DePaul students excavating former Pullman town

DePaul University students are digging into the past of a Chicago community that was the brainchild of rail car magnate George Pullman.

The students are wrapping up a five-week anthropological dig of a city block that once was home to a fancy shopping arcade.

DePaul junior Mike Marshall found a piece of copper pipe over the weekend on the far South Side. Other students have found everyday items from the area around the arcade that had its heyday in the 1880s.

Historic Pullman Foundation President Michael Shymanski said the arcade was where workers and executives used to shop together.

Pullman was its own town until it was incorporated into Chicago in 1889.