Three years ago, then-President Barack Obama returned to Chicago amid much fanfare to designate part of the city’s historic Pullman neighborhood as the state’s first national monument.

The proclamation was intended to restore the historic factory grounds of George Pullman’s namesake town, which were devastated by arson. Supporters also hoped to tell of the area’s architectural significance and founding as a model town, the industrial innovation behind Pullman Palace Car Co.’s luxurious sleeping rail cars, the rise of the labor movement and an African-American union’s legacy to the civil rights movement. Read the complete article from the Chicago Tribune.