FAMED MAXWELL STREET MARKET IN CHICAGO – On the Move Again!
FAMED MAXWELL STREET MARKET IN CHICAGO – On the Move Again!
FAMOUS CHICAGO STREET MARKET MOVING ONCE AGAIN – BUT WILL IT’S "CACHE" REMAIN?
What – or Where – is Maxwell Street?
If you have ever lived or spent time in Chicago you would know the answer to that one!
It is a city street or more accurately WAS one.
Drive to the 1300 South on Halsted Street today and you’ll see a one-block stretch of quaint-looking old buildings housing chic bars and restaurants. The buildings look old-style Chicago – but really they’re not. They were actually constructed in the late-1990’s after the real attraction of The Street – The locally-famous Maxwell Street Market – was relocated away from its roots in 1994.
For more than 120 years daily – but busiest on Sunday – a string of ramshackle shops and old-school eating establishments (joints more accurately) lined the street. The daily bustle of the street was a flea market for all kinds of household goods and services. Most were procured legally some well – the Maxwell Street rule – DON’T ASK!
Each Sunday during the summertime there was a fruit and vegetable market just to the south and east.
With shops predominantly run by Eastern European Jewish Immigrants many whose owners could not find jobs elsewhere due to anti-semitisim and job discrimination in the early part of the last century the market catered to anyone from any socio-economic class or religious or ethnic group looking for a bargain.
Dickering? It was king here! On everything from packages of sweat socks to white wall tires to cases of toilet paper.
When you hear two Chicagoans talking negotiating a price on something and one party comes back too low you’ll often hear the phrase "What do you think this is – Maxwell Street?"
Both parties even today instantaneously know what that means!
Jim’s Hot Dogs Italian Beef and Pork Chop Sandwiches from a permanent stand RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of Maxwell Street at Halsted were legendary. The Blues Brothers Movie also spotlighted the street – remember Aretha Franklin singing "Respect" from the counter of a coffee shop. THAT WAS MAXWELL STREET – ALL NOW LONG GONE!
I had my first paying job here – when I was only five in 1961!
My grandfather a forty-year Maxwell Street veteran and a tailor by trade earned commission selling modestly-priced (aka "cheap") suits in a basement storefront just off Maxwell and Halsted. When I was a kid my grandpa made me dress in my cute red blazer my white shirt and black bow tie and of course my crew cut.
He was a "puller." Grandpa would stand at the top of the stairs waiting for men in shabby suits to walk by. When he spotted one or two he would gently "pull" them by the coat sleeve downstairs to be "fitted" for a brand-new suit.
My job – hold out both of my hands put a smile on my face and serve as a coat and hat rack for the prospective customer’s overcoat and Fedora while my grandpa measured him up.
This is a true story! I got 10 cents per sale – 25 cents for over 5 sales each day. On a good day I could earn a buck and a half or so!
Well the old market closed 14 years ago making way for an expansion of the University of Illinois at Chicago Campus as well as high-end and mixed-use condos and apartments in the new University Village Neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago.
The entire market – lock stock and barrel – moved to Canal Street just south of Roosevelt Road to the east. A lot of the ambiance disappeared with the move but the market after a brief transition period started doing well.
Now once again the whole market is on the move to the 600-1200 Blocks of South Des Plaines Street just a little to the west of Canal and closer to the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Why the second move?
Well as is the case in many Chicago Neighborhoods the area is "gentrifying." The new chic 21st Century businesses as well as big-box Target Kohl’s and Best Buy’s just don’t swoon to the idea of being located next to a flea market even if it is a Legendary Flea Market.
So the market moves. But it just won’t be the same.
In fact – it never really was ever since the move from the original true Maxwell Street!
See Jeff Long’s story in last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune for more detail reminiscing and quotes by a few of the old Maxwell Street vendors and patrons.
DEAN MOSS & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO
