Pullman National Monument Gets $2 Million Grant for Preservation

CHICAGO, IL - The Pullman National Monument has been selected as one of 20 historic places nationally to receive $2 million in grants as a way to raise awareness of the importance of preserving historic places.

The grants were announced by the 2016 Partners in Preservation in celebration of the National Park Service’s Centennial celebration.

“The Pullman National Monument is a testament to the American railcar industry, to the rise of the labor movement, to the lasting strength of good urban design and to the Pullman Porters’ struggle for unionization,” according to a Facebook post from the Historic Pullman Foundation.

Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood, founded by George Pullman, was one of the rare “utopian” communities where employees of Pullman’s sleeping rail car company all lived in the community.

The National Park Service money will help preserve and bring new life to the Administration Building in Pullman, which was built in 1880 as the focal point of the country’s first planned model industrial town, according to the Foundation. It’s vacant now, but will someday will serve as the Pullman National Monument Visitor Center. $250,000 will help preserve the exterior as the building is transformed into a visitor center for the new National Monument.