[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 129, 114th Congress, 1st Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
Proclamation 9233 of February 19, 2015

Establishment of the Pullman National Monument

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The Pullman National Historic Landmark District (Pullman Historic
District) in Chicago, Illinois, typifies many of the economic, social,
and design currents running through American life in the late 19th and
early 20th century, yet it is unlike any other place in the country.
Industrialist George Mortimer Pullman built the model town to house
workers at his luxury rail car factories. Although his goal was to cure
the social ills of the day, the tight control he exercised over his
workers helped spark one of the Nation's most widespread and
consequential labor strikes. The remaining structures of the Pullman
Palace Car Company (Pullman Company), workers' housing, and community
buildings that make up the Pullman Historic District are an evocative
testament to the evolution of American industry, the rise of unions and
the labor movement, the lasting strength of good urban design, and the
remarkable journey of the Pullman porters toward the civil rights
movement of the 20th century.
The model factory town of Pullman was created in the 1880s by the
Pullman Company to manufacture railroad passenger cars and house workers
and their families. Company founder George Pullman saw the positive
incentives of good housing, parks, and amenities as a way to foster a
happy and reliable workforce. Pullman and his wealthy industrialist
peers could not fail to see the poor living conditions in which many of
their workers lived. The industrial revolution drew hundreds of
thousands to urban areas, which led to a rise in slums and social ills.
The widening gulf between management and workers contributed to labor
unrest, which was acutely felt in Chicago. Pullman was convinced that
capital and labor should cooperate for mutual benefit and sought to
address the needs of his workers using his philosophy of capitalist
efficiency. He attempted an uncommon solution to the common problems of
the day by creating a model town.
Pullman engaged young architect Solon Spencer Beman and landscape
architect Nathan F. Barrett to plan the town and design its buildings
and public spaces to be both practical and aesthetically pleasing. Beman
designed housing in the simple yet elegant Queen Anne style and included
Romanesque arches for buildings that housed shops and services. Though
he strove to avoid monotony, Beman imbued the town with visual
continuity. The scale, detailing, and architectural sophistication of
the community were unprecedented. Barrett broke up the monotony of the
grid of streets with his landscape design. Trees and street lights
enlivened the streetscape. Unified, orderly, and innovative in its
design, the model town of Pullman, then an independent town south of
Chicago's city limits, became an internationally famous experiment in
planning and attracted visitors from far and wide.
The model factory town of Pullman is considered the first planned
industrial community in the United States, and served as both an
influential model and a cautionary tale for subsequent industrial
developments. The beauty, sanitation, and order George Pullman provided
his workers and their families were not without cost. Pullman believed

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people did not value the things they did not pay for. The Pullman
Company owned every building and charged rents that would ensure a
return on the company's investment in building the town. He also created
a system of social control and hierarchy discernible in the standards of
conduct for residents and in the architecture and layout of the
community that can still be seen today in the well-preserved Pullman
Historic District. For example, the larger, more ornate, and finely
finished houses on Arcade Row were reserved for company officers, while
junior workers resided in smaller, simpler row houses, and single and
unskilled workers resided in tenement blocks with less ornamentation
located farther away from the town's public face.
PROCLAMATION 9233--FEB. 19, 2015
PROCLAMATION 9233--FEB. 19, 2015
In 1893, the worst economic depression in American history prior to the
Great Depression hit the country in general and the railroad industry in
particular. Orders at the Pullman Company declined. The Pullman Company
lowered its workers' wages but not the rents it charged those workers
for company housing. These measures angered the workers and sparked the
Pullman strike of 1894. The American Railway Union, led by Eugene V.
Debs, had formed the year prior in Chicago, with membership open to all
white railroad employees of any profession. In solidarity, American
Railway Union members nationwide boycotted Pullman cars, disrupting rail
traffic across much of the Nation. Thus, the strike that began as a
local walkout on May 11, 1894, grew into one of American history's
largest labor actions, paralyzing most of the railroads west of Detroit
and threatening the national economy.
On June 27, 1894, as the Pullman strike was growing, the Congress passed
legislation designating Labor Day a Federal holiday, and President
Grover Cleveland signed it the next day. Thirty-one States had already
adopted the holiday, but it was the Pullman strike of 1894 that spurred
final Federal action in an attempt to placate workers across the Nation.
At its peak, the Pullman strike affected some 250,000 workers in 27
States and disrupted Federal mail delivery. The United States secured a
court injunction declaring the strike illegal under the Sherman
Antitrust Act, and President Cleveland ultimately intervened with
Federal troops. The strike ended violently by mid-July, a labor defeat
with national reverberations.
George Pullman did not loosen his tight control of the town of Pullman
after the strike ended. Illinois sued the Pullman Company in August
1894, alleging that the company's ownership and operation of the town
violated its corporate charter. The Illinois Supreme Court agreed in an
1898 decision, and ordered the company to sell all non-industrial land
holdings in the town. By that time, Robert Todd Lincoln, the oldest son
of President Abraham Lincoln and general counsel of the Pullman Company
during the 1894 strike, had succeeded George Pullman as president of the
company. In 1907, the company finally sold most of its residential
properties to comply with the Illinois Supreme Court's order.
The Pullman Company would again be the focus of a nationally important
labor event when, in 1937, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
(BSCP), an influential African American union founded by A. Philip
Randolph, won a labor contract for the Pullman porters from the company.
The Pullman Company leased its cars to railroads and directly employed
the attendants--porters, waiters, and maids. At its

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founding, the company hired recently freed former house slaves as
porters. The porters remained a group of exclusively African American
men throughout the company's history, playing a significant role in the
rise of the African American middle class. By 1937, the Pullman Company
had been the Nation's largest employer of African Americans for over 20
years and Pullman porters composed 44 percent of the Pullman Company
workforce. The 1937 contract was the first major labor agreement between
a union led by African Americans and a corporation and is considered one
of the most important markers since Reconstruction toward African
American independence from racist paternalism. The agreement served as a
model for other African American workers and significantly contributed
to the rise of the civil rights movement in the United States. The
Pullman Historic District is an important site for understanding the
iconic historic connection between the Pullman porters, the BSCP, and
the Pullman Company.
The architecture, urban planning, transportation, labor relations, and
social history of the Pullman Historic District have national
significance. The Pullman Historic District tells rich, layered stories
of American opportunity and discrimination, industrial engineering,
corporate power and factory workers, new immigrants to this country and
formerly enslaved people and their descendants, strikes and collective
bargaining. The events and themes associated with the Pullman Company
continue to resonate today as employers and workers still seek
opportunities for better lives.
WHEREAS section 320301 of title 54, United States Code (known as the
``Antiquities Act''), authorizes the President, in his discretion, to
declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and
prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific
interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the
Federal Government to be national monuments, and to reserve as a part
thereof parcels of land, the limits of which shall be confined to the
smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the
objects to be protected;
WHEREAS the Pullman Historic District was designated a National Historic
Landmark on December 30, 1970, establishing its national significance
based on its importance in social history, architecture, and urban
planning;
WHEREAS the Governor of Illinois, Members of Congress, the City of
Chicago, other State, local, and private entities, including Pullman
neighborhood organizations, and others have expressed support for the
establishment of a national monument in the Pullman Historic District
and its inclusion in the National Park System;
WHEREAS the State of Illinois Historic Preservation Agency has donated
to the United States certain lands and interests in lands within the
Pullman Historic District, including fee title to the Administration
Clock Tower Building and an access easement thereto, for administration
by the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) through the National Park
Service in accordance with the provisions of the Antiquities Act and
other applicable laws;
WHEREAS it is in the public interest to preserve and protect the
historic objects in the Pullman Historic District, Chicago, Illinois;

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NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of
America, by the authority vested in me by section 320301 of title 54,
United States Code, hereby proclaim the objects identified above that
are situated upon lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by
the Federal Government to be the Pullman National Monument (monument)
and, for the purpose of protecting those objects, reserve as a part
thereof all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the
Federal Government within the ``National Monument Boundary'' described
on the accompanying map, which is attached to and forms a part of this
proclamation. These reserved Federal lands and interests in lands
encompass approximately 0.2397 acres, together with appurtenant
easements for all necessary purposes.
All Federal lands and interests in lands within the ``National Monument
Boundary'' described on the accompanying map are hereby appropriated and
withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection, sale, leasing,
or other disposition under the public land laws, from location, entry,
and patent under the mining laws, and from disposition under all laws
relating to mineral and geothermal leasing.
The establishment of the monument is subject to valid existing rights.
Lands and interests in lands not owned or controlled by the Federal
Government within the ``National Monument Boundary'' described on the
accompanying map shall be reserved as a part of the monument, and
objects identified above that are situated upon those lands and
interests in lands shall be part of the monument, upon acquisition of
ownership or control by the Federal Government. The ``National Monument
Boundary'' described on the accompanying map is confined to the smallest
area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be
protected within those boundaries.
The Secretary shall manage the monument through the National Park
Service, pursuant to applicable legal authorities, consistent with the
purposes and provisions of this proclamation. The Secretary shall
prepare a management plan for the monument within 3 years of the date of
this proclamation. The management plan shall ensure that the monument
fulfills the following purposes for the benefit of present and future
generations: (1) to preserve the historic resources; (2) to interpret
the industrial history and labor struggles and achievements associated
with the Pullman Company, including the rise and role of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters; and (3) to interpret the history of urban
planning and design of which the planned company town of Pullman is a
nationally significant example.
The management plan shall, among other provisions, set forth the desired
relationship of the monument to other related resources, programs, and
organizations within its boundaries, as well as at other places related
to the Pullman Company and the stories associated with it. The
management planning process shall provide for full public involvement,
including coordination with the State of Illinois and the City of
Chicago and consultation with interested parties including museums and
preservation and neighborhood organizations. The management plan shall
identify steps to be taken to provide interpretive opportunities and
coordinate visitor services for the entirety of the Pullman Historic
District to the extent practicable and appropriate for a broader
understanding of the monument and the themes that contribute to its
national significance.

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The National Park Service is directed to use applicable authorities to
seek to enter into agreements with others to address common interests
and promote management efficiencies, including provision of visitor
services, interpretation and education, establishment and care of museum
collections, and preservation of historic objects.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing
withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however, the monument shall
be the dominant reservation.
Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate,
injure, destroy, or remove any feature of this monument and not to
locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day of
February, in the year of our Lord two thousand fifteen, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
ninth.
BARACK OBAMA


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