Historical Society plans bus trip to South Side mansions
The Mount Prospect Historical Society has planned its second bus trip on Saturday, Aug. 28.
This year, the Society will be exploring historic delights on the South Side of Chicago - first, the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House on the campus of the University of Chicago and then the Pullman neighborhood, where Pullman railroad cars were once built.
The Frederick C. Robie House in the Hyde Park neighborhood was built between 1909 and 1910 and was placed on the very first National Register of Historic Places list in 1966. At the time that he commissioned Wright to design his home, Robie was only 28 years old and the assistant manager of the Excelsior Supply Company, which was owned by his father.
He and his wife, Lora Hieronymus Robie, a 1900 graduate of the University of Chicago, selected the property in order to remain close to the campus and the social life of the university.
After lunch on your own near the university, the tour will continue south to the Pullman neighborhood.
Historic Pullman was built in the 1880s by George Pullman as workers' housing for employees of his railroad car company, the Pullman Palace Car Company. He established behavioral standards that workers had to meet in order to live in the area and charged them rent.
The distinctive row houses were comfortable by standards of the day, and contained such amenities as indoor plumbing, gas and sewers.
This was the site of the two-month-long Pullman Strike in 1894 that eventually required intervention by the U.S. government and military. After Pullman died in 1897, the Illinois Supreme Court required the company to sell the town because operating it was outside the company's charter.
In 1889, the town and other major portions of the South Side were annexed by Chicago, and within 10 years the city sold the houses to their occupants.
Tickets for the trip are $65 per person and include tour admissions and bus transportation. The tour bus will depart from the Mount Prospect Historical Society, 101 S. Maple St., promptly at 9 a.m. and is expected to return by 5 p.m. Lunch will be on your own. Comfortable clothing and shoes are strongly urged.
Space is limited, so if you are interested, contact the office at (847) 392-9006 or visit www.mtphist.org/bustour2021.
The Mount Prospect Historical Society is closely monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to follow available information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At this time, the safest way to engage with the Society is by using the resources on its website, www.mtphist.org/671-2/on-line-resource.
Any changes to the Society's event schedule will be communicated via the website, email and social media.
The Mount Prospect Historical Society is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that is committed to preserving the history of Mount Prospect through artifacts, photographs and both oral and written memories of current and former residents and business people.
On its campus, in the heart of the village, the Society maintains the 1906 Dietrich Friedrichs house museum, carriage house, Dolores Haugh Education Center and the 1896 one-room Central School.