Frankly, when I first heard of Pullman I had no idea it was located in Chicago. I had heard about Southeast Chicago, but I had never been there. Thanks to today's tour, I have witnessed history.
As we travelled South through Lakeshore Drive, I was thrilled with how beautiful Lake Michigan looked. Once we reached the end of Lake Shore Dr. I noticed the dramatic change in the area. What was supposed to be a "beach" was more of untreated plants overgrowing in the area. I was so shocked to see how reaching a certain point, you see so much change, so see much more space, less tall buildings and more houses. Once we hit our first stop, I was just amazed at how life has changed. In an area where only trees and plants live, used to be a whole working mill.
In 1875 mills were recruiting European immigrants. Irish, Scotts, English and Germans were employed because of their good working skills. Later, many were unemployed because they were not helping the mill owner's make any profit, the better the worker, the more money it is needed to be paid. What I found the most interesting was that the steel mill that once stood in the area were now, only grass is seen, produced the steal that was used to make the McCormick place and the Sears Tower.
What was very intriguing was the condition in which this land was, and still is. Even though it has a river system and Lake Michigan, it still has environmental problems; toxic land. This is made it harder to keep the mill running.
As of today, Major Daley is planning to create a "mini city" in this land and investing $48 million. Hopefully if the environmental problems can get fixed, this major project can work.
If we focus back to how life used to be for people working in these mills, we can see so much devastation. Working conditions were horrendous, the places were dangerous, low wages became a huge issue and many people began to speak out.
This picture below used to be a Steal Mill Hall. Because of so much injustice and harsh working conditions, steal workers began to organize themselves. Even though some supporters were considered "communists", they still remain strong. There were plenty of violent clashes with unions and workers.
On our way to Pullman, we saw plenty of housing that were built in the 20s and 30s for steel mill workers. Seeing these houses, made me imagine how life could have been for so many immigrants. Many had to move into areas close to their jobs because transportation was not the easiest.
As we moved along the area, we saw the first church build for Mexicans. In 1923 the National Shrine of St. Jude was built with the help of the Spanish Peaking Congregassion. I thought this was very interesting because back then, religion was very important. Living in areas with people from other countries made it harder because of the language barrier. Having a church and a small community where support was given was the best thing anyone could have, even if economically, families were struggling to the point of becoming homeless.
As we entered Pullman, I saw nothing but streets. What caught my attention the most was Pullman himself. I had no idea he was a cruel human being. At first, he managed to keep his workers all together. He promised to take care of all of their needs and then he moved on with his plans. First, he banned alcoholism because to him, this was the cause of so much poverty.
In order to keep his people on check, he built the Green Stone Church. His only intention in building the church was to control all aspects of the worker's lives. I just found it amazing to believe how Pullman was able to restrain his workers from health care just because he would not make any profit from it.
As we moved out of Pullman, we entered what used to be "Back in the Yards". Now, all we see are factories that used to be part of the meat packing era, as that is what I call it. As we moved along the area, we just saw one building standing that survived through all of these years.
In the end, I was just amazed to see so much land that used to be very important to Chicago, and now, it is nothing. The land is now unattractive, there are no buses that pass by the area and the population is not high at all. We have moved from gentrified areas to areas that that have no value, no attraction, and sadly enough, no future.
The thought that remained in my mind, was that, why not gentrify the area, make it better, build buildings, expand the houses and attract people in order to create attractions strong enough to extend the CTA bus transportation route. Hopefully, these areas will not stay abandoned...
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