Pullman Company Main Car shop, Pullman, Illinois, Elevation

Architecture and Design

c.1879–1880

Solon Spencer Beman
American, 1853–1914

After relocating his operations south of downtown Chicago in the late 1880s, industrialist George Pullman began plans to build one of the largest company towns in the United States. Hoping to improve the lives of his workers and make a profit, he hired architect Solon Spencer Beman to design an entire community, complete with brick houses, a commercial arcade, a hotel, a library, a church, and parks. While the town was realized using the highest standards in planning, architecture, and construction methods, this great experiment ultimately failed. In 1894, when the Pullman Company cut wages without reducing rents in company-owned housing, workers initiated a massive strike that required the intervention of federal troops. Pullman was eventually forced to sell the town.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Architecture and Design

Artist: Solon Spencer Beman (Architect)
Title: Pullman Company Main Car shop, Pullman, Illinois, Elevation
Place: Pullman (Building address)
Date: 1874–1880
Medium: Graphite, ink and ink wash on linen, mounted on archival paper
Dimensions: Approx: 66 × 226 cm (26 × 89 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Pullman, Inc.
Reference Number: 1988.422
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/72687/manifest.json

See Chicago Tribune, Dec. 2, 1998, for front page story of fire.

The Art Institute of Chicago, “Past Forward: Architecture and Design Collection at the Art Institute,” September 12, 2017 – January 21, 2018.
The Art Institute of Chicago and traveling exhibit, “Chicago Architecture and Design: 1872-1922”, 1987-1989, cat. no. 51.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Focus on Chicago: Architecture of Victorian Chicago,” 1997.

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