The state will soon begin looking for a team to fix up and operate the long-closed Hotel Florence, a 144-year-old landmark in the historic Pullman community.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources said it will issue a Request for Solicitations on or after Feb. 15, marking the start of the agency’s search for a developer-led group that can restore the state-owned Queen Anne beauty at 11111 S. Forrestville Ave., and its 1914 annex and put them back in business.
According to the IDNR, the purpose of the project is to reopen the hotel to the public and “provide an economic asset to the greater Pullman community.”
The operator would be required to keep the hotel running for 75 years. A winning team could be selected by September, IDNR said.
Built in 1881 for $100,000, the hotel was a centerpiece of the model industrial town built by railroad car manufacturer George M. Pullman.
It was fancy lodging for the times, with staff, a dining hall, and a veranda that wrapped around the building. Pullman himself kept a private room there.
Solon Spencer Beman, who designed the homes and buildings of Pullman’s town, was the hotel’s architect as well.
The hotel earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. And the Historic Pullman Foundation bought the Hotel Florence in 1975 to save it from demolition.
The state purchased the building in 1991 with hopes of turning it and the factory site into a tourist attraction.
Meanwhile, the hotel has turned up in motion pictures, including the 2002 crime thriller, Road to Perdition, starring Tom Hanks and the 1987 film The Untouchables.
With the exception of being open for occasional tours, the hotel has been closed since 2000. And the state’s efforts to renovate the hotel have been spotty at best for the last quarter century.
But the rejuvenated effort to reactivate the Hotel Florence, if successful, could be a huge boost to current efforts to bring tourists and commerce to the Far South Side neighborhood.
The former Pullman factory and administration building — now the restored Pullman National Monument Visitors Center, operated by the National Park Service — sits at 111th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, right across the street from the hotel.
Helping the deal: The state has set aside $21 million infrastructure funding to help restore the hotel and the non-federally owned former Pullman Company industrial structures on the national monument’s campus.
Those structures include the North Factory Wing and the Rear Erecting Shop, two vacant state-owned buildings adjacent to the visitors center; and a 1911 railroad passenger car that was used by Robert Todd Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln’s son, when he was Pullman Company president.
“Preserving Hotel Florence is about much more than saving a building,” said Historic Pullman Foundation Executive Director Robert Montgomery.
“It’s about safeguarding a cornerstone of American history, where stories of innovation, community, and progress continue to inspire future generations to appreciate the Pullman National Historical Park,” he said.
Lee Bey is architecture critic for the Sun-Times and appears on ABC7 News Chicago. He is also a member of the Editorial Board.
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