Though he provided a beautiful, sanitary, and orderly town for his workers and their families, George Pullman did not provide these accommodations freely. Barret aided the breakup of monotony by designing Arcade Park and Lake Vista in a curvilinear fashion. Though he strove to avoid monotony, Beman imbued the town with visual continuity. Pullman desired buildings that would be both practical and aesthetically pleasing, so Beman designed houses in the simple, yet elegant, Queen Anne style while including Romanesque arches for buildings that housed shops and services. A brickyard was built south of the site to supply materials needed for the "first all-brick city." The first factory shops completed were those that would refine the building materials as they came in. By fall, factory buildings were taking shape and work began on the first non-industrial building in town: The Hotel Florence.
Ground breaking occurred in spring of 1880, and work proceeded at a furious pace, with over 100 railroad cars of supplies per week unloaded at Pullman over the summer. Benzette Williams was the engineer hired by George Pullman to design the sewage system underneath the town. Indoor plumbing and relative spaciousness put Pullman's accommodations well above the standards of the day. Housing for workers was separated from the industrial areas and took shape primarily as row houses with streets in front and alleys in the rear for the daily trash collection. Architect Solon Spencer Beman and Landscape Architect Nathan Barret were hired to design the buildings and layout of the Pullman and factories. The Pullman Palace Car Company purchased 4,000 acres for its town and factory between Lake Calumet and the Illinois Central rail line south of Chicago. But let it once be proved that enterprises of this kind are safe and profitable and we shall see great manufacturing companies develop similar enterprises, and thus a new era will be introduced in the history of labor." - George Pullman, to the Hour Week Journal of New York, August 5, 1882.ĭemand for Pullman cars and a growing workforce led Pullman to the development of his company town. "apital will not invest in sentiment, nor for sentimental considerations for the laboring class. Detail of "Snyder's Real Estate Map of Cook County" from 1886 showing some of Pullman's property just west of Lake Calumet.