Pullman Company - Company Town

Company Town

The company built a company town, Pullman, Illinois on 4,000 acres (16 km²), 14 mi (23 km) south of Chicago in 1880. The town, entirely company-owned, provided housing, markets, a library, churches and entertainment for the 6,000 company employees and an equal number of dependents. Employees were required to live in Pullman, despite the fact that cheaper rentals could be found in nearby communities. One employee is quoted as saying "We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman Church, and when we die we shall go to the Pullman Hell". Alcohol was prohibited in the town, as George Pullman found it a distasteful habit for his workers; though it was available in the company's Hotel Florence, primarily for the benefit of the hotel guests as it was generally too expensive for laborers.

In 1898, the Illinois Supreme Court required the company to sell off the town which was annexed into the city of Chicago; the surrounding areas, which like Pullman were part of Hyde Park Township, had been annexed in 1889. Today, Pullman is a Chicago neighborhood, State and National Historic Landmark District with an integrated population that has a strong drive towards restoration of this unique district.