Flatiron NoMad Partnership Holds Free Labor Day Weekend Walking Tour

This Labor Day weekend, the Flatiron NoMad Partnership will host a special historic walking tour on Sunday, September 3. The free tour, “Labor History and Madison Square,” will be led by tour guide Mike Kaback and give visitors insight into the history of labor conditions and labor rights in the Flatiron NoMad District in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

When the first Labor Day Parade was held on September 5, 1882, crowds gathered at Union Square and made their way up through Madison Square (the starting point of the walking tour). Here they spilled into the vast convergence of Broadway and Fifth Avenue before continuing up to 42nd Street, their final destination.

The tour will include a New York City landmark, Stanford White’s old Madison Square Garden, which used to be located at 26th Street and Madison Avenue in Flatiron, and hosted many labor-related events. Samuel Gompers drew thousands of workers and union members to his rallies here throughout his long career as the President of the American Federation of Labor.

In June 1913, the Paterson Strike Pageant took place at the former site of Madison Square Garden. Organized by the International Workers of the World with the support of Greenwich Village artists, more than 1,000 silk company strikers staged a dramatic, vivid and first-hand account of their fight for an 8-hour workday and improved working conditions.

The tour also will touch on the history of the old Fifth Avenue Hotel on Madison Square and the 1872 fire that claimed the lives of 22 hotel employees who were trapped in attic rooms. The incident led to reforms in working and safety conditions.

The Flatiron NoMad Partnership offers free walking tours throughout the year for visitors and locals alike. During the Flatiron NoMad Partnership’s weekly tours, participants routinely explore some of the city’s most notable landmarks, including the Flatiron Building, New York Life Insurance Building, MetLife Clock Tower, and Appellate Courthouse.

Mike Kaback, a native New Yorker who has an unquenchable enthusiasm for everything about the city and has been leading tours since the 1990s, will guide this 90-minute tour, which meets on Sunday, September 3 at 11:00 a.m. - rain or shine - at the tip of the Flatiron Building, on 23rd Street just east of 5th Avenue. No advance registration is required. For more information about Flatiron's historic walking tours, visit: https://flatironnomad.nyc/things-to-do/free-tours/