| Title: |
Pullman, Illinois, Historic Site: Hotel Florence in Planned Company Town(editor's title) |
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Description:
The Hotel Florence, built in 1881 and named for George Pullman's oldest and favorite child (he had two girls and two boys), is undergoing a $3.5 million renovation. When completed, it will again be the center of programs for the Pullman State Historic Site. The hotel exhibits many aspects of the Queen Anne style. The long elegant veranda and the bold north wing containing the parlor achieve a satisfying balance. The first room was rented in November 1881. The hotel cost $100,000 to build, and the furnishings in Eastlake design from Chicago's Tobey Company an additional $31,000. Cherry wood was used on the first floor and the Pullman suite on the second; pine elsewhere except for the fourth floor which was furnished in oak. The floor in the lobby was encanstic tile in a geometric pattern. The other floors were carpeted. The first floor had a ladies' parlor and a dining room with a capacity of more than 100; the rest of the first floor rooms were "men only:" a reading room, barbershop, billiard room, bar, and office. Unaccompanied women used the north entrance to the hotel and could not register as guests. The small hotel bar was the only one in town and too expensive for workers who were not welcome anyway. For drinks, they went across the Illinois Central tracks to Kensington (still called "Bumtown" by older residents, because hobos often dropped off there before trains reached the yards downtown). First in series. |
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| Resource Type: |
Image (DCMI Type Vocabulary)
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| Coverage: |
Spatial, Chicago, Illinois; Temporal, ca. 1890-1900 |
| Location: |
Pullman Works, Chicago, Illinois |
| Collection: |
Detroit Publishing Company Collection |
