Master Plan Needed to Guide Port's Impact in 1957

The intense calls for the demolition of Pullman in 1960 didn't arise suddenly. The push began in the late 1950s, as evidenced by a 1957 article that advocated for a coordinated effort to study and "develop" residential areas near Lake Calumet, long-considered “stepchild” neighborhoods. This study, conducted by Jack Van Schltema and Joe Burda, arrived in 1960 and recommended the complete demolition of the historic town.
On May 30, 1957, the Chicago Tribune published an article predicting "revolutionary" changes around Lake Calumet, including the area now known as the Pullman National Historical Park. The story underscores the role that popular media at the time played in promoting the idea of redeveloping the area. The timing of the article coincided with the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which promised to transform Lake Calumet from an underdeveloped area into a new international trade center.
Conservative estimates projected that by 1970, 35,000 new workers would be drawn to the proposed industrial expansion of the Calumet area, highlighting a pressing housing issue as heavy industrial zoning left little space for new homes, leading to competition between industrial and residential developers for the same land.
The proposed 2,300-acre "Lake Calumet Port Development" promised to boost Chicago's wholesale trade by $22 billion annually, but advocates argued there was no comprehensive plan to guide the primarily industrial expansion, which aimed to attract skilled and unskilled labor from regions with surplus labor, particularly the South.
In 1956, Calumet industries offered some of the highest wages in the Midwest, with petroleum and coal workers earning $113 weekly, primary metal industry workers $101, and those in nonelectric machinery and transportation equipment around $95, with most manufacturing employees earning between $88 and $113 per week.
Data indicated that 30% to 35% of new workers would live north of 79th Street, 6% to 10% east of Lake Calumet and south of 79th Street, and 15% to 20% west of Lake Calumet and south of 79th Street, with many nearby neighborhoods facing issues like inadequate zoning, blighted vacant land, and lack of infrastructure, leading to concerns about unregulated construction and calls for coordinated management between Illinois and Indiana.
In 1957, the Calumet area had a population of 159,091 within a 30-minute travel time from Lake Calumet and a manufacturing labor force of 25,670. The entire area employed 347,000 people, 51% in manufacturing plants, with the steel industry leading with nearly 100,000 workers.
The Chicago Regional Port District was created in 1951 to develop port facilities over a 257-square-mile area, and the city of Chicago later transferred all of Lake Calumet to the port district. Planning of harbor facilities needed to integrate with the Army Corps of Engineers' plans for the 1961 Calumet-Sag Channel widening, which would increase barge transportation. The city was also interested in developing commercial terminal facilities in the downtown Chicago harbor and had begun reconstructing Navy Pier.
The need for an interstate port authority was recognized in Illinois in 1933, proposed by the Dawes Commission, but while Indiana passed the bill, it was defeated in the Illinois assembly. Experts stressed the necessity of joint Illinois-Indiana action to compete with other Great Lakes ports like Hamilton, Toledo, Cleveland, and Milwaukee, as the seaway was expected to be completed in 1959.
The Calumet area, accounting for significant portions of Chicago's employment in primary metal (85%), petroleum and coal (72%), chemicals, stone, clay, and glass (30%), and transportation equipment (21%), was deemed highly attractive for new industry due to its vacant land, water transportation, and waterway system linkage, prompting planners to call for control standards to prevent slums and conduct an intensive land use study, with Ira J. Bach indicating a revision of the 1946 land use plan to guide development amid rapid changes, expected to be completed in 1957.
At the time, the city planning staff was reexamining the zoning pattern of the Lake Calumet area, as proposed in comprehensive amendments to the city's zoning law. Efforts by agencies like the Chicago Regional Planning Association and the South Cook County Regional Planning Association were seen as critical to addressing the Calumet area's challenges.
This article from the Chicago Tribune offers a fascinating look at the media's role in promoting the agenda of developers who aimed to demolish the town of Pullman and replace it with industrial warehouses, a site now preserved as a National Historical Park.