Pullman House Project

enement apartments reflecting the conditions experienced by Pullman workers and their families. Their stories will help understand why workers from all over the world left their native homes to relocate to the Town of Pullman. Experience first hand what life was like for these workers and their families in the Town of Pullman. One of the workers you will meet is Thomas Dunbar. Born in Scotland in 1864 Dunbar immigrated in 1885 to work as a carpenter for the Pullman Palace Car Company. He returned to Scotland in 1887 to marry Jessie M Rosse, a dressmaker. Thomas and Jessie returned to Pullman in January 1888, arriving in New York on the ship Servia from Liverpool. They took up residence in a Pullman apartment at 200 Stephenson Street where they lived until 1896, and where their three children were born - Donald in 1889, Thomas in 1891 and Bessie in 1893. During this time Thomas Dunbar was rising through the ranks of the company. In 1896 he was promoted to Foreman and moved his young family into a single family row house at 103 Watt Ave. By 1900 Dunbar had been appointed to one of Pullman's highest positions - Superintendant of the Pullman Car Works. Along with his promotion the family moved into one of the Pullman's Executive Houses. The family was joined by a live-in servant, Alice Wibalda an immigrant from Holland. As Superintendant of the Works, Thomas Dunbar oversaw the manufacture of the world famous Pullman Palace Cars during the period of time when passenger railcar manufacture transitioned from wood framed cars to steel framed cars. This great American success story was made even more compelling when Thomas Dunbar was named as a vice president of the Pullman Company. The tour will visit Dunbar's Executive Row home. Pullman became home to hundreds of families of both skilled and unskilled workers. These families lived in small single family cottages and small apartments. The tour visit the Honeymoon Row Flats where you will experience the living conditions of Pullman's working families. These apartments were among the smallest in Pullman at just 450 square feet, with a "living" room and 2 bedrooms. The tour will show how these apartments might have been furnished. Tenants in these units included blacksmiths, painters, cabinet makers, laborers and even a shoe repairman. One of the families living on Honeymoon Row was that of John Davidson, a car painter and the brother in law of Thomas Dunbar.