Historic Pullman House Tour is celebrating a milestone 50 years October 7th and 8th, 2023 from 11:00am – 5:00pm. This is one of Chicago’s oldest house tours! Visitors will tour an exclusive group of Pullman’s iconic privately owned historic row homes.
Step back in time visiting one of the nation’s earliest planned industrial worker communities right here in Chicago. The Pullman neighborhood features architecture unlike anywhere else in the midwest. Employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company lived a modern lifestyle: the 1880s town was built with the most advanced comforts of the era that included indoor plumbing, electricity, and gas. Most of the homes have been continuously occupied since they were built. Some remain close to their original design, while others have been modernized.
Take a self-guided tour through a variety of Pullman homes: executive mansions to workers cottages. In addition to the glimpses into residential life in Pullman, Pullman National Historical Park’s Visitors Center will be open (free admission), which houses the former Administration Clock Tower building. Hotel Florence will also be open to visitors, as well as Greenstone Church.
Visit Historic Pullman Foundation’s 50th anniversary exhibit From Wrecking Ball to National Park inside Pullman Exhibit Hall, following Pullman’s journey through the generations of people who have dedicated their time to the common goal of preserving the community they love.
Saturday enjoy the live music of Qombo from 11:00am – 1:30pm, and Sunday, the Mudcats Dixieland Band from 12:30pm – 3:30pm. Classic car show in Arcade Park Sunday from 10:00am – 3:00pm.
Historic Pullman House Tour is sponsored by Historic Pullman Foundation and Pullman Civic Organization.
Historic Pullman Foundation is the official philanthropic partner of Pullman National Historical Park. Since 1973, we have created opportunities for all people to experience and understand the continuing American story that is Pullman. Visit us at www.pullmanil.org.
Historic Pullman Foundation is seeking a Tours and Office Coordinator to join our team. The ideal candidate has strong organizational skills; genuinely loves working with people; and thrives in an environment where multi-tasking and thinking proactively come second nature.
The Coordinator will serve in three main capacities: (1) as the primary tour coordinator for HPF and secondarily for the National Park Service and our other partners; (2) Coordinating membership tracking, renewals and benefits; (3) Running the office at Exhibit hall and administrative duties associated with that. The role also serves as an ambassador of the organization to visitors and guests. Occasional weekend and evening hours are a mandatory aspect of the role.
To apply, send a resume, cover letter and contact information for two references to foundation@pullmanil.org. We encourage you to share this with someone you may think is the right fit for this position!
Learn what it takes to preserve a neighborhood’s history at Historic Pullman Foundation’s new exhibition From Wrecking Ball to National Park.
As HPF celebrates its 50th anniversary, the exhibit explores the successes and set-backs on the road to preservation through HPF’s own collection and archives. From Wrecking Ball to National Park follows Pullman’s journey through the generations of people who have dedicated their time and talents to the common goal of preserving the community they love.
From Wrecking Ball to National Park features ephemera, architectural remnants, photos, and rarely exhibited objects from more than 50 years of Pullman’s preservation movement. The exhibit draws on interviews with community members across Pullman and features their own stories and memories in an audio tour that extends out into the neighborhood.
HOURS OF OPERATION:
Thursday through Sunday, 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. CT
Entrance for Pullman Exhibit Hall is free but donations are encouraged. All proceeds support Historic Pullman Foundation and its role as the official philanthropic partner of Pullman National Historical Park, National Park Service.
Have a Pullman story to tell, or have an artifact to share? Get involved as we celebrate 50 years throughout 2023. Contact Rebecca Conant for participation or volunteer opportunities at rconant@pullmanil.org.
Historic Pullman Foundation’s (HPF) Board of Directors is pleased to announce the selection of Maria Pojeta Hibbs as President of HPF.
Hibbs brings to the Historic Pullman Foundation’s Board over three decades of experience leading civic organizations in Chicagoland’s non-profit sphere. As part of a planned transition, she replaces Joseph C. Szabo, who served as President over the past three years during the organization’s transformation to become the official non-profit partner for Pullman National Historical Park. Szabo will remain on the Board as President Emeritus.
Hibbs is Co-Founder and Founding Executive Director of the Chicago Learning Exchange, a non-profit promoting educational innovation and equity of opportunity for young people in Chicago; and was Executive Director of three civic collaboratives at The Chicago Community Trust. She has also served on a number of non-profit boards throughout her non-profit and corporate career. A George M. Pullman scholarship recipient as a first-generation college student, she brings a wealth of leadership experience, philanthropic connections, communications skills, and community building to the Board.
“I am honored to be leading HPF’s Board in celebrating our 50th year of preserving Pullman’s historic structures – and just as importantly, the stories of people and social movements that have helped shape this nation,” Hibbs said. “America’s stories live in Pullman, and we are proud to collaborate with the National Park Service as the official non-profit partner of Pullman National Historical Park (PNHP).”
The park tells the story of America’s first planned model industrial community; George M. Pullman, the sleeping car magnate who created it; and the workers who lived there. Pullman is significant for its influence on railroad transportation, industrial innovation, urban planning and design, and the American labor and civil rights movements.
“As a life-long South Sider, I am thrilled to support the Park as a national treasure and a catalyst for economic opportunity in this part of the city,” Hibbs said.
HPF has also welcomed three new members to its Board of Directors. They are Colleen Callahan, former Director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Founder and Owner of Colleen Callahan Consultancy; Angela Manning-Hardimon, Vice President for Finance, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Illinois Institute of Technology; and Kelwin Harris, a Pullman resident and Director of Outreach and Engagement, Cook County Assessor’s Office.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama designated the Pullman Historic District a national monument. Its Visitor Center in Pullman’s iconic clock tower building opened in 2021.The U.S. Congress passed legislation including a provision redesignating Pullman National Monument as a national monument, and President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Dec. 29, 2022.
Hibbs said HPF plans to partner with the National Park Service and other organizations in Pullman and throughout the region to make PNHP a destination for visitors across the country and around the globe.
Since 1973, Historic Pullman Foundation has preserved Pullman’s buildings, stories, documents and artifacts and educated the public on its history. In 2021, HPF became the official Friends Group of Pullman National Historical Park – National Park Service. HPF provides critical support to help the Park preserve the significant historic structures, landscapes, and legacy of Pullman National Historical Park. Chicago’s only national park is significant for its connection to railroad innovation, two watershed moments in American labor history, its impact on urban planning, and its role in the economic empowerment of Black workers. Learn more about our work and how you can get involved at pullmanil.org.
In partnership with Metra, and the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners, visitors will have access to historic Pullman rail cars from different eras at the 111th Street/Pullman Metra Electric station over the weekend. Included are the 1923 New York Central 3, the 1950 Royal Street Observation, and the 1949 Colonial Crafts.
“We are again excited to be part of this annual event and to host these historic railroad cars at our 111th Street/Pullman Station,” said Metra CEO/Executive Director Jim Derwinski. “Our Metra Electric Line is still the fastest, most convenient and most affordable option to get to this event and to visit Pullman National Historical Park.”
Attendees will also have the chance to explore our 50th anniversary exhibit, celebrating our decades of work on preserving, interpreting, and promoting Pullman’s rich history. The Pullman Exhibit Hall will host this exciting time capsule of America’s story, steeped in the resiliency and ingenuity of its people and its built landscape. “The exhibit speaks to the power of an engaged community,” said Historic Pullman Foundation President Joseph C. Szabo. “So many have toiled for so long, and it serves as a great example of how people in action can make a difference.”
Through a virtual reality experience, hosted by Norfolk Southern, visitors will be able to pop on a pair of VR goggles and see how advanced technology fuels America’s freight railroads. Plus, using a locomotive simulator, learn what skills it takes to operate a railroad locomotive.
With guided tours of the Pullman National Historical Park grounds, activity booths, and food and entertainment, there will be something for everyone at Pullman Railroad Days. Stay up to date with added programming via www.pullmanil.org and our Facebook page.
“We look forward to Pullman Railroad Days in May,” said Pullman National Historical Park Superintendent Teri Gage. “It’s such a great opportunity to explore Pullman National Historical Park, learn about the Pullman Company’s role in railroad history, and experience actual luxury Pullman cars! A family-friendly weekend of fun and learning in Chicago’s first national park. Pullman Railroad Days is quickly becoming the signature event of Historic Pullman Foundation and for train enthusiasts around the nation.”
The weekend-long event will be a mix of free events and a single-ticket entry for others. Historic Pullman Foundation Members get a 10% discount on ticket sales. Advance purchase tickets receive a 20% discount and special early access each morning from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. to the historic Pullman Railcar display. Lines tend to get long in the afternoon. Click here to join for your exclusive Pullman Railroad Days offer.
Save by purchasing advance tickets by May 14. Day-of admission will be $30.
Historic Pullman Foundation is the official nonprofit ‘Friends Group’ of Pullman National Historical Park. For decades, we have created opportunities for all people to experience and understand the continuing American story that is Pullman.
Legislation signed by the President on December 29, 2022, includes a provision that changes the designation of Pullman National Monument to Pullman National Historical Park. The historic Pullman community was designated a national monument by President Obama in 2015, making it the first National Park Service unit in Chicago.
The park tells the story of America’s first planned model industrial community, the sleeping car magnate who created it, and the workers who lived there. The park is significant for its influence on railroad transportation, industrial innovation, urban planning and design, and the American labor and civil rights movements. The Pullman Strike and Boycott of 1894, and the establishment of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, are watershed moments in American labor history.
Park Superintendent Teri Gage commented, “This is a very exciting and meaningful change for Pullman and yet another tribute to all of the Pullman neighbors and partners who have worked for decades to preserve this beautiful historic neighborhood. We are so appreciative of the Illinois delegation for their recognition and support of this special place. The name change will help visitors better understand the resource and what they can expect to experience at Pullman.”
While the name change is effective immediately, Superintendent Gage indicated that it may to take several months to update signage, exhibits, and publications to reflect the new designation.
The park staff looks forward to celebrating this change in the near future and to working with Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the City of Chicago, and park partners to spread the word about Pullman National Historical Park. The National Park Service will continue its collaborative work with park partners to protect this very special place in Chicago and to provide an outstanding visitor experience.
Even if you don’t know the history, you know you’ve arrived somewhere special as you drive east on 111thStreet on Chicago’s south side, duck under the tracks of Metra’s Electric District, and suddenly encounter one of the gems of American architecture and urban planning.
Welcome to Pullman, the one-time home of the Pullman Palace Car Co., its famous company town, and today the site of an exciting urban revival.
Pullman has been a lot of things over its nearly 150-year existence: monument to founder George M. Pullman, so-called model employee town, crux of national labor strife, and, not incidentally, a bold attempt at integrated manufacturing on a grand scale. At its peak before the turn of the century, the town was home to thousands of Pullman employees living in hundreds of row houses built by the company, surrounded by the shop floors upon which they labored.
Pullman was declared a National Historic District in 1970 and later achieved landmark status with both the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois, all adding up to what might be the neighborhood’s crowning achievement, its designation in 2015 as a National Monument, making it part of the National Parks system.
George M. Pullman. Classic Trains collectionAll this success was generally the theme a couple of weeks ago during a luncheon and tour for community and railroad leaders, sponsored by the Historic Pullman Foundation and designed to promote a number of exciting developments in the neighborhood. The entire Pullman district is actually a patchwork of sections variously administered by the Foundation, the state of Illinois, and the National Parks. This unusual partnership seems to work well.
Our host was Joe Szabo, a Chicagoan whose long list of railroad career achievements (trainman on Illinois Central, United Transportation Union legislative director, head of the Federal Railroad Administration) helped prepare him for his current position as the Foundation’s president.
For Szabo, the story of Pullman is an indispensable part of a larger, national narrative.
“America’s stories live in Pullman,” Szabo told me. “Whether it is how Pullman transformed railroad transportation at a time when railroads were transforming America; the impact that Pullman’s ‘perfect town’ had on urban planning thought and the development of communities; the 1894 strike’s prominence in labor history; or the roll of the Pullman porters in serving as the foundation of the civil rights movement, these are the stories of the American experience. And they remain relevant today.”
We could see just how relevant by walking around Pullman. Its deep red brick buildings were awash in warm October light, the neighborhood studded with the creations of Solon Spencer Beman, a major architect in late 19th-century Chicago. Sadly, some of Beman’s greatest buildings — including Chicago’s Grand Central Station and Milwaukee’s Pabst Building — were destroyed.
Visitors Center, formerly the Pullman Administration Building, now fully restored. Historic Pullman Foundation photoBut his work lives on in Pullman, most prominently with the ornate Administration Building, now serving as the Visitors Center and headquarters for the Foundation. Topped off by a four-sided clock tower, the Romanesque Revival building houses the Foundation’s first-rate museum, which offers an engrossing view of the complicated and often contradictory history of Pullman the man and Pullman the town. More on that in a moment.
There’s more going on just outside the Visitors Center: restoration of the North Factory Wing, which extends from the Visitor Center and will be a future site of industrial exhibits, eventually to include actual Pullman cars; the famed Hotel Florence, featured prominently in the movie “Road to Perdition” and well on its way toward a reopening; the Greenstone Church, glowing in its serpentine limestone facade and still active as a United Methodist church; and, of course, blocks and blocks of stand-alone and row houses, now privately owned and many of them lovingly refurbished according to strict district preservation rules.
The excitement extends beyond the borders of the historic district. Aware of the growing interest around Pullman, Metra has embarked on a dramatic upgrade of its 111th Street station, to include a climate-controlled station entrance, new platforms, and architectural details that echo the Pullman esthetic.
Our walking tour was led by Ranger Sarah Buchmeier, who, like all NPS rangers I’ve encountered over the years, impressed me with her enthusiasm and knowledge. Pullman’s history is fraught, its status as a pioneering American industrial concern overshadowed by the labor troubles that culminated in that bloody 1894 strike. The town of Pullman had its downside. As historian John H. White, Jr., has written: “Many of the residents were less enthusiastic. They found life in Pullman limited, undemocratic, and puritanical.”
My impression is that the full story of Pullman is being told forthrightly, both in the illuminating exhibits inside the museum and by passionate advocates such as Buchmeier. I hope all the parties dedicated to preserving Pullman — the Foundation, the state, NPS — continue to expand on that narrative.
Meanwhile, kudos to Joe Szabo for making Pullman a personal crusade. “I knew that I wanted Pullman to be the cornerstone of my retirement,” he says. “I got my start in local government as a member of the local plan commission and retired as head of our regional planning agency. As a former train conductor and labor leader, the stories of Pullman personally resonate with me.”
As they will for anyone who makes that same drive along 111th Street.
The Historical Pullman Foundation deserves your support. You can find out more by visiting its website: https://www.pullmanil.org
Historic Pullman Foundation is proud to announce that we, in partnership with the National Park Service, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, National Park Foundation, and Positioning Pullman Project Team, have won a 2022 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award for rehabilitation! HPF is grateful for the efforts of all who have worked tirelessly over the years to preserve Pullman’s structures and stories. Learn more at Landmarks Illinois’ website, and help us celebrate at the 2022 awards ceremony in Chicago on November 4!
Experience the “RAILROADERS: Jack Delano’s Homefront Photography” exhibition, organized by Center for Railroad Photography & Art and Chicago History Museum, opening in the renovated Pullman Exhibit Hall (formerly the shared Visitor Center). The exhibition is a striking visual exploration of the hard work and heroism of railway workers in the yard, on the trains and in the station during World War II and is accompanied by thoughtful biographies and interactive elements.
The RAILROADERS exhibit will run throughout the rest of the year. Please see hours and admission information below. Call Historic Pullman Foundation at 773.785.8901 if you have any questions.
Please note our closed holiday hours this year: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day.
Historic Pullman Foundation (HPF) is thrilled to host its upcoming event Pullman Railroad Days: People, Progress & Innovation on Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15 at Pullman National Monument.
In partnership with Metra, visitors will be able to explore four historic Pullman Cars from different eras at the 111th Street/Pullman Metra Electric station over the weekend. Included are the 1923 New York Central 3, the 1914 Francis L. Suter, the 1950 Royal Street Observation car, and the final passenger car built by the Pullman-Standard Company in 1981, Amtrak’s George M. Pullman. Saturday only: HPF will feature a Model A car club.
“We are excited and honored to once again host these historic railroad cars at our station that bears the Pullman name,” said Metra CEO/Executive Director Jim Derwinski. “And we’d like to remind everyone that the Metra Electric Line is the fastest and most affordable way to get to Pullman National Monument.”
Attendees will also have first access to the grand opening of “RAILROADERS: Jack Delano’s Homefront Photography” exhibition, organized by the Center for Railroad Photography and Art and Chicago History Museum, opening in the renovated Pullman Exhibit Hall (formerly the shared Visitor Center). The exhibition is a striking visual exploration of the hard work and heroism of railway workers in the yards, on the trains and in the station during World War II and is accompanied by thoughtful biographies and interactive elements. Sunday only: join HPF for Bon French’s Speaker Series event exploring Jack Delano’s historic photographs.
Through a virtual reality experience, hosted by Norfolk Southern, visitors will be able to pop on a pair of VR goggles and see how advanced technology fuels America’s freight railroads. Plus, using a locomotive simulator, learn what skills it takes to operate a railroad locomotive.
With guided tours of the historic Factory Site, Hotel Florence, the neighborhood, and food and entertainment, there will be something for everyone at Pullman Railroad Days.
“The stories of Pullman are the stories of the American experience,” said Joseph C. Szabo, President of Historic Pullman Foundation. “Pullman Railroad Days is a wonderful opportunity to showcase America’s history of railroad innovation and its stories that remind us why Pullman is so special.”
Be a Part
of Our Story
Find out how to support this unique historical community.
