retail, banking, and government center. Breweries, cigar factories, textile mills, icehouses, foundries, rolling mills, and lumber yards provided ample employment for skilled laborers and artisans.<ref>Montgomery County Federation of Historical Societies, Montgomery County: The Second Hundred Years; Toll, Jean Barth and Michael J. Schwager, ed.;1983, pg. 464</ref>  The downtown featured two department stores, several theaters, and enough goods and services that residents never had to leave town to find anything they needed.<ref>Barth and Schwager, pg.463</ref>  Although primarily settled by the English and a handful of Germans, Scots, Dutch, and Swedes, in the mid-1800s the Irish began arriving in large numbers, followed by waves of Italians at the turn of the 20th century.<ref>Barth and Schwager, pg. 469</ref>

With the opening of new malls in nearby [[King of Prussia, Pennsylvania|King of Prussia]] and [[Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania|Plymouth Meeting]], the downtown declined in the decades after [[World War II]].  Industry soon followed, as many companies closed or relocated into new industrial parks throughout Montgomery County.<ref>Barth and Schwager, pg. 465</ref>