The founder of the American Federation of Labor and its president from 1886 to 1924, Samuel Gompers started as a cigar maker who became a labor organizer. The procedures for collective bargaining that he developed are still in use today.
His autobiography, which was published posthumously in two volumes, is Seventy Years of Life and Labor (1925).
He is remembered locally with the Gompers Memorial, a major statuary group by the sculptor Robert Aitken located on Massachusetts Ave. NW near 11th Street. His papers are preserved in the University of Maryland’s special collections.
Gompers’s final residence was numbered 3500 35th Street NW when he resided there. While living here, his life was marked by tragedy: his daughter died in the 1918 flu epidemic, his wife died in 1919, and he lost his sight. He died a few years later.
The Homes
1527 New Hampshire Ave. NW, Washington, DC
2122 First St. NW, Washington, DC
This row house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974.
3501 Ordway Street NW, Washington, DC
Samuel Gompers
1527 New Hampshire Ave. NW
Located in Dupont Circle neighborhood, Northwest - East of Rock Creek
Samuel Gompers
2122 First St. NW, Washington DC
Located in Bloomingdale neighborhood, Northwest - East of Rock Creek