UIC Destroys Historic Peddler Sheds
The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) continues its relentless attack on the history of old Maxwell Street by destroying three historic peddler sheds that were stored on one its periphery parking lots. The lot is located off of O'Brien Street just east of Halsted. This demolition, starting Wednesday, November 3, 1999, occurred without warning and was finished by Saturday, Novemeber 6.
"This really surprised us", says Maxwell Street Coalition Vice President Steve Balkin. "Usually UIC gives notice so we can remove historic items from a building. Here they just trashed these sheds and put everything in a dumpster and carted it away before we knew what was happening. We know UIC does not want the old buildings in the area but they did say they want to have a museum exhibit on Maxwell Street in the old police station on Morgan Street. These historic sheds would have been perfect for that exhibit. They are archeological in nature, the last peddler sheds of old Maxwell Street. They did not take up much room in a corner of this hardly used parking lot. As a steward of our city's heritage, UIC can not be trusted."
The three sheds were placed on UIC parking lot 17 under an agreement with UIC. Says Merlin McFarland, a resident and informal caretaker of old Maxwell Street, "During the last days of the old market in August and September of 1994, I worked with Mary Ann Johnson, curator of the Hull House Museum to save artifacts. She helped us put the wooden sheds on that parking lot via an agreement she made with the UIC Parking lot department. She said we could keep them there. Either she would use them for her museum or we could use them for a museum on Maxwell Street.
Wes Wegar, another resident of Maxwell Street, says, "Why are they destroying these irreplaceable artifacts they agreed to preserve. It raises questions about their seriousness in protecting and studying history. The people who ordered this should be held responsible. They should be forced to go into those dumpsters to restore what they destroyed."
Balkin thinks UIC's actions are part of a pattern. "UIC is getting desperate and sloppy. Their representatives lied on the public record about the approval of the TIF plan. Previously they reneged about the Decker-Vinci Plan, which would have saved 36 buildings in the area. They must have heard we are reapplying to put the area on the National Register for Historic Sites. So, they are trying to destroy historical parts of the area to diminish its historical integrity. I am now suspicious they may set fires to buildings. Like one of the UIC demolition guys said to me, they are just following orders."
For more information about Maxwell Street, visit the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition website <www.openair.org/maxwell/preserve.html>.
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