PHOTO: Chicago's Pullman District features the historic Florence Hotel, which is being renovated. (Courtesy of Choose Chicago)
The Pullman Historic District in Chicago - an 1880s model city in which people lived, worked, worshipped and were educated while building luxury sleeping train cars - is being designated as a National Monument on par with the Statue of Liberty, Fort Sumter and George Washington's birthplace.
President Obama plans to visit Chicago Feb. 19 to officially establish the nation's first model industrial town as a unit of the National Park System.
Constructed by industrialist George Pullman between 1880 and 1884, Pullman was a planned industrial town with more than a thousand homes and buildings, many built with bricks made out of clay from a nearby lake. It represented "a dramatic and pioneering departure from the unhealthy, overcrowded makeshift and unsanitary living conditions found in working-class districts in other 19th century industrial cities and towns," the National Park Service wrote in a press release. Of course, Pullman hoped it resulted in happier and healthier workers that would increase productivity.
The Pullman district was also a flashpoint for labor relations and civil rights advances. The nation's first major industry-wide strike - the Pullman Strike of 1894 - helped spur the creation of the national Labor Day holiday, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. In the 1920s, black workers employed by the Pullman Company as porters and maids struggled for worker's rights and created the first African American labor union to secure bargaining rights.
"Pullman's role in advancing the American labor movement and in giving rise to the first African American labor union is an important chapter in our country's history that deserves to be told," U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly said in a statement. "That a monument will be established at Pullman is a testament not only to the American laborer but to the many residents of Pullman who have worked tirelessly for years to keep its history alive."
The neighborhood is a well-preserved example of 19th century urban planning and architecture. "This new national park will breathe new economic life into this community, bringing up to 30,000 visitors and more than $40 million each year," said U.S. Sen Mark Kirk.
Under this announcement, the Pullman Historical District will become a national monument bounded by 103rd Street to the north, 115th Street to the south, Cottage Grove Avenue to the west, and the Norfolk & Western Rail Line to the east.
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