Chicago, Arlington House, Sunday, October 23, 2005, 6:25 am
Hello from Chicago - A Visit to the Pullman
Historic District
After being appropriately prepped as a result of our
visit to the Chicago Cultural Center we decided to head off
yesterday to visit the Pullman Historic District, a planned industrial
and residential community dating back to the 1880s, on Chicago's
South Side.
In order to get there we took the red line all the way to the end
and then connected onto the 111 bus. What was very interesting to
note was that the population on Chicago's south side is predominantly
black, as much of the black population from the US South had migrated
northwards after the 2nd World War. Actually Chicago was known as
one of the most racially segregated cities, and today, with the
demolition of many of the bleak urban housing projects, the city
is attempting to create more integration between its black and white
population.
The Pullman Historic District is the manifestation of a very interesting
social experiment: It was built between 1880 and 1884 as a planned
model industrial town by George M. Pullman for the Pullman Palace
Car Company. George Pullman (1831 to 1897) arrived on the scene
with a design for the Pullman sleeping carriage which he originally
developed to carry the dead body of Abraham Lincoln to his funeral.
As a result the Pullman Sleeping Car Company was established and
a whole town was built around the business and named after its originator.
Mural in the Pullman Historic District
We went to the Visitor Center and saw an 18-minute movie that described
George Pullman and his ambitious plans for his development of a
model community, a total environment, that he intended to be superior
to that available to the working class elsewhere. By so doing, he
hoped to avoid strikes, attract the most skilled workers and attain
greater productivity as a result of the better health and spirit
of his employees.
To achieve his vision, George Pullman hired Solon S. Beaman, landscape
architect Nathan F. Barrett and civil engineer, Benzette Williams.
The town was constructed by Pullman employees, using local red clay
from Lake Calumet and component parts that were produced in the
Pullman factory. This project is one of the first examples of industrial
technology and mass production in large-scale housing. The town
was a complete planned community and included schools, a library
and hotel all run by the company.
Pullman's large Arcade building (now demolished and the present
location of the Visitor Center) featured a restaurant, a bank, a
library, a post office, a theater, and numerous shops. It was a
forerunner of the modern shopping center. The town was completely
self-contained. Pullman residents enjoyed the manmade Lake Vista
and plenty of parks and promenades, features typically missing from
Chicago's working-class neighbourhoods.
Tidy row houses
The town of Pullman was a model of financial efficiency. Pullman
demanded that the company return an 8-percent profit and the town
return a 6-percent profit. A huge engine pumped sewage from the
town to a nearby Pullman-owned farm, where it was used as fertilizer
for produce that would be sold back in the town.
George Pullman maintained ultimate control over the town, even restricting
workers' access to alcohol, as the Hotel Florence only sold alcohol
to out-of-town visitors. Resentment towards this paternalistic despot
started to build. Misfortune struck with the decline of the Pullman
car's success which forced George to slash wages. Workers responded
with a strike, fuelled by Pullman's failure to reduce grocery costs
and rent, but George simply fired them. The situation deteriorated
as railway workers refused to handle Pullman cars and President
Cleveland had to intervene, sending federal troops to the scene.
The workers were forced to sign documentation declaring that they
wouldn't join a union.
Although the strike collapsed, George Pullman's model for handling
the "labour problem" had failed. Pullman had prided himself
on his paternalistic approach with his workers, and he could not
see how his heavy-handed methods had resulted in this worker rebellion.
Criticized and scorned, Pullman died a bitter man in 1897.
Hotel Florence
In 1898, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the Pullman Company
to sell the non-industrial land in the neighborhood to its inhabitants,
determining that the Pullman Palace Car Company did not have the
proper authority to provide nonmanufacturing services such as renting
property. Finally, residents could buy their homes.
Robert T. Lincoln, the son of President Lincoln, became head of
the company after Pullman's death and simplified its name to the
Pullman Company. The Pullman Company continued to produce its famous
cars at 111th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. But with the explosion
of automobile ownership, rail passenger traffic went into rapid
decline. In 1957, Pullman Incorporated closed its plant in the neighborhood.
Only three years later, the city of Chicago included Pullman on
a list of "blighted and deteriorating areas" that required
clearance and redevelopment. Residents responded by forming the
Pullman Civic Organization and began working to gain landmark status.
The Historic Pullman Foundation, which formed in 1973, helps ensure
the area's preservation and restoration by sponsoring various events
such as neighborhood walking tours, annual house tours, Sunday brunch
at the Florence Hotel, and presentations at the Pullman Visitor
Center.
In many ways the housing development was ahead of its time. Each
building, most of them townhouses, had gas and water, complete sanitary
facilities and abundant quantities of sunlight and fresh air, which
was a rarity at that time, when the working class was mostly housed
in squalid tenements. Originally the town of Pullman housed about
12,000 people while today it still has a population of about 2,000,
with an ethnically and economically mixed background.
Other famous buildings on the Pullman grounds include the Hotel
Florence, named after Pullman's favourite daughter. It opened in
1881 as a hospitality showcase for visitors to George Pullman's
perfect town and originally had 50 rooms, a dining room, a billiard
room, a parlor and the only bar in Pullman. The Historic Pullman
Foundation managed to save the hotel from demolition and today the
hotel is closed to the public while it is undergoing a capital improvement
program to restore it for use with the State Historic Site.
Recently reinstalled Pullman Clock Tower
The Pullman Clock Tower and Administration Building was built in
1880 for the executive offices of the Pullman Palace Car Company,
at the time one of the most beautiful industrial complexes in the
United States. In 1998 the Clock Tower and Administration Building
were seriously damaged by a fire set by an arsonist. Since then
the building has been stabilized and the restored Clock Tower was
put back on just a few days before our visit. Future use of the
site is currently being debated by a task force institute by Chicago
Mayor Daley and Illinois Governor Ryan.
Another interesting building located on the Pullman Historic District
is the Queen Anne-style Market Hall which was built in 1881. The
Market provided a venue for fresh fruits, meats and other goods.
The original market was destroyed by fire in 1892 and a new market
was built on the existing foundation. The market is surrounded by
four colonnaded circular apartment buildings that were built with
the new Market Hall in 1893. Unfortunately the Market Hall Building
was destroyed by fire in 1973 and today it awaits restoration.
Greenstone Church
The Greenstone Church, located centrally in the Pullman Historic
District, has an exterior facade of serpentine stone quarried in
Pennsylvania. The sanctuary is unchanged with the exception of the
chancel arrangements. All of the cherry wood is original. Today
the church is still occupied by a Methodist congregation.
The visit to the Pullman Historic District was very interesting.
It taught us about a different time of ultimate laissez-faire capitalism,
industrial growth and immigration, labour unrest, urban planning,
architecture and the ultimate failure of a rather unique social
experiment.
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Hello from Chicago - A visit to the
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