Rows of brick company rowhouses around a Victorian clock tower factory, and the hotel Road to Perdition used as a 1931 Rock Island mansion.
What Pullman looks like
Attached brick rowhouses line the side streets on a strict grid, two storeys behind shallow porches and low front fences. Mature trees stand along the curbs. A few blocks have wider bay fronted duplexes with dormered attics and covered porches, set apart from the plainer rows.
The stands three storeys in red brick with stone banding. A steep mansard roof studded with dormers tops it, and a wraparound porch on iron columns faces an open lawn. A short walk north, the old factory and administration building has its own brick clock tower. A slate spire rises over arched windows, and a long low wing of round headed openings runs the length of the block. Its ground floor now serves as a National Park Service visitor center.
Nearby, a curved two storey building lines a paved court behind a run of stone arches, its ground floor arcade open on both sides. The Metra Electric platform at 111th Street sits above the street grid on an embankment, the clock tower's spire visible past the wires and signal gantries. Farther south on St. Lawrence Avenue, the rowhouses continue past a shingled brick building with arched doorways, its ground floor now a storefront.
Shot in Pullman
Road to Perdition used the Hotel Florence on South Forrestville Avenue as Connor Rooney's home, with a warehouse elsewhere in the historic district for the scene where young Michael finds his father's line of work. The Fugitive used a payphone at Pullman's Pub for the call to the one armed man. The pub, since closed, stood on East 113th Street.
Road to Perdition, 2002
Hotel Florence
Played Connor Rooney's home, Rock Island, Illinois, 1931
Built in 1881, the Hotel Florence plays Connor Rooney's home in the film's 1931 setting. The production used the hotel's own porch and roofline for the exterior, and a warehouse elsewhere in the historic district for the scene where young Michael discovers his father's line of work. Street View
What Pullman can double for
Rock Island, Illinois
Road to Perdition already used the Hotel Florence's mansard roof and wraparound porch to play a Rock Island mansion in the film's 1931 setting. The scale and detailing suggest a well off river town address of the period rather than a company hotel. Keep close on the porch and the mansard roofline. A wide shot that catches the factory building or the rowhouses next door gives away the company town setting. Try searching mansion mansard roof now.
Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England
Saltaire's planned grid of workers' terraces around a mill, an institute and a church matches Pullman's own layout around the factory and the hotel. The stone used there is a warmer honey colour rather than Pullman's red brick. Colour correction has to work harder here, and a wide shot that shows brick rather than stone gives the swap away immediately. Try searching stone terraces mill institute now.
