PULLMAN — In 1953, Calvin Overton took a pal’s advice, left his rural Illinois farm behind and headed to Chicago to find a good paying union job.
“Well, my horse laid down and died, and I said the heck with this,” my 85-year-old neighbor said. “So, it was a good time to go.”
After a short stint at Republic Steel, Overton got hired on to work in the Pullman Factory making artillery shells as part of the Korean War effort.
“I needed a job and answered a want ad and wound up in Pullman,” Overton said. “I broke a record for turning out the most 155 mm shells for the Defense Department. I still hold that record. After that, I switched over to working on the railroad cars. Labor work mostly.”
In the early 1960s, Overton and his late wife rented their first an apartment in Pullman. In 1977, they paid $19,000 for the house he still calls home today.
“That was quite some time ago,” Overton said. “Lots changed around here.”
He lived in Pullman when the train car wheelworks factories closed, fires gutted the Administration Clock Tower and Market Hall, which still remains a ruin.
From his front porch, Overton watched as decay infected the Hotel Florence and hard economic times left blocks of historic row houses pocked with boarded-up windows.
And while tending to his flower beds, Overton also watched neighbors band together to celebrate Pullman's architecture and hold events aimed at preserving the history of a neighborhood once called "The World's Most Perfect Town."
"All us neighbors worked hard toward saving the neighborhood," said Overton, one of Pullman's elders. "And for a long time I think we’ve tolerated each other because we all wanted the same thing — to live here and be safe."
On Thursday, I invited ol' Calvin to join me Thursday to watch President Barack Obama sign the executive order forever marking the neighborhood a national monument, the biggest positive change Pullman has seen in a more than a century.
“If you think I can contribute to the day, I’ll certainly be there," he said.
We sat in the front row to the right of the stage and listened as the president shared a short history of important moments in labor and civil rights history and a bit of his personal connection to our neighborhood.
Obama told the crowd of neighborhood folks and local leaders that he got his start as a political organizer here, his mother-in-law worked at Pullman Bank and his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, is a descendant of a Pullman porter.
After the speech, Overton got a chance to shake the president’s hand, and he thanked him for giving the neighborhood where he raised four kids a real “shot in the arm.”
Ol' Calvin was beaming when he told me, "The president understands Pullman pretty well. More than I did. He taught me a few things."
“I think he’s made quite a contribution, and this gives Pullman a jump-start," he said. "And, boy, we needed it. I think we’ll do well. He gave us a lot of honor and respect. And what he’s done will last a long time after I’m gone.”
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