Two historic areas inside a bigger Pullman
Most people picture the red brick rowhouses when they hear the name, but the Pullman community area covers far more than that. It sits next to Lake Calumet, about twelve miles from the Loop. The development the Pullman Company built is bounded by 103rd Street on the north, 115th Street on the south, the railroad tracks on the east and Cottage Grove Avenue on the west. Within it are two historic areas: the older southern one, usually just called Pullman, and the northern annex known as North Pullman. Beyond those sit other neighborhoods, Cottage Grove Heights among them. Every address in the community uses the 60628 ZIP.
What the landmark and park titles actually cover
Pullman has collected a long run of official titles, and people mix them up, so here they are in order.
The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 8, 1969, and named a National Historic Landmark on December 30, 1970. Illinois made it a state landmark in 1970. The southern portion became a Chicago Landmark district on October 16, 1972; a second city landmark for the northern portion followed in 1993 and was merged into the first in 1999. President Obama made the site a national monument on February 19, 2015, the first National Park Service unit in Chicago, and in December 2022 it was redesignated Pullman National Historical Park.
The park area mixes ownership. Some grounds are federal, some remain the state’s Pullman State Historic Site, and many of the houses are private homes. The visitor center, in the restored Clock Tower building, opened on Labor Day, September 6, 2021. For homeowners, the city’s guidelines on new building and renovation are explained in the Beman Committee’s Homeowner’s Guide, named after Solon Spencer Beman, the town’s architect.
None of this is about cars. It does mean that many streets here look the way they did in the 1880s, which is the real issue for a pickup.
Rowhouse blocks and the alleys behind them
George Pullman’s town was built from 1880 as housing for his railroad car workers. Beman designed the buildings, mostly red brick rowhouses in the Queen Anne style with Romanesque details, and the original 900 rowhouses and public buildings are what the landmark status protects. Rowhouses share their side walls, so a car is usually either at the front curb or out back. (If you’ve seen The Fugitive, you’ve watched Harrison Ford run down one of those Pullman alleys.)
Tell us which side of the house the vehicle is on. A car in a back garage needs the door open and the alley end clear. A car at the curb needs nothing more than its location. Our checklist on getting a car ready for pickup covers the small things, like emptying the glovebox and finding whatever papers you have.
Driving over from S Yale Ave
From 11616 S Yale Ave the truck goes south on Princeton Avenue, east on 115th Street, north on Michigan Avenue, then east on 103rd Street and onto 104th Street. That’s about four miles to the middle of the community. The historic streets start right where 103rd meets Cottage Grove.
Two ban streets on Pullman’s edges
Two of the city’s Winter Overnight Parking Ban streets touch Pullman. 103rd Street, along the north edge of the historic district, is on the list from Torrence Avenue to Kedzie Avenue. Cottage Grove is on it too, from the Midway Plaisance down to 103rd, so the ban stretch ends right at the district’s northwest corner. Both are enforced every night from 3 am to 7 am, December 1 to April 1, whatever the weather.
A junk car that won’t start has no business sitting on either one in winter. We buy non-running cars as they are, keys or no keys, and the towing is free.
Pullman landmarks for finding the car
The two Metra Electric stations are the easiest references: 111th Street/Pullman, served by local trains only, and 115th Street/Kensington, where most express trains stop. Inside the district are the Hotel Florence, opened in 1881 and named for George Pullman’s daughter, along with Market Square, Greenstone Church and the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum. The main campus of Olive-Harvey College is in the community, and most of Pullman is zoned to Corliss High School.
Beside Pullman
West across the Metra Electric tracks is Roseland, where many of the town’s tradesmen lived. Pullman’s southern line, 115th Street, is also the northern edge of West Pullman, home of our truck base and of Gano, settled by workers who wanted to own their homes. North of Pullman, Calumet Heights is the next community over.
Ready to sell? Here’s how pickup works, from the call to the tow truck.