Jump to content


Photo

Chicago "Historic Pullman District" National Monument


  • Please log in to reply
12 replies to this topic

#11 CNJRoss

CNJRoss

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPip
  • 43390 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fairfax, VA

Posted 08 November 2016 - 02:43 PM

Chicago Tribune, 11/7/16:
 

Planning an ambitious future for Pullman

 

Possibly in 2018, the Chicago Humanities Festival session on the past, present and future of the freshly minted Pullman National Monument could actually happen in a Pullman Historic District structure.

 

That's when partial restoration of the district's central clock tower building should be ready so that it can begin hosting visitors, said Lynn McClure, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association.

 

Full restoration of the building, the only part of the historic Pullman site actually owned by the National Park Service, is expected the following year. It will become the official visitor center.

 

Continue here.



#12 CNJRoss

CNJRoss

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPip
  • 43390 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fairfax, VA

Posted 06 December 2016 - 09:17 AM

Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, WI 12/2/16:

 

Chicago’s Pullman National Monument worth a visit

 

Mike Shymanski was born in an impoverished coal company town in northeast Pennsylvania, moved to Chicago to study architecture as a young man and ended up living in Pullman — another company town, albeit a much nicer one, on the south side of Chicago.

 

“The two communities couldn’t have been more different,” said Shymanski, who spent the first years of his life in Larksville, Pa., where the Delaware and Hudson Co. mined anthracite coal from 1871 to the 1950s. The company owned many of the buildings in the town, paid miners in “scrip” (its own currency) and was “notorious” for its poor treatment of miners and their families, Shymanski said.

 

Pullman opened in 1881 as a “model industrial town” and had grown to 9,000 residents by 1885. It was built by George Pullman and his Pullman Palace Car Co. as a reaction to the slums where many immigrant workers lived. He also figured, Shymanski said, that by providing employees with a nice community and good places to live, shop, worship and play, he could keep skilled talent, gain greater productivity and avoid strikes. 

 

The neighborhood included the Victorian-style Florence Hotel and the Clock Tower Administration Building, both of which stand today. Most of the buildings were built using brick created out of clay from nearby Lake Calumet. An exception is the Romanesque Greenstone Church, which was made of Pennsylvania greenstone.

 

Continue here.



#13 CNJRoss

CNJRoss

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPip
  • 43390 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fairfax, VA

Posted 24 April 2017 - 08:04 PM

Chicago Tribune, 4/20:
 

Toxic soil at Pullman monument limits use of Chicago's national landmark

 

 

The National Park Service has grand plans in store for Pullman National Monument, but it could take years before visitors have full access to the former factory grounds as state and federal agencies first need to undertake a massive cleanup of contaminants left at the site from decades of rail car production.

 

The National Park Service approved a design concept last month that seeks to restore the Far South Side factory site to the days of its founding in 1880 as a model factory town for workers of the Pullman Palace Car Co.

 

Under the plan, the landmark clock tower building would be transformed into the park's visitors center, featuring a bookstore, theater and small suite of offices. Picturesque landscaping is expected to spruce up the historic building's western lawn. And visitors would be able to walk through a reconstructed version of the iconic gateway that workers passed through each day to start their shifts building luxury rail cars.

Kathy Schneider, the monument's superintendent, said the goal is to open the visitors center to the public by 2019.

 

Continue here w/video interview w/ Sight Superintendent. 






1 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users