Pullman State Historic Site
The name Pullman is indelibly associated with luxury rail travel. George Mortimer Pullman was born on March 3, 1831 in Brockton, New York, the third child of farmer turned carpenter James Lewis Pullman(known as Lewis) and his wife Emily. Lewis invented a way on moving buildings out of the way of construction work, and following his death in 1853 George took over the business. Chicago then had a problem with flooding and in 1857 George moved there to help with a programme of raising buildings to reduce flooding. After an extremely uncomfortable overnight train journey from Buffalo to Westfield in New York, Pullman realised that there was potential for rail cars that contained sleeper berths for their passengers. He established a business to build and operate such cars. It started slowly but gained publicity by making a car available to take Mrs Lincoln back to Springfield after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. In 1880 Pullman decided to build a new factory south of Chicago near Lake Calumet complete with a town to house the employees. Pullman believed that good housing and the country air would mean a contented workforce and it worked well until a downturn in 1894 triggered cuts in jobs, wages and hours. Rents and prices in the town remained the same, causing a strike that had to be broken using troops. Pullman died in 1897 and the following year the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the Pullman Company to divest ownership in the town. It became part of Chicago and buildings from the original town are now preserved as Pullman State Historic Site.
Hotel Florence
The Pullman Factory closed in 1981, but parts of the factory and parts of Pullman Town still exist. One of the most impressive buildings still standing in the town is the Hotel Florence. Built in 1881 in the Queen Anne style, it was named after Pullman’s eldest daughter. It was built to provide lodging for visiting businessmen and dignitaries and it originally had around 60 rooms. A large annex was added in 1914. George Pullman wanted his employees to remain sober, so he banned the sale of alcohol within the town limits. Hotel Florence was the only exception to this rule, so the factory employees were not allowed in the hotel. Pullman State Historic Site normally runs tours of the hotel, but at the time of writing it was closed for renovations.
Ruins of Market Hall
Pullman Town had an Arcade and a Market Hall. Completed in 1882, the Arcade contained shops, a library, a theatre, offices and meeting rooms for organisations such as the Freemasons. The Arcade went into decline after the Pullman Company lost ownership of the town, and in 1926 it was demolished. The first Market Hall built around 1881 housed 16 stalls selling fresh meat and vegetables, a lunch counter and upstairs a 600 seat meeting hall. The original Market Hall was destroyed by fire in 1892. It was replaced by a three storey Market hall the following year and at the same time apartment buildings with curved colonnades were built on the outer edges of the square. After a fire in 1931 the upper part of the Market Hall building was removed and it was further damaged by fire in 1974. In this picture the boarded up remains of the Market Hall can be seen on the left while on the right is one of the apartment buildings.
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Greenstone United Methodist Church
To make Pullman Town complete it needed to have churches. The Greenstone Church was intended to be shared by different religions. It was consecrated in 1881 by George Pullman’s brother, The Rev. Dr. James Pullman, but then stood empty because no agreement could be reached on sharing it. Eventually the Presbyterians used it then in 1906 it was sold to the Methodists. The church still has its original 1882 organ which has been little changed apart from conversion from hand bellows to electric power.
Row Houses
The houses built for Pullman employees were far superior to the homes of most workers at the time. Pullman homes were designed to have good ventilation, plenty of light, running water and indoor toilet facilities. Every home had direct access to a private yard and was located on a tree-lined street. The rents reflected the high quality of the houses, with a three room apartment starting at $8.00 per month. Pullman employees managed to pay such rents in the good times, but when wages and hours were cut in 1894 the high rents became a major source of discontent leading to the strike.
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© Mike Elsden 1981 - 2025
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