Holiday light show coming to Chicago's Pullman National Historical Park for first time
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A historic site on Chicago's Far South Side will get the winter wonderland treatment for the first time in its history this year.
The Pullman National Historical Park—which became the first National Park Service unit within the Chicago city limits in 2015— was preparing Wednesday for its first ever light show. The light show is a long time coming—for a site that inspired a holiday classic.
The idea behind the light show is both to usher in the holiday season with a dazzling display, and also to shine a light on the enduring history of one of the first planned industrial communities in the United States.
"We are going to light up the factory site here," said National Park Service Supt. Teri Gage. "We have over 10,000 lights for the site."
The Pullman Palace Car Company first broke ground on its own planned industrial community in 1880. The area was not yet part of the city of Chicago at the time.
Workers and their families lived and worked in the planned community, which had railroad car factories, its own streets, and housing.
It was more than a century ago when the Pullman Palace Car Company broke ground on its own industrial community, where workers and their families lived and worked at the site which had a factory… its own streets and housing. A total of 8,000 workers lived in the planned community by 1880, the National Park Service said.
The history of the Pullman Palace Car Company and its district is tightly intertwined with both the greater history of Chicago and the history of organized labor.
In 1894, Pullman workers went on strike for better wages and living conditions—leading to a national boycott of handling Pullman train cars, and also leading to violence and vandalism as the military got involved in trying to quell the strike, according to the National Park Service.
Also of great historical significance is the creation of the first African American labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, founded by A. Phillip Randolph in 1925. The National Park Service notes that at the time, porters made up 44% of the Pullman workforce, and Pullman was the largest employer of Black Americans in the country.
Today, the Pullman clock tower still stands majestically at 11057 S. Cottage Grove Ave., though what stands today is much newer than it looks. Back in December 1998, an arson fire gutted the building and destroyed the tower and clock.
A new tower and clock were completed in 2005, and the striking structure has since become synonymous with the holidays. It inspired the holiday classic "Polar Express."
"If you watch the movie, you'll see the clock tower building behind us. You'll see the factory shops. You'll see the arches from Market Hall. It's very apparent where the inspiration from the 'Polar Express' movie came from," said Gage. "It'll be a way to strengthen the sense of community here on the Far South Side."
The inaugural light show at Pullman kicks off this coming Saturday, Nov. 30. The historic park hopes to make the winter lights of Pullman an annual tradition.