![Workers leave the Pullman Palace Car Works, 1893](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Workers_leave_the_Pullman_Palace_Car_Works%2C_1893.jpg)
The Pullman Company, founded by
George Pullman
George Mortimer Pullman (March 3, 1831 – October 19, 1897) was an American engineer and industrialist. He designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town, Pullman, for the workers who manufactured it. This ulti ...
, was a manufacturer of
railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century development of mass production and takeover of rivals, the company developed a virtual monopoly on production and ownership of sleeper cars. During a severe economic downturn, the 1894
Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike was two interrelated strikes in 1894 that shaped national labor policy in the United States during a period of deep economic depression. First came a strike by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman factory in Chi ...
by company workers proved a transforming moment in American labor history. At the company's peak in the early 20th century, its cars accommodated 26 million people a year, and it in effect operated "the largest hotel in the world". Its production workers initially lived in a planned worker community (or "
company town") named
Pullman, Chicago
Pullman, one of Chicago, Chicago's 77 defined community areas of Chicago, community areas, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side (Chicago), South Side. Twelve miles from the Chicago Loop, Pullman is situated adjacent to Lake Calume ...
.
Pullman developed the
sleeping car, which carried his name into the 1980s. Pullman did not just manufacture the cars, it also operated them on most of the railroads in the United States, paying railroad companies to couple the cars to trains. In return, by the mid-20th century, these railroads would own Pullman outright. A labor union associated with the company, the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Founded in 1925, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP gathered a membership of 18,000 passenger railwa ...
, founded and organized by
A. Philip Randolph, was one of the most powerful African-American political entities of the 20th century. The company also built thousands of
streetcars and
trolley buses for use in cities.
Post-WWII changes in automobile and airplane transport led to a steep decline in the company's fortunes. It collapsed in 1968, with a successor company continuing operations until 1981.
History
After spending the night sleeping in his seat on a train trip from
Buffalo to
Westfield, New York
Westfield is a town in the western part of Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 4,513 at the 2020 census. Westfield is also the name of a village within the town, containing 65% of the town's population. This unique to ...
, George Pullman was inspired to design an improved passenger railcar which contained
sleeper berths for all its passengers. During the day, the upper berth was folded up overhead similar to an present-day airliner's overhead luggage compartment. At night, the upper berth folded down and the 2 facing seats below it folded over to provide a relatively comfortable lower berth. Although this was a somewhat spartan accommodation by today's standards, it was a great improvement on the previous layout. Curtains provided privacy, and there were washrooms at each end of the car for men and women. The first Pullman coach was built at the
Chicago & Alton
The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad , was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 a ...
shops in
Bloomington, Illinois in the spring of 1859 with the permission of Chicago & Alton President Joel A. Matteson.
Pullman established his company in 1862 and built luxury sleeping cars which featured carpeting, draperies, upholstered chairs, libraries, card tables and an unparalleled level of customer service. Patented
paper car wheel
Paper car wheels were composite wheels of railway carriages, made from a wrought iron or steel rim bolted to an iron hub with an interlayer of laminated paper.John H. Lienhard''Engines of Our Enginuity, No. 758: Paper railroad wheels.''/ref> The ...
s provided a quieter and smoother ride than conventional cast iron wheels from 1867 to 1915.
[John H. Lienhard]
''Engines of Our Enginuity, No. 758: Paper railroad wheels.''
/ref> Once a household name due to their large market share, the Pullman Company is also known for the bitter Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike was two interrelated strikes in 1894 that shaped national labor policy in the United States during a period of deep economic depression. First came a strike by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman factory in Chi ...
staged by their workers and union leaders in 1894. During an economic downturn, Pullman reduced hours and wages but not rents, precipitating the strike. Workers joined the American Railway Union, led by Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate of the Soc ...
.
After George Pullman's death in 1897, Robert Todd Lincoln
Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843 – July 26, 1926) was an American lawyer, businessman, and politician. He was the eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. Robert Lincoln became a business lawyer and company presi ...
, son of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
, became company president. Pullman purchased the Standard Steel Car Company
The Standard Steel Car Company (SSC) was a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock in the United States that existed between 1902 and 1934.
Established in 1902 in Butler, Pennsylvania by John M. Hansen and "Diamond Jim" Brady, the company quic ...
in 1930 amid the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, and the merged entity was known as Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company. The company closed its factory in the Pullman neighborhood of Chicago in 1955. The company ceased production after the Amtrak Superliner cars in 1982 and its remaining designs were purchased in 1987 when it was absorbed by Bombardier.
Gallery of Pullman railroad cars
File:Pullman car exterior.jpg, Exterior view of a Pullman car
File:Pullman car interior.jpg, Interior view of a Pullman car
File:PassengerCarInteriorSRM.jpg, Upper and lower berth
File:Royal Blue coach (B&O 1890).jpg, Coach built in 1890 by Pullman for the B&O ''Royal Blue'', now at the B&O Railroad Museum
The B&O Railroad Museum is a museum and historic railway station exhibiting historic railroad equipment in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) company originally opened the museum on July 4, 1953, with the name of the Balt ...
in Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, Maryland
File:Chandler-Arizona Railroad museum-The Federal 98 Pullman Private Car-1911.JPG, The Federal #98 Pullman Private Car. This Pullman Private Car, which was available for lease, was built by the Pullman Company in 1911
File:Chandler-Arizona Railroad museum-Superintendent's Car-1927.JPG, The Santa Fe Business Car #405, also known as the Superintendent's Car, was one of eighteen cars built in 1927 by the Pullman Company as part of the fourth order of business cars for division superintendents
File:SD-Roald Amundsen Pullman Private Railroad Car 1928.jpg, Built in 1928, the 'Amundsen', on different occasions reportedly carried Presidents Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
, Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
and Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
Corporate history
The original Pullman Palace Car Co. had been organized on February 22, 1867.
On January 1, 1900, after buying numerous associated and competing companies, it was reorganized as The Pullman Co., characterized by its trademark phrase, "Travel and Sleep in Safety and Comfort."
In 1924, the Pullman Car & Manufacturing Corporation was organized from the previous Pullman manufacturing department, to consolidate the car building interests of The Pullman Co. The parent company, The Pullman Co., was reorganized as Pullman, Inc., on June 21, 1927.
The best years for Pullman were the mid-1920s. In 1925, the fleet grew to 9800 cars. Twenty-eight thousand conductors and twelve thousand porters were employed by the Pullman Co. Pullman built its last standard heavyweight sleeping car in February 1931.
Pullman purchased controlling interest in Standard Steel Car Company
The Standard Steel Car Company (SSC) was a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock in the United States that existed between 1902 and 1934.
Established in 1902 in Butler, Pennsylvania by John M. Hansen and "Diamond Jim" Brady, the company quic ...
in 1929, and on December 26, 1934, Pullman Car & Manufacturing (along with several other Pullman, Inc. subsidiaries), merged with Standard Steel Car Co. (and its subsidiaries) to form the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company. Pullman-Standard remained in the rail car manufacturing business until 1982.[ Standard Steel Car Co., had been organized on January 2, 1902, to operate a railroad car manufacturing facility at ]Butler, Pennsylvania
Butler is a city and the county seat of Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located north of Pittsburgh and is part of the Greater Pittsburgh region. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 13,502.
History
Butler was n ...
(and, after 1906, a facility at Hammond, Indiana), and was reorganized as a subsidiary of Pullman, Inc., on March 1, 1930.
In 1940, just as orders for lightweight cars were increasing and sleeping car traffic was growing, the United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
filed an anti-trust complaint against Pullman Incorporated in the U.S. District Court at Philadelphia (Civil Action No. 994). The government sought to separate the company's sleeping car operations from its manufacturing activities. In 1944, the court concurred, ordering Pullman Incorporated to divest itself of either the Pullman Company (operating) or the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company (manufacturing). After three years of negotiations, the Pullman Company was sold to a consortium of 57 railroads for approximately US$40 million.
In 1943, Pullman Standard established a shipbuilding division and entered wartime small ship design and construction. The yard was located near Lake Calumet in Chicago, on the north side of 130th Street. Pullman built the boats in 40-ton blocks which were assembled in a fabrication shop on 111th Street and moved to the yard on gondola cars. In two years, the company built 34 Corvette
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...
PCEs, which were 180 feet long and weighed 640 tons, and 44 LSMs, which were 203 feet long and weighed 520 tons. Pullman ranked 56th among United States corporations in the value of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
military production contracts.
Pullman-Standard built its last sleeping car in 1956 and its last lightweight passenger cars in 1965, an order of ten coaches for Kansas City Southern. The company continued to market and build cars for commuter rail and subway service and Superliners for Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
as late as the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Beginning in 1975, Pullman started delivery of the massive 754 stainless steel subway cars to the New York City Transit Authority
The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a New York state public-benefit corporations, public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York (state), New ...
. Designated R46 R46 or R-46 may refer to:
Roads
* R46 expressway (Czech Republic), now the D46 motorway
* R46 (South Africa)
Other uses
* R-46 (missile), a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile
* R46 (New York City Subway car)
The R46 is a New York ...
by their procurement contract, these cars, along with the R44 subway car built by St. Louis Car Company
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887 to 1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
History
The St. Louis Car Company ...
, were designed for speeds in the Second Avenue Subway
The Second Avenue Subway (internally referred to as the IND Second Avenue Line by the MTA and abbreviated to SAS) is a New York City Subway line that runs under Second Avenue on the East Side of Manhattan. The first phase of this new line, ...
. After it was deferred in 1975, the Transit Authority assigned the cars to other subway services. Pullman also built subway cars for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
, which assigned them to the Red Line. Pullman-Standard was spun off from Pullman, Inc., as Pullman Technology, Inc., in 1981, and was sold to Bombardier in 1987.
Pullman antitrust case
In ''United States v. Pullman Co.'', 50 F. Supp. 123, 126, 137 (E.D. Pa. 1943), the company was ordered to divest itself of one of its two lines of sleeping car businesses after having acquired all of its competitors.
The end of Pullman
After the 1944 breakup, Pullman, Inc., remained in place as the parent company, with the following subsidiaries: The Pullman Company for passenger car operations (but not passenger car ownership, which was passed to member railroads), and Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Co., for passenger car and freight car manufacturing; along with a large freight car leasing operation under the parent company's control. Pullman, Inc., remained separate until a merger with Wheelabrator, then headed by CEO Michael D. Dingman
Michael David Dingman (September 29, 1931 – October 3, 2017) was an international investor, businessman and philanthropist. He was President of Shipston Group Ltd., a private equity company based in Nassau, Bahamas.
Early life
Dingman was born ...
, in late 1980, which led to the separation of Pullman interests in early and mid-1981.
Operations of the Pullman Company sleeper cars ceased and all leases were terminated on December 31, 1968. On January 1, 1969, the Pullman Company was dissolved and all assets were liquidated. (The most visible result on many railroads, including Union Pacific, was that the Pullman name was removed from the letterboard of all Pullman-owned cars.) An auction of all Pullman remaining assets was held at the Pullman plant in Chicago in early 1970. The Pullman, Inc., company remained in place until 1981 or 1982 to close out all remaining liabilities and claims, operating from an office in Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
.
The passenger car designs of Pullman-Standard were spun off into a separate company called Pullman Technology, Inc., in 1982. Using the Transit America trade name, Pullman Technology continued to market its Comet car design (first built for New Jersey Department of Transportation
The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transporta ...
in 1970) for commuter operations until 1987, when Bombardier purchased Pullman Technology to gain control of its designs and patents. As of late 2004, Pullman Technology, Inc., remained a subsidiary of Bombardier.
Pullman, Inc., spun off its large fleet of leased freight rail cars in April 1981 as Pullman Leasing Company, which later became part of ITEL Leasing Itel may refer to:
*Hitachi Data Systems, founded as Itel
*Itel Mobile
itel Mobile is a China-based mobile phone manufacturer company was founded in 2013 headquartered in Shenzhen, China.
Its products are mainly sold in Zimbabwe, South Africa, In ...
, retaining the original PLCX reporting mark
A reporting mark is a code used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain rail transport networks. The code typically reflects the name or identifying number of the owner, lessee, or operator of the equip ...
. ITEL Rail Leasing (including the PLCX reporting mark) was later divested to GE Rail Services.
In mid-1981, Pullman, Inc., spun off its freight car manufacturing interests as Pullman Transportation Company. Several plants were closed and in 1984, the remaining railcar manufacturing plants and the Pullman-Standard freight car designs and patents were sold to Trinity Industries
Trinity Industries Inc. is an American industrial corporation that owns a variety of businesses which provide products and services to the industrial, energy, transportation and construction sectors.
Now, the company has five business groups, wh ...
.
After separating itself from its rail car manufacturing interests, Pullman, Inc., continued as a diversified corporation, with later mergers and acquisitions, including a merger in late 1980 with Wheelabrator-Frye, Inc., in which Pullman became a subsidiary of Wheelabrator-Frye, Inc. In January 1982, Wheelabrator-Frye merged with M. W. Kellogg Company, a builder of large, cast-in-place smokestacks, silos and chimneys. Wheelabrator-Frye retained both Pullman and Kellogg as direct subsidiaries. Later in 1982 Signal
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...
acquired Wheelabrator-Frye. In 1990, the entire Wheelabrator-Frye group was sold to Waste Management, Inc.
Waste Management, Inc., doing business as WM, is a waste management, comprehensive waste, and environmental services company operating in North America. Founded in 1968, the company is headquartered in the Bank of America Tower in Houston, Tex ...
The Pullman-Kellogg interests were spun off by Waste Management as Pullman Power Products Corporation, and by late 2004 that company was doing business as Pullman Power LLC, a subsidiary of Structural Group, a specialty contractor.
As a side note, other construction engineering portions of Pullman-Kellogg were spun off as a new M. W. Kellogg Corporation, and in December 1998, became part of the merger that formed Kellogg, Brown & Root, a specialty contractor which itself was later sold to Halliburton
Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...
, an oil well servicing company. In an eventual competitive move, other Kellogg engineering interests were merged with Rust Engineering
Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...
becoming Kellogg Rust, which itself became The Henley Group, and later Rust International
Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous ferric oxides, hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxi ...
before it became the Rust Division of what is today Washington Group International
Washington Group International was an American corporation which provided integrated engineering, construction, and management services to businesses and governments around the world. Based in Boise, Idaho, WGI had approximately 25,000 employees ...
, a specialty contracting firm that competes directly with Halliburton worldwide. Washington Group International is the successor to the Morrison Knudsen Morrison may refer to:
People
* Morrison (surname), people with the Scottish surname Morrison
* Morrison Heady (1829–1915), American poet
* Morrison Mann MacBride (1877–1938), Canadian merchant
Places in the United States
* Morrison, Colorad ...
civil engineering and contracting corporation, and is also the owner of Montana Rail Link.
After the last of the Kellogg interests of Pullman-Kellogg were spun off, and after the railcar manufacturing plants were sold, and with the formal dissolution of the old Pullman Company (the operating company from the 1944 split), the remaining portions of the Pullman interests were spun off in May 1985 by Signal
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...
into a new Pullman Company. In November 1985, Pullman bought Peabody International and the new company took the new name of Pullman Peabody. In April 1987 (after Pullman Technology was sold to Bombardier), the name was changed back to Pullman Company. In July 1987 the company acquired Clevite Industries. By 1996, Pullman Co., with its Clevite subsidiary, was almost solely a supplier of automotive elastomer
An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus and high failure strain compared with other materials. The term, a portmanteau of ''elastic p ...
(rubber) parts, and in July 1996 the company was sold to Tenneco
Tenneco (formerly Tenneco Automotive and originally Tennessee Gas Transmission Company) is an American automotive components original equipment manufacturer and an aftermarket ride control and emissions products manufacturer. It is a Fortune 5 ...
. As of late 2004, Pullman Co. (now the brand name Clevite), as a manufacturer of automotive elastomer products, was still under the control of Tenneco Automotive.
Company town
In 1877, the United States experienced the Great Railroad Strike. Part of its legacy included more powerful unions and a tendency for employers to consider the broader well-being of their employees. Pullman's objective in building a company town was to attract a superior type of employee and further elevate these individuals by excluding baneful influences. In late April 1880, George Pullman announced his plans to build a company town and factory. Pullman's plan included an expectation that rent collected on the houses in the town would produce a 6% return on investment (ROI), but the ROI never exceeded 4–%.
The company built Pullman, Illinois
Pullman, one of Chicago's 77 defined community areas, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side. Twelve miles from the Chicago Loop, Pullman is situated adjacent to Lake Calumet.
The area known as Pullman encompasses a much wider ...
on , south of Chicago, contracting Solon Spencer Beman
Solon Spencer Beman (October 1, 1853 – April 23, 1914) was an American architect based in Chicago, Illinois and best known as the architect of the planned Pullman community and adjacent Pullman Company factory complex, as well as Chicago's r ...
for design and Nathan F. Barrett for landscaping. Both were considered experts in their respective fields. Beman interned under architect Richard Upjohn. Barrett landscaped areas in Staten Island and Tuxedo, New York, as well as Long Branch, New Jersey. George Pullman
George Mortimer Pullman (March 3, 1831 – October 19, 1897) was an American engineer and industrialist. He designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town, Pullman, for the workers who manufactured it. This ulti ...
's governing concept placed the town not within the city limits of Chicago but in the adjoining town of Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
. On April 24, 1880, groundwork began. Throughout construction, Pullman sought to minimize costs and maximize efficiency adopting techniques of mass production whenever possible. Some of the earliest departments and shops created included painting, iron, and woodworking. These could then be employed to contribute to continuing construction. By January 1, 1881, the town was ready for its first resident. A foreman from the Pullman Company's Detroit shop, Lee Benson, moved his wife, child, and sister into the town. Building exteriors were red brick with limestone trim. Interiors featured high ceilings and large windows. Interior walls were purposefully painted in light colors with the objective of providing a cheerful environment. When completed, the town included a library, theater, hotel, church, market, sewage farm, park, and many residential buildings. The bar in the Florence Hotel was the only place within the town limits where alcohol could be served and consumed. In the residential section, were dedicated to tenements, flats and single-family homes with rents from $0.50 to $0.75 per month ($ to $ in adjusted for inflation). The residences featured modern conveniences such as gas, running water, indoor sewage plumbing and regular garbage removal. By 1884, there were more than 1,400 tenements and flats. By July of the following year the population exceeded 8,600.
In charge of the company town was the town agent who was responsible for all services and businesses including street and building maintenance, gas and water works, fire protection, the hotel, sewage farm, and the nursery and greenhouse. Reporting to the town agent were nine department heads and approximately 300 men. With the exception of the school board there were no elections. All officials were selected by Pullman.
After its completion, the Pullman company town attracted national attention. Many critics praised Pullman's concept and planning. One newspaper article titled "The Arcadian City: Pullman, the Ideal City of the World" praised the town as "the youngest and most perfect city in the world, Pullman; beautiful in every belonging." In February 1885, Harper's Monthly published and article by Richard T. Ely entitled "Pullman: A Social Study". Though the article offered praise for creating an elevated environment for its workers, it criticized the all-encompassing influence of the company ultimately concluding that "Pullman is un-American" and "benevolent, well-wishing feudalism."
During the Panic of 1893, Pullman closed his manufacturing plant in Detroit to move all manufacturing to Pullman. Due to the soft economic conditions of this period, the Pullman Co. reduced wages and laid off employees. Though wages were reduced, residential utility rates and rents remained unchanged. On May 11, 1894, the employees of the Pullman Co. walked off the job initiating the Pullman Strike. Thirty people were killed as a result of the strikes and sabotage. At the conclusion of the strike, perhaps due to a loss of pride, Pullman's company town was never the same.
In February 1904, the Pullman Company was given a court order to sell the company town but delayed compliance until 1907. Today, Pullman is a Chicago neighborhood, and a historical landmark district on the state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
, National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
and National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
lists.
In 2014, the National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
initially considered the concept of turning Pullman into a new, urban National Park.
On February 19, 2015, Pullman's company town was established as a National Monument by President Barack Obama.
Other Pullman sites
The Pullman Company operated several facilities in other areas of the US. One of these was the Pullman Shops in Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a Richmond, California City Council, city council. , which was linked to the mainline tracks of both the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe, servicing their passenger equipment from throughout the Western US. The main building of the Richmond Pullman Shops still exists, as does the thoroughfare it's located on: Pullman Avenue.
Porters
The Pullman Company was also noted for its porters Porters may refer to:
* Porters, Virginia, an unincorporated community in Virginia, United States
* Porters, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community in Wisconsin, United States
* Porters Ski Area, a ski resort in New Zealand
* ''Porters'' (TV ser ...
. The porters served first-class passengers traveling in the luxurious Pullman sleeping cars.
When George Pullman began hiring porters in 1868, he sought people who had been trained to be the perfect servants. This led the company to hire black men
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
(many, if not all, of whom were newly-freed chattel slaves) almost exclusively for the porter positions. This decision by Pullman wasn't one of altruism but one primarily driven by economics: Pullman paid the black porters a pittance, forcing them to rely on tips from their white clientele for most of their earnings. This allowed the company to increase profits by minimizing the wages paid to one of its most important, and numerous, positions.
Being a Pullman Porter was seen as safe, steady work and allowed tens of thousands of African-Americans access to middle-class life. This had little to do with the wages being paid to them by Pullman.
Former slaves working in a servile position were treated harshly, and were frequently subject to verbal and physical abuse. In 1925, after decades of discrimination and mistreatment by the passengers and the Pullman company itself, the porters organized and became the first African-American labor union. Founded by A. Philip Randolph the porters formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Founded in 1925, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP gathered a membership of 18,000 passenger railwa ...
(BSCP), which after years of effort, fought for and won a collective bargaining agreement in 1937. At its height the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters had a membership of over 18,000 passenger railway workers across Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
The legacy of Pullman porters goes beyond the railway. A. Philip Randolph took the lessons learned and experience gained in organizing the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to help organize the nascent black civil rights movement. Likewise, E.D. Nixon, a Pullman porter and leader of a local chapter of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, worked with one of his employees to help start the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...
in Alabama, using Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "th ...
' arrest as a catalyst and rallying cry to help organize it. Nixon, whose duties as a porter often saw him out of town for various lengths of time, had to enlist the help of a young, energetic black minister new to Montgomery to run the boycott in his absence: the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Products
Rail vehicles
Pullman's streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...
building period lasted from 1891[ Middleton, William D. , , , , 1967. ''The Time of the Trolley'', p. 424. Milwaukee: ]Kalmbach Publishing
Kalmbach Media (formerly Kalmbach Publishing Co.) is an American publisher of books and magazines, many of them railroad-related, located in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
History
The company's first publication was ''The Model Railroader'', which be ...
. . until 1951.[Carlson, Stephen P.; and Schneider, Fred W. , , , , 1980). ''PCC: The Car That Fought Back'', pp. 103–04. Glendale (CA): ]Interurban Press
Interurban Press was a small, privately owned American publishing company, specializing in books about streetcars, other forms of rail transit and railroads in North America, from 1943MacDougall, Kent (May 19, 1983). "Books Ring Bell With Devote ...
. . The company one was one of just three builders (and one of only two in the U.S.) of the PCC streetcar, a standardized type of streetcar purchased by numerous North American transit systems between 1936 and 1952 and nearly 5,000 of which were constructed. Pullman built the body of the very first all-new PCC car, a prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
called "model B", in 1934, but the first production-series Pullman PCC cars were not built until 1938 (and delivered in early 1939). The St. Louis Car Company
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887 to 1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
History
The St. Louis Car Company ...
captured about 75% of the U.S. market for PCC cars, with the balance of around 25% being supplied by Pullman.
Trolley buses
In addition to rail vehicles, Pullman-Standard also manufactured trolley buses – or ''trolley coaches'', as they were more commonly known at the time – starting in 1931 and concluding in late 1952. A total of 2,007 trolley buses were built by the company.[Porter, Harry; and Worris, Stanley F.X. (1979). ''Trolleybus Bulletin No. 109: Databook II''. Louisville (KY): North American Trackless Trolley Association (defunct).] Production took place at a former Osgood Bradley Car Company
The Osgood Bradley Car Company manufactured railway passenger cars and streetcars in Worcester, Massachusetts.
History
The company was founded in 1822 to manufacture stagecoaches and sleighs. The company's first railway passenger cars were bu ...
plant in Worcester, Massachusetts, which had come under Pullman control as part of its 1929/30 acquisition of a controlling interest in the Standard Steel Car Company
The Standard Steel Car Company (SSC) was a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock in the United States that existed between 1902 and 1934.
Established in 1902 in Butler, Pennsylvania by John M. Hansen and "Diamond Jim" Brady, the company quic ...
.[ Sebree, Mac; and Ward, Paul (1973). ''Transit's Stepchild, The Trolley Coach'' (Interurbans Special 58), p. 173. Los Angeles: ]Interurbans
The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...
. . The vast majority were built for U.S. cities, with only 24 being supplied to Canadian cities and a total of 136 built for cities in South America. The last trolleybuses built were an order of 30 for Valparaíso, Chile, in late 1952.[Saitta, Joseph P. (ed.) (1987). ''Traction Yearbook '87'', p. 111. Merrick (NY), US: Traction Slides International. . .] That city's Pullman trolley buses have far outlasted any others, and as of 2015 about a dozen were still in regular service there,[''Trolleybus Magazine'', September–October 2015, p. 152. UK: National Trolleybus Association. ] four from the 1952 batch and the others from a larger group built in 1946–48 but partially rebuilt in 1987–88.[Webb, Mary (ed.) (2009). ''Jane's Urban Transport Systems 2009–2010'', pp. 65–66. Coulsdon (UK): ]Jane's Information Group
Jane's Information Group, now styled Janes, is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane.
History
Jane's Informat ...
. . In 2003, the remaining 15 were declared a National Historic Monument by the Chilean government.
File:Seattle 1944 Pullman trolleybus 1005 in 2000.jpg, A 1944 Pullman trolley bus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
that has been preserved in Seattle, for occasional public excursions
File:1952 Pullman trolleybus in Valparaíso in 2014.jpg, One of the Pullman-built trolley buses that are still in service in Valparaíso, Chile, in 2014
File:Interior - Pullman trolleybus.jpg, Interior of a Pullman-Standard trolley bus
File:Trolleybus diagram-key.svg, Diagram of a 1947 Pullman-Standard trolley bus
See also
* Samuel B. Casey Jr.
*List of tram builders
This is a worldwide list of tram builders. Trams may also be called ''streetcars'' or ''trolleys'' in certain countries. These companies are, or at one time were, manufacturers of genuine trams/streetcars. Makers of replica-tram buses are not li ...
*List of trolleybus manufacturers
Since the invention of the trolleybus, well over 200 different makers of trolleybuses have existed. This is a list of trolleybus manufacturers, both current and former.
Current
* Astra Bus, Romania
*Belkommunmash, Belarus
*Bogdan, Ukraine
* B ...
*Pullman (car or coach)
In the United States, Pullman was used to refer to railroad sleeping cars that were built and operated on most U.S. railroads by the Pullman Company (founded by George Pullman) from 1867 to December 31, 1968.
Other uses
Pullman also refers to r ...
* Pullman F.C.
*Pullman train (UK)
Pullman may refer to:
Places in the United States
*Pullman, Chicago, Illinois
* Pullman, Michigan
* Pullman, Texas
*Pullman, Washington
* Pullman, West Virginia
* Pullman Lake, a lake in Minnesota
* Pullman neighborhood, in the city of Richmond, ...
*
Notes
References
*
*
*
* Knoll, Charles (1995). ''Go Pullman: Life and Times''. Rochester, NY (US): Rochester Chapter National Raillway Historical Society,
*
External links
Pullman Company town today
Pullman Shops of Richmond, California
The Pullman Project
this Web site focuses solely on Pullman's sleeper cars
* ttp://utahrails.net/pass/pass-pullman.php Pullman History at UtahRails.netIncludes a timeline of the Pullman antitrust case.
The Pullman Trolleybuses of Valparaíso
Frank H. Beberdick Pullman Collection
at Newberry Library
Pullman Company Records
a
Newberry Library
*
Pullman Company publications
Pullman Accommodations
illustrated brochure, 1934
Pullman on Dress Parade
illustrated brochure, 1948
Go Pullman
illustrated brochure, 1954
Researching Pullman
The South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society
holds records for approximately 200,000 employees of Pullman Works.
{{Authority control
African-American history between emancipation and the civil rights movement
Defunct bus manufacturers of the United States
Passenger rail transportation in the United States
Rolling stock manufacturers of the United States
Tram manufacturers
Trolleybus manufacturers