Mary Hancock McLean’s First Private Practice — Scab Row

"Scab Row" was an informal historical moniker given to a narrow, dim, and neglected section of Olive Street. In her memoirs, Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen explicitly stated that their room on Scab Row was choked by the heavy smell of yeast from "nearby breweries" and blackened by coal and lead dust. On Olive Street, this industrial pollution began to heavily bottleneck between 14th Street and 23rd Street. The modern Metropolitan Police Department for the City of St. Louis is in this stretch, but there is no evidence it is the exact location. 

The lack of a specific, recorded address is due to the extreme discrimination she faced. After being rejected by 46 different landlords, the property owner on Olive Street who finally agreed to rent her a room explicitly prohibited her from posting any signage with her name or profession.

During the mid-to-late 1920s, a major public works bond led to the widening of Olive Street from 60 feet to 100 feet. This massive urban redevelopment project fundamentally altered the street's footprint, tearing down or moving back older, narrow 19th-century properties along downtown and midtown Olive Street. As a result, the physical structures that comprised "Scab Row" have long been demolished or replaced by modern commercial developments.