‘Boston Legacy Foundation’ heading to DC

UPPER GWYNEDD » A local group is trying to make a Lansdale legend go even bigger.

Members of the “Dr. Frank E. Boston Legacy Foundation” gave an update last week on their plans for spring and summer, including a trip to the nation's capital next month.

“We're going national. The whole goal is to get the White House to recognize Dr. Boston,” said organizer George Whitehair.

Dr. Frank Boston was a Black doctor born in Philadelphia, who served in the U.S. Army during the First

World War, then returned to settle in Philadelphia, and established what is now Abington Health: Lansdale Hospital and the Volunteer Medical Service Corps of Lansdale. In recent years a nonprofit “Dr. Frank E. Boston Legacy Foundation” has been founded to help promote his works and raise awareness of his accomplishments, and Whitehair and fellow foundation member Dr. Francis Jeyaraj gave an update on their recent activities to Upper Gwynedd's commissioners last week.

“Dr. Boston then created the ambulance corps, and on May 20th, we're doing a big event down in Washington, D.C. this year. We'll be honoring, for EMS Week, Dr. Boston at the World War I Memorial,” Whitehair said.

A new national World War I Memorial was unveiled in 2021 under the oversight of a World War I Centennial Commission, and Whitehair told the board that the commission has recently published an article he submitted detailing Boston's service in France during that conflict. In addition to the recognition at the memorial in May, he added, the group is aiming to earn a high honor for the late doctor.

“Boston received two U.S. Presidential citations during his lifetime, from (Presidents) Truman and Eisenhower. We're going to D.C. and trying to get the third,” he said.

Several guest speakers have already been confirmed to speak at the May ceremony, and the foundation has secured a discounted rate at a nearby hotel for those interested in attending; details are available on the group's Facebook page. In addition to their efforts in D.C., the Boston group is also looking forward to another honor earlier in May.

“Lansdale Hospital: as you know, the doctor founded the hospital in 1934. He passed away in 1960; however, he was never given due recognition,” Jeyaraj said.

“On May 2nd, JeffersonLansdale Hospital, for the first time, is actually going to put up a portrait of Dr. Boston in their lobby, and they're going to name the lobby after this great doctor,” he said.

Group members are also continuing to push for support behind a state bill that would rename a portion of Broad Street in Lansdale and Hatfield on the way to the hospital after Boston, Jeyaraj told the board. The two also showed copies of the “Doc Boston Adventures” comic published earlier this year and based on the late doctor, and Whitehair said the group will “probably do a second, because it's gotten a lot of interest and support.”

More locally, the Boston group will also be present at the International Spring Festival hosted by the Lansdale Public Library at North Penn High School on April 23, and will be invited to speak about Boston and his legacy at Upper Gwynedd's “Unity for Kindness” day on April 30. And for anyone looking to learn more about Boston, Whitehair suggested stopping at the monument at Seventh and Broad Streets in Lansdale, across the street from what is now the Elm Terrace Gardens complex and was originally the hospital Boston founded.

“When Boston died, the hospital refused to hang his portrait. The reasoning was, ‘If we do it for you, we have to do it for everybody,'” he said.

“His supporters got so (upset), that they raised the money, they built that monument. In the middle of the monument is a bronze face of Boston, but it's angled. They built it that way so that, every time a trustee came out of the hospital, Boston's giving them the eye.”