The Historic Pullman Foundation is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year with many planned celebrations. This is an important milestone for the Historic Pullman Foundation, the community of Pullman, the city of Chicago, and the state of Illinois. Many dedicated Pullmanites gave of themselves with countless hours to help make this celebration possible. They worked to have Pullman designated an Illinois Historic District in 1969; a National Landmark District in 1971, and a Chicago Landmark in 1972. Not many communities in the United States can boast of three landmark designations.
Some people may ask, "What is this all about?" It is the story of Pullman: a full scale model of the art of community building and a unique record of the economic, political, social and technological forces which forged an epoch in the history of our country.
George Mortimer Pullman, a railroad industrialist, conceived the idea to build a factory town in this area in 1878. At that time Mr. Pullman was building railroad cars in Detroit, Michigan. His railroad car, the Pioneer, was too long, too wide, too high and too luxurious. Most railroads were not interested in his railroad car and Mr. Pullman was struggling. However, a tragic event in 1865 caused Mr. Pullman’s luck to change. On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at the Ford Theater in Washington, D.C. by John Wilkes Booth. This tragedy changed Mr. Pullman’s future. President Lincoln’s body was brought to Springfield, Illinois, via Chicago for burial. The train from Washington, D.C. stopped at cities along the route to permit the people to pay their last homage to the late President. When the train arrived in Chicago, Colonel James Bowen was put in charge of the Lincoln funeral train from Chicago. The Colonel asked Mr. Pullman if they could use the Pioneer for President Lincoln’s funeral train. Mr. Pullman said yes. So on May 2, 1865, the funeral train containing President Abraham Lincoln’s body and the Pioneer car for the Lincoln family left Chicago for Springfield. It took two days for the funeral train to travel the 300 miles to Springfield because the train moved slowly, stopping at towns enroute to permit the people to pay their last respects to President Lincoln. After the funeral, people wrote letters to all of their relatives and friends all over the world telling them they saw President Lincoln’s funeral and also praising George M. Pullman’s car, the Pioneer. Also covering the funeral were newspaper reporters from all over the United States and some foreign countries. They too mentioned the Pioneer in their stories of Lincoln’s funeral. The publicity was good for Mr. Pullman’s Palace Car Company. Orders began to come in from all over the country. He decided to build a larger factory so he had his friends in the Chicagoland area scout for a location. Through his friends he purchased 4,000 acres of land on the west side of Lake Calumet, just east of the small village of Roseland. The town that Mr. Pullman built is recorded as the first planned experimental industrial town in America. Many have said that if it were not for President Lincoln’s assassination and funeral, there probably wouldn’t be a town of Pullman. On April 24, 1880, Mr. Pullman dug the first spade of dirt to start the building of Pullman.
The progress of Mr. Pullman’s town and factory from April 1880 through 1897 is told in many books in libraries and for sale in the Hotel Florence lobby. There is so much history about Pullman in its early days that space does not permit us to tell the exciting and full story.
In 1898, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the Pullman Palace Car Company to sell all land not used for industry. Pullman was a broken man because of the Pullman Strike that took place in 1894, spread all over the country and became known world wide. The strike, losing the town of Pullman, and other problems that developed broke down Mr. Pullman. On October 19, 1897, Mr. Pullman died. He was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. Out of fear of possible desecration, his body was buried in a lead-lined box surrounded by concrete and topped with iron rods and even more concrete.
The town of Pullman, annexed to Chicago in 1889, survived the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, prohibition, the depression of the 1930s, Korean and Vietnam conflicts, and other problems. Many Pullman families bought the home they are living in from the Pullman Company. Most homeowners took good care of their property but some, same as today, did not. In 1960 a big change took place in the Pullman community. On February 10, 1960, both Roseland newspapers, The Calumet Index and The South End Reporter, published a front page news item announcing that the South End Chamber of Commerce recommended that Pullman be torn down and made into an industrial area to support the newly built Calumet Harbor located on Lake Calumet at 129th Street. On March 10, 1960, more than 600 Pullman residents, homeowners, and renters gathered in the Pullman Greenstone Church for a special meeting to decide the fate of our community and our homes. The local industrial leaders and the South End Chamber of Commerce knew that more than 54 million dollars a day was in the greater Calumet industrial area from goods manufactured or arriving from foreign countries. The South End Chamber of Commerce survey indicated that the Calumet Harbor was going to be a big thing for our community and would need a lot of space for warehouses, forwarding agencies, motels, restaurants, and small factories similar to the ones surrounding O’Hare Airport. The South End Chamber of Commerce then assigned Burda and Van Scheltema, consulting engineers, to make a survey of the Roseland and Pullman area. Burda and Van Scheltema presented a twenty-page report to the South End Chamber of Commerce on February 9, 1960, with copies to the two local newspapers. When the newspapers published the article about the survey, a small group of Pullman residents led by the late Arnold Bader decided to fight the proposal from the South End Chamber of Commerce. Bader formed a committee with the following Pullman residents as members: Arnold Bader, Bill Berrick, Mario Avignone, George Gregga, John Ostarello, Ray Stanley, Pete Vallort, Bill Michelin, Sarah Frischkorn, and Mable Ravas.
Arnold Bader, a lifetime resident of Pullman, had flyers printed and the committee distributed them to every home in Pullman announcing the mass meeting to be held in the Pullman Greenstone Church on March 10, 1960. Pullman residents were fearful for the future of their community and their homes. They knew that the South End Chamber of Commerce was a billion dollar organization composed of the industries, merchants, and professional people in and surrounding Roseland and Pullman. Some of the residents were afraid that the fight would be in vain as they were giants and we were just ordinary working or retired people in Pullman.
Excitement ran high throughout the community as everyone waited for the evening of March 10 to arrive. The question on all of our minds was "What will happen to us and our homes? How much will they pay us for our homes? Where will we move if Pullman is torn down?" Father Adolph Nalin, pastor of St. Anthony Church said at a Sunday Mass, "This is a terrible thing to recommend to the community of Pullman by the Chamber of Commerce." Father James E. Sheridan, pastor of Holy Rosary Church gave the pledge that he and his parish would back Pullman residents in their fight to survive as a community. Rev. Frank Coates, pastor of the Pullman United Methodist Church told his parish, "With God on our side, how can we lose?"
- To be continued -