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Albert Burrage founded a hospital on Bumpkin Island for physically disabled children in 1902, reportedly one of the first buildings to utilize ramps instead of stairs for wheelchair access.
The architect, Charles Brigham, also designed the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Burrage’s private home on Commonwealth Avenue, complete with eccentric architectural flairs like gargoyles and dragons. The hospital was a colorful building using terracotta, yellow brick, and green slate. Today, the ruins of this building lie in piles after a 1946 fire, and can be found on the highest point on the island. It was here that the residents (young handicapped patients and poor children sent to the island for a summer retreat) enjoyed a wide view of the harbor from the building’s verandas.
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July 26, 2012
