Welcome to Beautify Pullman! Over the last few months as this project began to expand and develop, we brainstormed ideas for a logo. We were looking to find an image clearly identifiable as Pullman as well as to represent the concept of beautification.
The “station” built in 1925 is a classic and is recognizable to everyone who lives or passes through Pullman. After the station stopped pumping gas in 1990, it continued as a body shop until 1995 on the northeast corner of 109th and 56th. Later it was moved across the street to its current location. Its presence reminds us of an earlier time and makes us wonder what things were like back then. It already contains a collection of many photos and artifacts from Pullman’s past. Sharing its history and supporting its preservation as a landmark were already a priority for Beautify Pullman, so it was a natural to become the centerpiece of our logo.
When it came to representing “beautify”, it was one of our local historians, Debbie Laraway, who began talking about the pickle processing plant that was active in Pullman for many years until in the 1950s. While it was owned by a man from Dorr, it was run by Gunnar Berg from Pullman. The pickle processing plant was located on what had been the lumber yard behind where the Pullman Supply/McNamara’s building is now. Debbie’s dad told her stories about how local farmers got their seed from the plant, grew the pickles, and brought them back for processing. There was a sidearm to the track so that train cars could come right next to the plant and deliver seed and pick up pickles. The plant was elevated and the pickles were made in huge vats and then literally moved by wheelbarrows and loaded right into the train car.
The “pickle flower” represented in the logo is found on the vines where pickles get their start. The role of hard-working local farmers, pickle processing, and of course, the train in Pullman’s development over the years can all be remembered in the beauty of this flower.
Thank you to Bill Pyke and Picture This, LLC of Grand Rapids for creating our logo.