Chicago Tribune, October 20, 1897
The Pullman home at 1729 Prairie avenue is one of the handsomest and most comfortable residences on a thoroughfare noted for its fine houses The corner of the lawn runs almost to the spot where stood the once famous massacre tree which was removed to make place for the memorial group in bronze. The house is of brown stone and the interior is fitted up in a costly but unostentatious manner. It is filled with paintings rugs valuable bric-a-brac and art treasures gathered by Mr. Pullman and his wife in foreign lands. Mr Pullman was a near neighbor of Marshall Field and Armour the three men frequently spending their evenings together.
George Pullman paid $500 per square foot for the property on the northeast corner of Prairie and Eighteenth streets, the highest ever paid for a residential lot in Chicago.
The massive house measured 70 by 108 feet, containing more than 7,000 square feet per floor. The entire exterior was clad in Connecticut brownstone, including the large porte cochere along 18th Street. No expense was spared in its construction and only the finest woods and other materials were used in its decoration. Huge public rooms were constructed to house the elegant and large-scale entertainments the Pullmans planned. Amenities included a 200-seat theatre, billiard room, bowling alley, pipe organ and much more.
Newspaper accounts of the house and the events which took place there routinely referred to the house as the most beautiful on Prairie Avenue and in the entire city, lavishing praise on its interiors, said to be “more beautiful than the Gardens of Cashmere.” The Pullmans entertained frequently in their “palace” and it was not uncommon for 400 or more people to attend receptions, musicales, and theatrical entertainments.
The Chicago Tribune said of Mr. Pullman’s drawing room, “In point of location, size, and architecture it surpasses any room of its kind in Chicago, whether public or private.”
In preparation for the wedding of the Pullmans’ daughter Harriet to Francis Carolan in 1892, a huge addition was built onto the northeast corner of the house, and the entire interior was redecorated. The addition included a new library and billiard room, a huge palm room with a 40-foot leaded glass dome, outdoor terraces set with marble mosaics, and an enlarged and remodeled coach house. Across 18th Street, a huge conservatory was set into a private “park” with unobstructed views of Lake Michigan. The addition and remodeling, designed by architect Solon S. Beman, cost in excess of $100,000.
1729 Prairie Addition
George Pullman died in 1897, but his widow continued living in the home until her death in 1921, splitting her time between Chicago and residences in New Jersey, the Thousand Islands, and Pasadena. In November 1921 a three-day auction emptied the house of its priceless collection of artwork, rugs, antiques, and other items. The house was demolished during the summer of 1922, a reflection of the decline of the neighborhood. The property remained vacant until 1941 when a huge, but non-descript brick bus garage was built on the site. That too was demolished in 2000 as the area gentrified, and today, town homes and a condominium tower occupy the site of one of Chicago’s greatest Gilded Age mansions.
Pullman Mansion
1901
Pullman Mansion
1902
THE MASSACRE TREE.
Chicago’s Historic Tree
Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1894
Early yesterday morning a crowd of people collected on Eighteenth street, near the residence of George M. Pullman, and began digging through the asphalt pavement of the roadway. They were as excited and industrious as if they were a rescuing party, digging after entombed miners. The occupants of the Pullman mansion ran out to see what was the matter, and found the crowd was digging for the roots of the historic cottonwood tree, which after standing there for a century or more, and witnessing at short range the Fort Dearborn massacre Aug. 12, 1812, went down before Friday’s storm at 5:15 o’clock in the afternoon.
This celebrated tree might have lived another century if it had been let alone, but civilization killed it. Long after it had attained a great size the grade of Eighteenth street, where it stood, was raised six feet and the earth piled deep over its roots and around its trunk. Then the inevitable gaspipe, which is always death to trees, was laid near it, and finally the whole street as covered with asphalt close to the very bark of the tree. There was nothing left for it but to die, which it did several years ago, and the northwest wind did the rest. The howling of the blast prevented its fall being heard, so that it sank to rest apparently as noiselessly as a rose leaf falls to the ground.
A Rush for Souvenirs.
The significance of this event was fully appreciated in Mr. Pullman’s neighborhood. The venerable trunk had no sooner struck the ground than everyone within a quarter of a mile who had a saw or a hatchet came to hack a piece off it as a souvenir until the Pullmans got scared. It is probable the tree belonged legally to the city, but Mr. Pullman has been its protector so long that he seemed to own it, and as he was absent at the East his representatives begged the crowd not to carry the whole trunk away. As soon as they had scattered the trunk was sawed into two parts, and deposited in Mr. Pullman’s two gardens, one on each side of Eighteenth street, where they still lie. If any one thinks they are not watched let him try to whittle a piece off them with a jack-knife.
The greatest friend this tree ever had is Fernando Jones, who came to Chicago in 1833, and played baseball under its branches when he was a great deal younger than he is now. But for his veneration for this ancient relic and his constant watch-care over it the street officers of Chicago would long since have removed it as a nuisance. It was with a beautiful poetic justice therefore that he was in at its death. It had hardly touched the ground before he was by its side, declaiming its history, and offering to take the corpse home and embalm it. But that matter has been adjourned until Mr. Pullman’s return.
Traditions Cluster Round the Spot.
Mr. Jones is also the repository of the traditions concerning this tree. He says a similar tree used to stand 200 feet south of this one, and an Indian named Capt. Isaac, who participated in the massacre, often told him it was between these two trees the wagon was stopped by the Indians and Black Partridge rescued Mrs. Helm, as represented in the bronze monument erected near the spot by Mr. Pullman. Isaac mimicked the shooting and scalping in such a realistic manner that it left no doubt in Mr. Jones’ mind that he was a thoroughly reliable Indian on this point.
Mr. Jones delights in relating how he once did the same for the tree as Bmck Partridge did for Mrs. Helm. Many years ago the Street Commissioner, seized with a passion for improvement, made ready to lay this tree low, though covered with leafy boughs.
Mr. Jones resented this as he would the sacrifice of a human being, and never ceased his protestation until the relic was delivered and appropriately protected. Mr. Puliman furnished the iron railing which was placed around its base, and which still adheres to the prostrate trunk, and Mr. Jones, with a passion for scriptural quotations, hung on it a board, which was found dangling to one of its limbs when it fell, and on which was this inscription
Chicago Tribune, May 23, 1942
THE MASSACRE TREE.
H. A. .Musham of Chicago, who has delved deep into the story of Fort Dearborn writes us about the cottonwood tree which tradition says sheltered the fighters of 1812. as they fought for their lives during the battle with the Indians: “It is my conclusion, after considerable study, that it not only could not have been standing at the time of the battle, but that the place where it stood was far removed from where the battle took place.
Reasons: (1) Cottonwood trees seldom live as long a time as the so-colled “Massacre Tree” is reputed t have lived. … Its location was unfavorable to the attainment of that age. Its roots would have been bedded in loose sand and it would have been exposed to the fury of the gales on the lake.
(2) This tree must have been planted or have taken root at a later date, probably after this part of Chicago was graded and subdivided into blocks.
(3) According to pictures of this tree (see Kirkland and Andreas) it was, in the year 1884. about 3 feet in diameter at the butt. According to statistics on cottonwoods, it was then about 30 or 33 years old. which would put its start in life about 1850, when the Prairie avenue neighborhood became a subdivision.
(4) The battle did not take place where the tree stood, but about Michigan avenue and 13th street. This is clearly shown by a study of the numerous accounts of it.
(5) The bullets in the tree probably came from the guns of wandering hunters.
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