Woodward's Gardens Labor Day Celebration: Difference between revisions

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[[File:C1890 Windmills, Woodward's Pavilion, St. Ignatius church in distance wnp37.02666.jpg|800px]]
[[File:C1890 Windmills, Woodward's Pavilion, St. Ignatius church in distance wnp37.02666.jpg|800px]]


'"Woodward's Gardens, S.F. 1890"'
'''Woodward's Gardens, S.F. 1890'''


''Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp37.02666''
''Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp37.02666''

Latest revision as of 22:20, 15 July 2020

Historical Essay

by Libby Ingalls

1869 Main entrance to Woodward's Gardens, Muybridge wnp26.296.jpg

Entrance to Woodward's Gardens, original by Eadweard Muybridge.

Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp26.296

Woodward’s Gardens is best known as the fantasmagorical amusement park that dazzled the populace of San Francisco in the late 19th century. But it is also a landmark in San Francisco labor history as the site of the city’s first Labor Day celebration on May 11, 1886. Organized by the city’s Federated Trades Council, the celebration began with a 10-mile long procession of 10,000 men, representing forty unions. They marched to the Gardens for the grand culminating festivities. The May date was selected, rather than September, in order to celebrate the recent victory of the typographical union and to mark the one-year anniversary of the founding of the Iron Trades Council.

Woodward's Gardens, 14th and Mission. View Northwest toward Protestant Orphan Asylum in background wnp26.577.jpg

Woodward's Gardens 14th St. & Mission 1870, view northwest, Protestant Orphan Asylum in distance.

Photo: OpenSFHistory.org, wnp26.577

Labor Day celebrations were already taking place on the East Coast. The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, sponsored by the Central Labor Union. In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate workingmen on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations around the country.

C1890 Windmills, Woodward's Pavilion, St. Ignatius church in distance wnp37.02666.jpg

Woodward's Gardens, S.F. 1890

Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp37.02666

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