Pullman House Project opens, expanding historical site
CHICAGO — For National Park Week, the “Pullman House Project” on the far South Side is unveiling its latest restoration project as it expands its tours of the historic site.
Just across form the Pullman National Historical Park on 111th Street, we find the latest addition to preserving history through the story of Americo Lisciotto and his role in helping to save his home.
“He was the son of Italian immigrants … They came a little after 1900. The reason he’s named Americo is because he was the first child born in America … and that was a big deal,” Mike Shymanski from the Pullman House Project said.
Shymanski is one of the leaders of the project, offering tours of the homes, telling the stories of those who’ve lived here for nearly 150 years.
“It focuses on individual families, special families and the average family. 53 and it ranges from an executive’s house to a skilled workman’s house to an unskilled laborer’s house,” Shymanski said.
The Lisciotto family home is the latest restoration.
Depicting what it may have looked like when the Italian American family lived here nearly 70 years ago.
“It was a close neighborhood,” said Anti Ferguson, who grew up in Pullman.
Ferguson is one of those locals who grew up in the area and knew about the Lisciotto family before the tours started picking up.
“I’m really happy about the way it looks now. There were some years where things were starting to go downhill and I’m very pleased with the way it looks now,” Ferguson said.
The area, once marked for demolition and urban renewal, was saved and preserved through the efforts of Lisciotto and his neighborhoods, starting in the 1960s.
The movement made enough progress over the years to get the former Pullman company site designated as a national history park by US Congress in the past few years.
“It was just a great neighborhood. Kids everywhere, riding bikes, playing baseball in the street, it was nice,” said former Pullman resident Gary Meredith.
Through tours and donations, the Bielenberg Historic Pullman Foundation and Pullman House Project continue the efforts to restore the mansions and rowhomes that once made up this factory town and provided generations of Pullman railcars to the world and a central role in the U.S. labor movement.
Through the stories of everyday Chicagoans who, more than six decades ago, saw the value in keeping the story of Pullman workers, their families and their neighborhood alive.
“It’s important because its an excellent example of neighbors getting together and doing the volunteer work to make it happen,” Shymanski said.
For more information: https://www.pullmanathome.org/
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