Meeting will discuss Pullman neighborhood's legacy

An upcoming Illinois Historic Preservation Agency meeting will explore possible options for including Chicago's Pullman neighborhood in the National Park System.

The meeting of the preservation agency will take place Aug. 21 at the Pullman Factory Complex in Chicago.

Agency officials say representatives from Sen. Dick Durbin's office and the National Park Service will discuss efforts to include the site and the surrounding neighborhood as a unit of the national parks. Members of Congress have introduced legislation adding Pullman to the park system, but supporters have want President Obama to act more quickly.

The Pullman neighborhood began as company-owned housing for workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company. It was the first planned community of its kind and the site of a major workers' strike in 1894.