CHICAGO — President Joe Biden has signed legislation that changes the Pullman National Monument to a National Historical Park, making it the first National Park Service unit in Chicago.
Pullman National Monument was designated by President Barack Obama on Feb. 19, 2015. The park tells the story of one of the first planned industrial communities in the United States, sleeping car magnate George M. Pullman who helped create it, and the workers who lived there. The district is significant for its influence on urban planning and design, as well as its role in American labor history, including the 1894 Pullman Strike and Boycott.
Located in what is now the Pullman neighborhood of Chicago, the historic district includes the site of the former Pullman Palace Car Works shops and administration building, the Hotel Florence (named after George Pullman’s eldest child), Arcade Park. and the Greenstone Church (currently the Greenstone United Methodist Church). Also within the district is the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, named for the prominent leader A. Philip Randolph, which recognizes and explores African American labor history.
More information is available at the National Park Service’s Pullman website.
And you can get there by train (but no disabled access at the METRA station).
When I visited in 2019, there was no food service on the site. I don’t know if that has changed since then.
No food service as of this past summer when I visited, Charles.