Steven Walton and I are in Chicago this week to visit a whole series of archives for the Pullman Heritage Project. We have very targeted questions this week– learning about the design and evolution of the Palace Car Erection Shops as associated industrial buildings. We will deal with bigger and broader questions in later visits.
If you’ve been wondering about the factory design, the plot thickens! I was reading about the architects involved in the design and drawing of Pullman. In The Autobiography of Irving K. Pond (2009). He described his youth on the project, including this passage (Swan and Tatum 2009: 81):
Land had been acquired on the western border of Lake Calumet and far to the south, and a track and shop engineer had been working in conjunction with an Architect and landscape architect; and by the end of 1879 the general plan had reached a nearly complete development. In the spring of 1880 the plan in great part was ready for the third dimension…
So who is the Track and Shop Engineer that worked with S. S. Beman on the design of the factories? We will try and find this out during this week!