Protecting Pullman: City To Buy Abandoned Historic Buildings
By JoshMogerman in News on Dec 18, 2011 9:00PM
The Market Square Apartments in Pullman are in much better shape than a lot of the housing stock in the neighborhood [ChicagoGeek]
History doesn’t preserve itself. And in places like the Pullman neighborhood, the crushing economy makes holding onto some of the most interesting and important bits of the past all the more difficult. But the City is doing its part with the announcement that it will buy and rehab 49 historic rowhouses to help stabilize the far South Side neighborhood that is key to African-American history and labor history in America.
The homes, near the 107th Street Metra station, date back to the 1880s when Pullman was built as the nation’s first planned company town. It was a bold social experiment by George Pullman, owner of the Pullman Palace Car Company, producers of the poshest sleeper cars on the railroads. To keep employees happy, the housing stock built for them was vastly superior to what could be found in nearby Chicago with indoor plumbing, gas heating and gorgeous architecture. The community was meant to be a worker’s paradise, but it all fell apart after the Pullman strike of 1894, the first national strike in American history and the first time the President sent federal troops to fire on workers.
While significant resources have gone into preserving historic Pullman, the foreclosure crisis has rocked the area and most of the properties targeted by the City are bank-owned. According to Crain’s Chicago Business:
The city wants to renovate and sell the homes, most of which sit empty, relics of a bold social experiment launched 130 years ago by railroad-car manufacturer George Pullman. City officials aim to preserve the neighborhood's architectural heritage while boosting its supply of quality affordable housing. … The properties are worth saving because they represent the “Pullman experiment of developing a heterogenous community that provided a wide range of housing types to respond to different needs,” says Michael Shymanski, president of the Pullman Historic Foundation.We love visiting the area, one of the most underutilized gems in town. The buildings are gorgeous and the history is indeed worth saving.