National Park Service Director Tours Pullman
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 18, 2012 9:40PM
National Park Service director Jonathan Jarvis accepted an invitation by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. and toured the Pullman district last week, according to WBEZ.
Jackson introduced legislation in February that could one day designate Pullman as a national park. Jackson's proposal calls for a one-to-three year feasibility study to determine if designating the site at 111th and Cottage Grove Avenue would work. If it does, then Congress would be asked to pass a measure to designate it as a national park. Pullman is already in the National Register of Historic Places and is on the city's landmarks list.
Pullman was founded by industrialist George Pullman in 1880 as a planned community for employees of his company to live near where they made Pullman rail cars. On May 11, 1894, 4,000 employes of the Pullman Palace Car Company began a strike that become one of the most important labor fights in American history. The Brotherhood of Pullman Porters, the country's first African American labor union, also was formed here.