(1) Peter J. McGuire joined the Cabinet Mak-
ers Union of New York in 1872 and, recognizing the 
need for one international union of wood workers, 
called for and led a convention of carpenters and 
joiners in Chicago in 1881 that formed the Brother-
hood of Carpenters and Joiners which became the 
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of 
America in 1888. 
(2) The Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners 
elected McGuire its first general secretary and re-
tained him in that position for twenty years. 
(3) McGuire was a leader in convincing skep-
tical, locally minded union activists around the 
United States that a national labor federation was 
not only necessary, but also possible. 
(4) McGuire co-founded with Samuel Gompers 
the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor 
Unions and, in 1886, reorganized it into the Amer-
ican Federation of Labor. 
(5) McGuire served variously as the American 
Federation of Labor secretary and vice president be-
tween 1886 and 1900. 
(6) McGuire successfully led the fight for the 
eight-hour day in 1890. 
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(7) In 1882, McGuire proposed that ‘‘one day 
in the year be designated as Labor Day’’, a proposal 
that was adopted first by a number of States and 
then as the first Monday in September by an Act of 
Congress in 1894. 
(8) Upon McGuire’s death in 1906, the United 
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners commis-
sioned from M.C. Lyons and Sons, Camden, and had 
installed a massive granite multistage headstone on 
McGuire’s gravesite in the Arlington Cemetery at 
1629 Cove Road, Pennsauken, New Jersey, inscribed 
with ‘‘P.J. MCGUIRE, BORN JULY 6, 1852 
DIED FEB. 18, 1906’’ and ‘‘FOUNDER OF U.B. 
OF C. & J. OF A.’’. 
(9) Beginning in 1906, each year labor leaders, 
political leaders, families, and working people gather 
at McGuire’s gravesite on Labor Day to lay wreaths 
and deliver speeches in tribute to McGuire and his 
great work. 
(10) As the anniversary of McGuire’s centennial 
birthday approached, the organizations he had 
helped to found decided to install a new memorial a 
short distance from McGuire’s gravesite, consisting 
of a central statue of McGuire embraced by a semi- 
circular colonnade of marble columns. 
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(11) The Peter J. McGuire Memorial, com-
pleted in 1952, includes— 
(A) an outdoor sculpture of McGuire, 
made of Cherokee Georgia marble, that shows 
him standing with his left arm against his chest 
and right arm, elbow bent, at his waist, and 
dressed in a frock or mourning coat; 
(B) an inscription carved on front of the 
base of such sculpture that reads ‘‘PETER J. 
MCGUIRE/JULY 6, 1852/FEBRUARY 18, 
1906’’; 
(C) a free-standing curvilinear colonnade 
of six Greek Doric columns, also made of Cher-
okee Georgia marble; 
(D) an inscription on entablature frieze of 
the colonnade that reads ‘‘IN MEMORY OF 
PETER J. MCGUIRE FOUNDER OF UBC 
AND FATHER OF LABOR DAY’’; and 
(E) an inscription on the base of the col-
onnade that reads ‘‘ERECTED BY UNITED 
BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND 
JOINERS OF AMERICA 1952’’. 
(12) Several thousand people, many of them or-
dinary union members, attended the Peter J. 
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McGuire Memorial dedication ceremony on Aug. 9, 
1952, which featured as speakers— 
(A) the president of the New Jersey Fed-
eration of Labor; 
(B) the mayors of Camden and Penn-
sauken; 
(C) General President Hutcheson of the 
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners; 
(D) the president of the American Federa-
tion of Labor, William Green; 
(E) the secretary and treasurer of the 
American Federation of Labor, George Meany, 
who later attained national significance himself; 
and 
(F) the United States Secretary of Labor, 
Maurice Tobin. 
(13) In 1956, when a new postage stamp dedi-
cated to American labor was issued on Labor Day, 
President Dwight Eisenhower held a special cere-
mony at the White House in which he met with the 
family and descendants of McGuire. 
(14) In 2004, McGuire was admitted to the 
Labor Hall of Fame of the United States Depart-
ment of Labor, which has since been renamed the 
Hall of Honor. 
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(15) The New Jersey Historic Preservation Of-
fice has documented McGuire as a figure of tran-
scendent national significance and importance in the 
labor history of the United States. 
(16) The landscape characteristics, physical fea-
tures, overall layout, and visual appearance of the 
Peter J. McGuire Memorial and Peter J. McGuire 
Gravesite reflect a high degree of overall integrity in 
terms of location, design, setting, materials, and 
workmanship. 
(17) The sculptural representations of labor 
and union themes associated with McGuire’s career 
as an effective labor leader and organizer that em-
bellish the Peter J. McGuire Memorial and Peter J. 
McGuire Gravesite are intact and well-preserved. 
(18) National political and labor leaders have 
made annual pilgrimages to McGuire’s gravesite 
since 1906 and to the Peter J. McGuire Memorial 
and Peter J. McGuire Gravesite every September on 
Labor Day or the Friday before Labor Day since 
1952. 
(19) Unlike other known properties related to 
McGuire, the Peter J. McGuire Memorial and Peter 
J. McGuire Gravesite are the only properties that re-
tain both the necessary direct association with 
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McGuire as a person of national stature and the 
high level of integrity required for listing on the New 
Jersey Register of Historic Places and National 
Register of Historic Places. 
(20) The Peter J. McGuire Memorial and Peter 
J. McGuire Gravesite satisfy the criteria for graves 
of historical figures and properties that have 
achieved significance within the past 50 years under 
the following criteria consideration categories of the 
National Register of Historic Places— 
(A) category (c), ‘‘a grave of a historical 
figure of outstanding importance as there is no 
appropriate site or building associated with 
McGuire’s productive life’’; and 
(B) category (f), ‘‘a property primarily 
commemorative in intent if design, age, tradi-
tion, or symbolic value has invested it with its 
own exceptional significance’’. 
(21) In August 2017, the New Jersey State 
Historic Preservation Office certified that the Peter 
J. McGuire Memorial and Peter J. McGuire 
Gravesite are eligible for listing on the New Jersey 
Register of Historic Places and National Register of 
Historic Places. 
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