Infamous abuse site to be burned down

From: WMTW - Auburn,ME,USA - Apr 23, 2004

FALMOUTH (AP) -- An old farmhouse with a dark history that came to light during the past two decades will be burned to the ground Saturday in a training exercise for firefighters on Falmouth's Mackworth Island.

The house had been used by an administrator at the Baxter School for the Deaf, where students for years had suffered physical and sexual abuse. Victims say much of the abuse took place at or near the house.

Marjorie Merrill Devine's mother lived in the house before former Gov. Percival Baxter donated the island to the state in the 1950s for a new school for the deaf.

Devine, who lives in Falmouth, says she has fond memories of the home. But she says for others, it only brings pain, and she can understand the need to eradicate that pain.

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