Annie McKay (1867-1944), Boston’s pioneering first school nurse lived here in 1905. Because of the era’s 13% rate of school absenteeism, the Boston School Committee in 1905, in an experimental and privately funded program with the Instructive District Nurse Association, appointed Annie McKay, a trained nurse, to supplement the work of physicians. She was assigned three schools in the South End: the Quincy, Way Street and Andrews. This program, judged an overwhelming success in improving student health and attendance, moved the state to pass legislation in 1907 mandating school health services throughout Massachusetts. The marker honoring McKay was installed in 2009 by the Massachusetts School Nurse Association.
