The legacy of industrialist George Pullman, the factories that produced his sleeping, dining and parlor rail cars, and the Pullman Porters and their impact on the labor movement have long been celebrated in Pullman’s far South Side namesake neighborhood.
But those stories have garnered citywide attention of late thanks to new murals placed at a more prominent, heavily trafficked area. Motorists going down the Kennedy Expressway near the North Avenue exit in Chicago are now getting a flash from the past in a 6-panel mural of the Pullman neighborhood’s striking place in history.
The panel, which is on the Wintrust Mural Building on the west side of the highway, runs through March 14, at which point the murals will move to a billboard across the expressway for the month of April. Typically, murals are displayed on the Wintrust Mural Building for about six weeks.
The new murals mark the 10th anniversary of Pullman National Historical Park, which was ordained Pullman National Historic Monument in 2015 by President Barack Obama. Obama mandated that the property tell four stories: The history and vision of George Pullman and his company; the strike and its importance in the labor movement; the porters and creation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; and the planned Pullman community as one of the first industrial era towns.
Those are visions the mural depicts in its three picture panels, which include George Pullman with historic buildings in the background, porters, images of the labor movement, as well as three smaller panels with logos and the Pullman theme line, “America’s Stories Live Here.”
“If you know the four stories, you can really see what Pullman is all about through those murals,” said Robert Montgomery, executive director of the Historic Pullman Foundation.
Artist Joe Nelson spent a few months drawing and digitally designing the mural, then sending it for printing on massive banners, before installation along the Kennedy Expressway.
Nelson had already created a poster depicting the themes when the park was established as a National Monument. He also did a mural around the corner from the park’s Clock Tower and Administration Building.
“I brought over a lot of the same color schemes and some of the same whimsical energy the poster has,” he said.
Nelson, who grew up in Englewood and still lives in Chicago, said he has a few friends who live in Pullman, and he has displayed work in a gallery there. He also loves the neighborhood.
“Every time I’m out there, I feel I’ve been transported to another time,” Nelson said. “There’s so much history, and the architecture is beautiful and just the story alone of Pullman is remarkable.
“There’s nothing like it in the city. Some places get close but don’t have the history.”
Nelson also said he was glad to work with the national park and Historic Pullman Foundation on the project and help celebrate the 10-year-anniversary of the park. It is also the 100-year anniversary of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Porters.
Learning about Pullman, he said, is a way to “find out more about American history.”
Montgomery, of the Historic Pullman Foundation, said he, too, hopes the mural helps draw more people to the park and the stories it tells.
“Most Chicagoans inside and outside the city don’t even know there’s a national park within the city limits,” Montgomery. “When I tell people … the first thing that enters their mind is nature, but it’s not an actual park, it’s a neighborhood.”
He said the National Park System is important because “Americans can see the history of our country through the national parks and be encouraged by the beauty and the majesty that exists.”
“An underlying message about the parks is they have healing power,” said Montgomery.
More events are planned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pullman joining the National Park Service properties. Those include Pullman Railroad Days, May 15 to 18 with some authentic Pullman rail cars. There will also be a ceremony where the National Railroad Hall of Fame will give a National Park medallion in honor of Philip Randolph, who was instrumental in helping to create the Brotherhood of Sleeping Porters.
As for Nelson’s mural panels, park officials said they’re deciding where to put them after they’re taken down from beside the Kennedy Expressway. One possibility is possibly reprinting and stretching the vinyl murals to display at Exhibit Hall in Pullman for the summer.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
