Abraham Peck <abraham.peck@uc.edu> Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996
Dear Chancellor Broski:
As director of the American Jewish Archives, the premier institution devoted to the American Jewish experience, I must tell you how shocked and saddened I am to learn of the University's plans for commercial development of the Maxwell Street area.
I need not tell you that outside of New York's Lower East Side, the Maxwell Street area represents the most important center of Eastern European Jewish settlement during the great immigration of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Maxwell Street area has entered the status of legend in the history of American Jewish life and must be preserved in as much historic detail as is possible.
Indeed, if Maxwell Street were only important as an area of American Jewish settlement, it would merit such an act of historical preservation. But it was more. It became the place that many African-Americans settled in the "Great Migration" from the southern United States in the period after World War I. It was there that Chicago "blues," an expression of African-American consciousness, was first created, and which formed one of the most important bases of Rock N'Roll.
Finally, the Maxwell Street Area became a center of Hispanic life, reflecting the "new immigration" in American history. All of these stages have marked the Maxwell Street area as a place where the multicultural evolution of American society is clearly and importantly reflected.
There is no doubt in my mind that this area is perfect for the development of a historical preservation district along the lines of Memphis' highly successful Beale Street and its commercial and musical attractions.
The University would, I believe, achieve a tremendous public relations coup by incorporating a plan for the historic preservation of the Maxwell Street District, I have no doubt that celebrities such as Mike Royko and Studs Terkel would publicize these efforts to the broader Chicago community. The University would also be doing the right thing in preserving the historical memory of a great American and Chicago landmark.
If I can be of any help to you with regard to the historical backgrounds of any of the issues I have discussed in this letter please call or write to me.
With all good wishes, I am
Cordially,
Abraham J. Peck
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