In 1896,
William Gage, a Toronto businessman and philanthropist interested in tuberculosis prevention, helped found the National Sanitarium Association in an effort to build a tuberculosis hospital in Toronto and fund research into the disease. Toronto residents—believing tuberculosis was a hereditary "disease of the poor"—opposed building a tuberculosis facility near local neighbourhoods, and enacted bylaws to stop the hospital. By 1910, three new buildings had been erected, and in 1913, Queen Mary Hospital for Consumptive Children opened at the site, the first hospital in the world dedicated to tuberculosis in children. Gage—knighted for his philanthropic efforts in 1918—spoke of the “purity of the air” at the riverside location, and "fresh-air" treatment was provided for patients, who tended a vegetable garden and a farm containing 50 pigs and 1,000 hens (the animals were swept away during
Hurricane Hazel in 1954). The combined facility received patients from across Ontario, and at one time had 667 patient beds. Additions to the hospital include the Ruddy Building in 1938, and the Gage Building in the early 1980s. The facility was renovated in 2023 and reopened as West Park Healthcare Centre. ==References==