Dorchester Illustration 2594 McCreight Home Sanatarium
In 1887, Mary B. McCreight immigrated to the United States from Ireland. By 1902, she was renting 58 Bowdoin Avenue and running a hospital. In 1908, she purchased the property. Two years later, she expanded to the property next door at 56 Bowdoin Avenue and operated the two houses as a hospital.
She had capacity for taking in tuberlosis patients, but from Census records, it appears that in later years, the facility catered mostly to the elderly. In 1910, she had a staff of five besides herself. She had a lodger and eleven patients. Some of her patients stayed for years. At its peak, her business had 40 beds.
Mary died in 1948.
The houses were taken down in the mid-20th century and replaced by the multi-unit building seen in the lower half of the illustration.