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About Historic Pullman District
Walk the red-brick streets of America's first planned industrial company town, built from 1880 for George Pullman's sleeping-car works in the Pullman community of Chicago. Start at the national park visitor center inside the restored clock-tower Administration Building, opened on Labor Day 2021, then take in the 1881 Hotel Florence, the workers' rowhouses, and the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum's exploration of African American labor history.
History
Pullman was the first model planned industrial community in the United States, begun in early 1880 for George Pullman on land between the Illinois Central line and Lake Calumet as the place where Pullman railroad sleeping cars were produced. Solon Spencer Beman designed the company town's buildings, including 1,300 housing units — mainly red brick rowhouses with indoor plumbing — and the community's population reached 8,000 by 1883. The town became the scene of the violent 1894 Pullman strike, and the company, largely closed after a major downsizing in the 1940s, officially ceased operations in 1969. A 1960 proposal to demolish the neighborhood for an industrial park galvanized residents into forming the Pullman Civic Organization; the district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 8, 1969, declared a National Historic Landmark on December 30, 1970, and named a Chicago Landmark district on October 16, 1972. The State of Illinois purchased the Hotel Florence and the Administration and Factory Complex in 1991, President Barack Obama designated Pullman a national monument — the first National Park System unit in Chicago — on February 19, 2015, and the site was redesignated a National Historical Park in 2022. Its restored clock tower building opened as the park visitor center on Labor Day, September 6, 2021.
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