When the innovative Quincy School opened in 1847, teachers had their own classrooms for the first time in America. Women teachers were in charge of each grade, but were supervised by a male principal. Students sat at their own desks instead of at long benches. Boys and girls attended different grammar schools; the Quincy School was for boys.
In 1905 the Boston School Committee, in a privately funded, experimental program with the Instructive District Nurse Association (precursor to today’s Visiting Nurse Association) appointed Annie McKay (1867-1944), a Canadian-born trained nurse, to the Quincy School. This program was an overwhelming success, reducing absenteeism. Recognizing the value of school nursing services, Boston in 1907 embarked on a formal program to directly employ school nurses. Annie McKay’s appointment led to a system of health assessment, nursing intervention and follow-up for all children within the school system. School health services were extended by the state legislature later in 1907 to every city and town in Massachusetts.
Today, this building houses the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England along with other occupants.
