In 1889, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered the company to sell all non-industrial property and the land was absorbed by the city. Workers walked off the job and Federal troops were eventually ordered to intervene, but not before 13 people had died in the strike and the organized labor movement was born. In an effort to save money, Pullman cut wages for his workers, but refused to lower rent. It was the rent for such housing that led to the great strike of 1894, a time of recession in the country. Larger houses for the executives were the closest to the factory, and the buildings regressed outward to housing for the foremen, skilled workers and unskilled workers. The housing, with intricate architecture and indoor plumbing, not standard at the time, was arranged around the factory. Workers lived in Pullman-owned housing, shopped in a Pullman-owned market and went to work everyday building the illustrious Pullman rail cars. With the hopes of creating an environment pleasant for his workers and efficient for his business, the town of Pullman was designed to be self-sufficient. Now a middle-class residential neighborhood on Chicago's far south side, the Pullman site, built in 1880 and anchored by the factory and the upscale Hotel Florence - named for Pullman's daughter and not damaged by the fire - was a 600-acre planned community, the grand vision of the company's founder, George M. The fire left residents of the neighborhood, many of whom were fourth- or fifth-generation descendants of original Pullman workers, in tears at the sight of history going up in flames.
The blaze, which engulfed the former administration building and gutted adjacent manufacturing structures, finally ran out of fury after an all-night battle by more than 150 firefighters. When long negotiations with the Pullman Porters, many former slaves who had served the nation's elite on the luxurious Pullman sleepers, finally resulted in a contract in 1935, it stood for civil rights.īut after a spectacular fire destroyed its old clock tower and several adjacent buildings on Tuesday, hopes of turning it into a transportation museum were stood on end.
After a crippling strike in 1894, it stood for the struggle of the working man. Once a revolutionary company town, with housing, churches and schools for its workers, it stood for an innovative industrial model. Through its storied history, the Pullman rail car factory has stood for a lot.
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