Long Island is purchased by the city of Boston.

[1887] The city buys Long Island from the heirs of Thomas Dunbar, in the process evicting a colony of approximately 30 families of Portuguese fishermen who had lived there for decades. The island becomes home to an almshouse in 1891,* a chronic disease hospital in 1892,* a nursing school, institutional farm, a homeless shelter, various social service programs, and a summer camp for young people in 2007.*