One of Andrew Square’s oldest businesses is tucked away at the corner of Southampton and Ellery Streets, directly across from Andrew Square MBTA Station. Four generations of the Rogerson family and their employees are hard at work at Rogerson Orthotics & Prosthetics, where they craft medically necessary artificial limbs and devices out of the approximately 1,600-square-foot building.

Paula Rogerson-Doherty, practice manager for the family-owned company, explains that Rogerson Orthotics & Prosthetics makes and PROVIDES (sells) a range of orthopedic bracing and prosthetic limbs, including custom cervical, back, knee, ankle, and foot braces as well as customized artificial limbs to replace fingers, arms, legs, and feet. They also meet with customers in the Southampton Street facility and fit them with their devices.

“Our building is a small place, and we’ve optimized every inch of it. It’s deceiving in size. We have three patient treatment rooms, a front office and reception area, a small workshop upstairs, in the back. And downstairs, we have a larger workshop,” Paula says. “We have some old tools and equipment. There’s a metal cutter that dates back to my grandfather and that’s in use every day. Then we have high-grade grinders and ovens. We’ve got a little bit of everything in there. We use some of our old solid technology along with the new and latest technology. We have a good combination of what works well.”

Paula’s grandfather, Peter F. Rogerson, started the business in 1927. He had been part of the medical corps in World War I and, when the war ended, he worked on braces and orthotic devices for the VA Hospital. He had no formal training in orthotics, but he learned as he went. Eventually, Peter F. Rogerson was invited by officials at Boston City Hospital (now known as Boston Medical Center) to set up a brace shop inside the medical facility, where Rogerson’s business was located for decades.

In the 1960s, Paula’s father, also named Peter F. Rogerson, took the reins and, when the company needed more space, he moved the operation to Andrew Square. Twenty- five years ago, the business expanded to include prosthetic devices.

“It was really the proximity for my Dad. When he bought the property in Andrew Square, it was two separate lots. There was a mattress business that was full of foam and a triple-decker house that was removed to create a parking lot,” Paula says.

Today, Paula’s two brothers run the company, Peter F. Rogerson III and John Rogerson. Michael Rogerson, John’s son, represents the family’s fourth generation in the business. In total, Rogerson Orthotics & Prosthetics has eight full-time employees, four of whom are highly educated and certified prosthetists and orthotists who make and fit the patient devices.

“Patients are referred to us by a physician or a prescribing health care provider. We also go out to hospitals and nursing homes. We do in-patient care and go to out-patient facilities,” says Paula.

The orthotics/prosthetics industry is complex, Paula says, and patient care is driven largely by insurance companies that exercise enormous influence over who gets covered and by how much. Further, she says, the industry is cyclical and tends to peak in the aftermath of certain humanitarian crises that highlight, at least in the moment, an urgent need for artificial limbs. The Iraqi war, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the war in Ukraine come to mind. However, when attention on those crises subsides, she notes, the Rogerson family is still there, providing devices for patients who need them.

Paula’s father turns 99 this month, and he still has a hand in the business, serving as a member of the company’s board of directors, handling some of the company’s paperwork and making visits to the shop. The elder Rogerson is amazed by all the changes in Andrew Square in the nearly 60 years since he moved the business to the neighborhood. “He notices that Andrew Square has gotten so much bigger,” Paula says.Andrew Square’s convenient location continues to be the neighborhood’s biggest selling point, she says.

“Our prosthetists and orthotists go out to doctors’ offices and hospitals. They have to travel on and off the highway. The MBTA is across the street for patients. We do a lot of work at Boston Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Spaulding Hospital. And we go out to the Brockton and Stoughton areas and to Needham. We cover the loop of Route 128,” Paula says.

Admittedly, over the last 10 years, Paula says, the drugs and homelessness in the Andrew Square area have created challenges for Rogerson Orthotics & Prosthetics, especially for customers who visit its Southampton Street location. “But recently I’ve seen some improvement,” she says. “The police are doing the best job they can do. They’ve been supportive and responsive. Along with civic groups and local politicians.” Paula marvels at the development along Dorchester Avenue and considers the opening of Small Victories – a “real restaurant,” as she calls it – a step in the right direction for the neighborhood.

With its roots in Andrew Square and the community’s future looking bright, Paula says, Rogerson Orthotics & Prosthetics is here to stay.

“Where could we find anywhere as convenient as this?” she says, referring to Andrew Square. The Rogerson family business is not going anywhere either, Paula added. “It’s an industry in healthcare that won’t go away. It’s needed to keep people mobile.”