09/07/2026
Labor Day, 1894.
Before it was a long weekend, Labor Day was a demand. Through the 1880s, American workers were organizing for something as basic as an eight-hour day — and on September 5, 1882, ten thousand of them marched through New York City on their own unpaid time to say so. It took over a decade, a national rail strike, and real unrest before Congress made it official: in 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed Labor Day into federal law, a holiday born out of struggle and, eventually, recognition.
That history isn't abstract here in the Coachella Valley. The midcentury homes we walk through and live in …the Alexanders, the Wexler carports, the low-slung roof lines that made Palm Springs famous, were built by hand, by tradesmen and laborers whose names mostly went unrecorded. So did the groves and fields that shaped this valley long before golf courses did. Every neighborhood we love here carries someone's labor in it.
So today, we're thinking about the people who build things — homes, communities, this valley — often without much fanfare.
Enjoy this holiday as we celebrate all who labor in our communities. May we continue to inspire each other to do our own best work in front of us.
Andy, Kevin and Read
www.askpalmsprings.com
