SOLD OUT! George Pullman and his Pullman Palace Car Company loomed large in late 19th-century America, from his stately Second Empire-style mansion on Prairie Avenue, to the town he constructed in the early 1880s to house his factory and employees. This tour will explore both sides of the story.

The tour begins at Glessner House with a PowerPoint presentation on the Pullman mansion (demolished in 1922). After a brief walking tour of Pullman’s Prairie Avenue neighborhood, participants will board the Metra Electric line for the 25 minute ride down to the Pullman National Historical Park, taking the exact same route Pullman himself often took.

Lunch will be provided in a privately-owned, restored manager’s house in Arcade Row. The Pullman House Project will open its three sites for interior tours - One Florence Boulevard (the former Pullman Club), the Lisciotto row house (where the Pullman preservation movement began), and a “Honeymoon Row” worker’s flat and shoe repair shop. Other sites include Exhibit Hall (to see the magnificent sideboard from the Pullman mansion) and the National Park Service Visitors Center (in the former Pullman Company administration building). with fascinating exhibits exploring the Pullman company and its employees. The day will conclude with a walking tour of the neighborhood before boarding the Metra for the return trip to Glessner House.

SOLD OUT! Explore the history, art, and architecture of South Bend, Indiana in this full-day bus tour. Indiana’s fourth largest city rose to prominence in the 19th century as home to the Studebaker Corporation, Singer Sewing Machine Company, the Oliver Chilled Plow Company, and the University of Notre Dame. Highlights of the tour include:

-Copshaholm, the 1897 Queen Anne-Romanesque mansion of the Oliver family designed by New York architect Charles Alonzo Rich

-Lunch at Tippecanoe Place Restaurant, located in the former mansion of Clement Studebaker; the 1889 Richardsonian Romanesque house was designed by Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb

-The Studebaker National Museum, featuring the largest presidential carriage collection in the U.S. including the carriage Lincoln rode to Ford’s Theatre on the night of his assassination

-The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, with more than 31,000 works displayed in its new Beaux-Arts inspired building designed by Robert A. M. Stern

-The Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park featuring more than twenty sculptures set on nine acres of landscaped grounds designed by Michael van Valkenburgh; with a very special tour led by Charles B. Hayes

Ticket price includes round trip transportation via motor coach, lunch, and admission to all sites.

This tour will explore Hutchinson Street, a beautiful residential street located in Chicago’s Buena Park neighborhood. The 700 and 800 blocks were designated as the Hutchinson Street District by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in 1977. A showcase for residential architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the street is well known for several homes designed by George W. Maher, spanning two decades of his career.

The tour will continue on Buena Avenue and Hazel Street, and will include a brief stop inside the former mansion now occupied by the publisher, Haymarket Books, before arriving at Hutchinson Street itself. After a discussion of the early development of the area and its annexation to Chicago in 1889, we will study a variety of significant houses. George Maher’s commissions range from the 1894 Queen Anne style of the John C. Scales house, to his design for the Claude Seymour house of 1913, showcasing classic Prairie Style characteristics. Houses by other architects including Jenney & Mundie, George S. Kingsley, Huehl & Schmid, and Richard Schmidt will provide a comparison to Maher’s works.