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Pullman is a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, twelve miles from the Loop by Lake Calumet. It is also one of the 77 official Chicago Community Areas.
Pullman was built in the 1880s by George Pullman for his eponymous railroad car company, the Pullman Palace Car Company. Pullman's architect Solon S. Beman was said to be so proud of his creation that he asked George Pullman if the neighborhood could be named for himself. Pullman responded to the effect, "sure, we'll take the first half of my name, and the second half of yours."
In a day when most workers lived in shabby tenements near their factories, Pullman seemed a dream, winning awards as "the world's most perfect town." Everything, from stores to townhouses, was owned by the Company. The design was pleasing, and all of the workers' needs were met within the neighborhood. The houses were comfortable by standards of the day, and contained such amenities as indoor plumbing, gas, and sewers.
Pullman's misfortune came during the Depression during 1893-1894. When demand for Pullman cars slackened, the Pullman company laid off hundreds of workers, and cut hours for others. Despite these cutbacks, the Company did not reduce rents for those that lived in the town of Pullman. The Pullman Strike began in 1894, and lasted for 2 months.
George Pullman himself died in 1897. The Illinois Supreme Court required the company to sell off the town which was annexed into the city of Chicago. Within ten years, all non-manufacturing property - the houses, the public buildings - was sold off to the individual occupants.
Along with the whole South Side, the town of Pullman had been annexed to the City of Chicago in 1889. After the strike Pullman gradually became a regular Chicago neighborhood, only with distinguishing Victorian architecture. The fortunes of the neighborhood rose and fell with the Pullman Company.
The Pullman factory made its last car in early 1982 for Amtrak. The neighborhood's decline that began in the 1950s continued, but that economic decline at least spared the district's architecture. In 1960 the original Town of Pullman, approximately between 111th and 115th Streets, was threatened with total demolition for an industrial park. The residents there formed the Pullman Civic Organization and saved their community. By 1972 the Pullman Historic District had obtained National, State, and City landmark status to protect the original 900 rowhouses and public buildings built by George Pullman.
Today Pullman is slowly gentrifying, with many residents involved in the restoration of the district through their own homes and throughout the district as a whole. Walking tours of Pullman are available.
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