N. Louise Young, MD

Dr. Nellie Louise Young was the first Black female physician to practice medicine in Baltimore. She specialized in obstetrics and gynecology and served on numerous city and state committees in the 52 years during which she practiced medicine. 

Dr. Young was born in Baltimore on June 7, 1907, and attended what is now Frederick Douglass High School, graduating in 1924, and from Howard University in 1927. She went on to graduate from Howard University’s School of Medicine in 1930. She anticipated returning to Baltimore to do her internship, but no hospital would accept her, including Provident Hospital, a historically Black hospital, which said there was no place for her to sleep. So, Dr. Young interned at Freedman’s Hospital, Howard University’s Hospital. She was finally awarded a residency at Provident Hospital in 1940.

In 1932, Dr. Young opened her practice above her father’s drugstore, Young’s Pharmacy, on Druid Hill Avenue and West Hoffman Street, a meandering street that stops and starts across the city. Her father, Dr. Howard E. Young, was the state’s first black pharmacist and also graduated from Howard University. Later, both Dr. Youngs moved to 1100 Druid Hill Avenue, where Dr. Howard Young re-opened his pharmacy and Dr. Louise Young had her offices.

During her 52 years of medical practice, she served on numerous city and state medical committees. Dr. Young was a member of the executive committee and staff at Provident Hospital, and chief of the hospital’s obstetrics department. She served as a visiting obstetrician at Union Memorial Hospital, as courtesy staff at the old South Baltimore General Hospital, and as an associate member of the gynecology and cancer detection staff at the old North Charles General Hospital in Charles Village.

Friends said that Dr. Louise Young, who delivered thousands of babies before stopping in the early 1980s, said that the most wonderful thing in the world is to deliver a healthy baby and to see the expressions on the mother’s and father’s faces.

Baltimore Sun Archival Photo with Edits for Print

For a number of years, Dr. Young’s office was on Druid Hill Avenue, and then later, she moved to Garrison Boulevard. At the same time, she was the women’s physician at Morgan State College, the girls’ physician at Frederick Douglass High School and the staff physician at the Maryland Training School for Colored Girls, later Montrose School for Girls in Owings Mills. Dr. Young also operated a Planned Parenthood Clinic.

Early in her practice, a male physician told her it was a waste for a woman to get a medical degree (a commonly held idea) because she would quit and have children. Dr. Young replied that she planned to practice for a half a century, which she did, plus two years for good measure. She retired from practice in 1984.

Dr. N. Louise Young lived in Ashburton, was a lifetime member of the NAACP, and a long-time member of St. James Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square in West Baltimore. She died at age 90 on September 22, 1997 of complications from Alzheimer’s.

Source: The Baltimore Sun