A former stable building that once was part of the broader Pullman Company industrial campus, where terracotta horse heads still adorn the second story facade, has been a working part of the community since the early 1900s.
These days, the building is being used to help community members how to work and build, offering instruction in woodworking, preservation and skilled trades.
“There’s a story to be told in Pullman and its beautiful architecture,” said Nick Lubovich, founder and executive director of the Pullman Tech Workshop, which is housed in the building at 11314 S. Front St. “Unless it’s handled properly, it will go away.”
Before it was the Pullman Tech Workshop, the former stable building had been home to Argus Brewery from 2009 until it closed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Lubovich was a brewery historian there from 2009 until 2020. He and his wife, Barb, a midwife, also bought a home in Pullman more than 20 years ago, which was in need of repair.
He started stripping the wood in his home and realized it would take forever. So he asked some men he saw hanging around nearby if they’d be willing to help and they did.
“I saw some adults in the street who were probably unemployed and told them I just needed someone to help me strip the wood,” he recalled. “They became very good at it and went on to strip other houses. That was my ‘ah ha’ moment.
He likened the situation to the old proverb about feeding the hungry versus teaching them how to obtain food. “I had taught someone how to fish,” Lubovich said.
That was the inspiration for the Pullman Tech Workshop, which was founded in 2021.
Tamika Powell, a college friend of Lubovich’s who had been working as an early childhood education teacher but wanted a new career path, joined the effort as well.
Powell handles special projects, including a vegetable garden, also worked by students, who get to enjoy the food once grown.
“I love it because it’s really relaxing to me,” said Powell, explaining the gardening has that effect on students, too. “It grounds me.”
Besides teaching how to restore the many historic properties in the area, the workshop teaches skills to people, many who can use a second chance. The workshop is a “trauma-informed facility,” Powell said, and veggies are just one of the foods offered to students to be sure they don’t go hungry while there. There’s also fresh coffee, snacks and fruit cups. A laundry room is also available to students.
The lobby is cozy and welcoming, with a cabinet full of pictures and mementos made by students, and there’s stained glass artwork on the wall and comfy seating.
“Our participants always say it feels like family here, and we take that seriously,” said Powell. “Community and support are just as important as technical skills.”
Lubovich said people can’t be expected to learn if they are hungry or worrying about their clothes being dirty.
“And that’s why there’s always warm coffee here,” he said.
One of the founding donor firms was SC Johnson, which owns Method Products in Pullman. Johnson recently donated $75,000 to the workshop’s Advanced Workforce Development Training program.
“There were so many young people who wanted to learn,” Lubovich said of the help the grant will provide. “They (Johnson) believed in our vision at the very beginning, and that support helps us transform both people and places.”
The workshop offers an eight-week Handyman Service and Building Maintenance Training program which teaches drywall repair, basic plumbing and electrical and painting, and takes place in a large room with work tables and tons of equipment. Upstairs, students use a lab room to practice their skills fixing toilets, pipes on sinks and patching holes in walls. The walls are then torn down and rebuilt by the next cohort of students.
Students also do repairs or painting at nearby Greenstone United Methodist Church, which they call the “living lab.”
A Social Enterprise Program offers custom woodworking, marketing products and digital fabrication services to consumers.
Student Da’Shawn Smith recently sat in the workshop helping shop manager Donovan Parks paint a door for a Pullman rowhouse, after having milled and primed the wood. Smith had done basic training and was now in the Advanced Workshop Development Training. He now wants to become an electrician.
Some of the organizations that work with the workshop include Voice of the City/After School Matters, Mercy Home, YWCA, Hire 360, United Way, CEDA/UpLift Harvey, Chicago CRED and Chicago Handyman, which sends instructors, who were recently there doing a team-building exercise.
Other major donors have included Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the Tullman Family Office.
“They come here and see what we’re doing,” Lubovich said of the donors. “They see what we’re doing is changing lives.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
