Historic Pullman Foundation

Founded as a planned community for workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in the 1880s, Historic Pullman is an architecturally and historically unique Chicago neighborhood.
There is a guided walking tour the first Sunday of every month (they take the dead of winter off) in which you can get a sense of the unique architecture (such as the row houses, the Hotel Florence and the greenstone church) and some of the weird dictatorial/​utopian thinking behind the neighborhood. Our tour was led by a local resident with a ton of knowledge about the area’s history, the rise and fall of the Pullman company, and current efforts to revitalize the neighborhood.
Although there are many people dedicated to preserving and restoring the area (and even talk of designating it as a national park), today, Pullman has the feeling of a ghost town, a place forgotten by time, and left encapsulated in approximately 1920.
For northsiders (or near-​southsiders for that matter) it’s a long trip down to 103^rd St., but well worth taking the time to explore this interesting sliver of Chicago.

I went to the Pullman area last year, while I did not pay for the tour, I did my own little tour of the area and you could almost feel how it must have been in its heyday. It is a desolae area now, steeped in history and worthy I think of preservation. There are no restaurants or shops close by, but I think some millionaire should invest some $$$ in to making this area viable again. It’s off the beaten path but would be worth the trip if restored.

I went with my 9 year old daughter as she had to research the neighborhood for a class project. Not having grown up in Chicago, I knew nothing about the area and was really enthralled by it. If you don’t mind driving way down here, it’s absolutely fascinating… although at the same time depressing and desolate. I think it’s the closest thing to a ghost town I’ve ever seen, although there are people living here, it didn’t strike me as a dynamic, vibrant neighborhood. A lot of homes with for sale signs, absolutely nowhere to eat or shop within several blocks’ radius of the area (I mean NOWHERE). Have low expectations for the visitor center and you won’t be disappointed. Also, I can’t say I felt extremely safe walking around here.

This is a tough review to write because it’s hard to really encompass an experience like Pullman into one tiny Unilocal review. I shall attempt to be up to task.
I had the opportunity to visit Pullman with a group of women labor leaders and it was exciting to be there in that context. We ate lunch in the Hotel Florence which has been beautifully restored (still in process, but awesome) before heading out to the factory site. We were accompanied by an archaeologist who actually lives in one of the homes as well.
The architecture is beautiful, but it’s the contrast of that beauty with its purpose that’s so interesting. Built as a company town by George Pullman, this town is what happens when anal retentive control freak meets a lot of money. Pullman lured workers to the town with promise of a workers’ utopia and virtually trapped them there in indentured servitude. He eventually was forced to sell all of the homes and much of the rest of the property.
Like many of the other women from the area, I’d never been here before, which is a shame. This partially due to its isolated location which is part of recent controversies involving its status as a «food desert» and the proposal of a Wal-​Mart. I’m pretty sure another oppressive corporation isn’t the way for Pullman to go… just sayin.
If I stop eating so many tacos, maybe I’ll be able to go on the Labor Day Pullman bike ride.

What does the perfect city look like? At Pullman, you can see the remains of an entire town built according to a utopian ideal. Go for the Pullman house tours, if you want to get the most out of your visit. But otherwise, you can start at the tiny museum (a concrete box that is the least appealing thing here) and get the basics about the history of this place. George Pullman, owner of a company that made luxury rail cars, built this village for his workers. His aim was to prevent labor unrest by creating ideal living conditions.
What you’lll see are handsome little brick homes, arranged in neat streets and around pleasant squares. Everything, from churches to theaters to shopping, was placed according to plan. Now residents prize the handsome design, but the community that once existed here has vanished and Pullman is an island in the south side.
Come here and think about the social hope and idealism that inspire utopias and the love of uniformity and inhuman perfection that inevitably destroys them. Can we still learn something about Chicago and about ourselves from lovely, lonely Pullman? Visit and decide from yourself.
The site is accessible by Metra (the 111^th St./ Pullman Station) and it within easy walking distance of the station. The Chicago South Shore line stops at 115^th Street.