Fifteen miles south of the Chicago loop, at the center of the historic planned industrial Pullman community, Pullman State Historic Site uses historic structures and public programs to showcase 19th and 20th Century industrial society. The signature Clock Tower Administration Building and Assembly Shops and the grand four story Hotel Florence give evidence to the national and international influences of Pullman on transportation, industrial design, architecture, labor, urban and town planning and landscape design. The historic factory and hotel buildings long ago outlived their original purposes. The State of Illinois purchased the site in 1991 to memorialize an economic, political, and social giant of the industrial age. Today, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, an agency of the State of Illinois, administers the site's transformation through a multi-phase restoration effort. Public programs at Pullman State Historic Site serve broad local, regional, national, and international audiences with tours, lectures, seminars, special events, field schools, archives, and online resources that appeal to both children and adults. The Pullman State Historic Site has an on-site reading room, the Bertha Ludlam Library. It is named after the librarian who built the Pullman Library into a useful community resource.
