“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.” (Bey, Chicago Sun-Times, 1/31/25)
Preservation Chicago has long advocated for the restoration and reactivation of the Hotel Florence, along with the many preservation priorities in Pullman. With all of the success of boutique hotels in historic buildings, Preservation Chicago would encourage the Hotel Florence to be faithfully restored and reopened as a highly authentic hotel.
Read the full story at Chicago Sun-Times
- Wanted: A team to return the bloom to Pullman’s historic Hotel Florence; The Illinois Department of Natural Resources wants a group to put the hotel back in business. “It’s about safeguarding a cornerstone of American history,” the head of the Historic Pullman Foundation said, Lee Bey, Chicago Sun-Times, 1/31/25
- Hotel Florence P3 Request for Proposals on Illinois Department of Natural Resource website
- Bill funding restoration of historic Pullman hotel going to Pritzker’s desk, Corli Jay, Crain’s Chicago Business, 6/9/23
- Pullman’s Hotel Florence deserves a chance to welcome guests again; The Pullman community has seen plenty of long-awaited successes in recent years. Legislators have a chance at another one, and should pass a bill to find a private developer to revive the historic Hotel Florence, Chicago Sun-Times, Editorial Board, 5/2/23