Maxwell Street Market
734 W Maxwell Street (Little Italy/University Village)
What started as a kind of flea market for locals, this Sunday-only bazaar grew into a full-fledged cultural phenomenon. Recognized by the city in 1912, the market grew to about nine blocks. In the early years, the venders were almost all Jewish immigrants, but over time the demographics changed and changed again. The diversity was so great that the market earned the moniker “Ellis Island of the Midwest.” The earliest housing in the Maxwell Street neighborhood was built for Irish immigrants, but over time the area served as a gateway to Greek, Polish, African American, Mexican, Bohemian, German, Russian, and Italian people new to the country.
Halsted and Maxwell Streets marked the epicenter of the market, but vendors selling everything from batteries to tube socks to pornography to high-end jewelry to fine clothing stretched from Roosevelt Road to 16th Street. Wares were displayed on card tables and TV trays, sometimes literally out of car trunks, but shop owners along the street also used the festive market to lure customers into their stores. It was accepted practice for customers and vendors to haggle over prices, and some of the street hustlers would follow would-be buyers down the street, tugging at their sleeves.
Over time, musicians played and food was grilled throughout the market.
Blues musicians who came to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, as well as established Chicago legends, found that their largest audiences could be found at the market. In order to be heard, they increased their amplification systems, an evolution that some critics credit as the defining characteristic of “Chicago blues.” Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Nighthawk, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, and Howlin’ Wolf were among the many blues musicians to play Maxwell Street. The Rolling Stones were heavily influenced by the Maxwell Street blues, as well as gospel singers on the street. Mick Jagger’s stage routine for the song “Power” took inspiration from gospel singer Carrie Robinson, a regular performer on the street for three decades starting in the early 1940s. Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis played nearly every Sunday for 40 years, including songs like, “Cold Hands.”
Food stands, such as Jimi’s Original Hot Dogs and Rubi’s tacos, became as famous as some of the blues musicians. Yugoslavian-born founder Jimmy Stefanovic is credited with creating the now-famous Maxwell Street Polish sausage sandwich. Nate Duncan, a Black man, ran a Jewish-style deli on the block.
The construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway in 1957 cut the original market in half. Mayor Richard J. Daley championed the 1965 opening of the University of Illinois-Chicago in the neighborhood; his son, Richard M. Daley, sounded the market’s death knell when he signed off on the university’s major expansion. Despite major protests and outrage from citizens, the Maxwell Street Market ended in 1994 to make way for the new University Village. The city’s compromise plan was to relocate the market, but the atmosphere, attendance, and significance of the bazaar died an almost immediate death. The market, then mostly Mexican venders, set up on Canal Street for a time, then drifted to a few other locations, including Desplaines Street. Last year, the market returned to its original location and will be active on alternate Sundays between mid-May and Mid-October, albeit in a dramatically pared-done iteration.
