CHICAGO: MAXWELL STREET MARKET

Chicago’s Maxwell Street Market before and after government-funded “urban renewal.”

The Maxwell Street Market was the largest open-air market in the US, covering over nine square blocks in the primarily Black, Latino, and immigrant neighborhood of the Near West Side. Reaching its peak during the first half of the 20th century and featuring items for sale from all over the world, the Market was also the birthplace and incubator of the Chicago Blues.

The many Black artists who had come to the city fleeing the Jim Crow south in the 40s and 50s would perform at the market, where they could easily reach the largest audience. The loud setting helped give birth to a new genre, the Chicago Blues, which utilized electric guitars and amplifiers in order to be heard over the roar of the market. The genre was popularized by giants such as Muddy Waters, Littler Walter, Bo Diddley, and more, many of whom often performed at the market. Louis Armstrong was also known to perform at clubs in the area during his time in Chicago.

By 1994, after over 100 years in operation, the market closed when the University of Illinois Chicago (@uichicago) demolished it for the construction of athletic facilities, as well as a private, university-sponsored development. Using federal, state, and municipal funds, throughout the 1980s UIC purchased buildings in the neighborhood—at an artificially deflated price due to rumors that the state would exercise eminent domain—and razed them wholesale. Years earlier, the Dan Ryan Expressway had physically cut the market in half, devastating property values in the neighborhood and further deflating prices.

“Urban renewal” agencies often speak of “slum clearance” in technological and financial terms, describing the neighborhoods they destroy as “obsolete” and economically unviable. However, so strong was the economic pull of the Maxwell Street Market, that even after the majority of its buildings had been razed to the ground, merchants and vendors still diligently set up shop——trying to make a living, despite the state’s concerted effort to prevent them. The Blues lived on in the area too, with regular performances finally ending in the 90s.