By Chuck Cowdery <cowdery@ix.netcom.com>, President, Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition. 4/9/98
For what may be the last time, the sound of live blues was heard again on Chicago's legendary Maxwell Street this past Saturday, April 4. It was a bright and beautiful April morning, the businesses along Halsted and Maxwell were thronged with customers, and Halsted Street was thick with cars. The familiar scent of steamed onions perfumed the air and it was not difficult to imagine that it was 1968, or 1938, or even 1898. The Maxwell Street neighborhood was alive with people and commerce. All of this will end soon if the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) gets its way.
On Saturday, the hungry line for Maxwell Street polish sausage sandwiches and other delicacies at Jim's Original was continuous so close to lunch time, as demonstrators assembled across the street. They brought signs, leaflets, and a deep commitment to the century-long heritage and culture of Maxwell Street. They gathered at the southwest corner of Maxwell and Halsted, against the fence of the UIC parking lot that now occupies the site of Nate's Deli and other lost landmarks. Nate himself was among the demonstrators.
To make the scene complete, live blues was performed by Maxwell Street veterans Piano C. Red, the Flat Foot Boogie Band, and Jimmie Lee Robinson. As in the old days, the musicians plugged their amps into an electrical outlet provided by an obliging merchant. Robinson performed his original composition, "Maxwell Street Tear Down Blues." People stopped to hear the music, eat lunch, and learn about the senseless destruction of a precious urban landmark. Participating in the demonstration were all segments of the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition, including religious leaders from neighborhood churches, community leaders from nearby Pilsen, members of the Chicago Green Party, current and former Maxwell Street residents and merchants, UIC students and staff, historic preservationists, blues lovers and others. The most prevalent emotion was anger at UIC, which last week announced its intention to end a self-imposed moratorium on demolition in the historic neighborhood, seemingly scrapping its earlier plan to keep the retail character of the blocks around Maxwell and Halsted intact. (On Friday, March 27, the Chicago Tribune reported that UIC is preparing to demolish six buildings in the Maxwell Street area to make room for student dorms.)
Many now suspect that the land use plan announced last summer was a hoax, announced only to placate preservationists until university officials were ready to put their real plan into effect. Despite lovely weather, crowded sidewalks, and evocative scents and sounds, the Maxwell Street neighborhood experienced by Saturday's demonstrators was a shadow of its former self. Nothing can hide the devastation that has occurred already. Looking west from the demonstration site all that is left is the Maxwell Street police station, now housing the UIC police and surrounded by new baseball fields. To the north, Halsted Street all the way to Roosevelt is still open for business, but all of its buildings need work. To the east, the last remaining block of Maxwell Street still has most of its buildings, but only a handful of active businesses. All of the buildings, as well as the street and sidewalks, have been left to deteriorate deliberately to make their eventual destruction seem appropriate, if not inevitable.
Saturday's demonstrators were there to say that a public institution should not be allowed to obliterate essential parts of a community's heritage and culture. For more than a century, Maxwell Street has been the Ellis Island of the Midwest, the first stop for new arrivals from foreign lands and other U.S. regions. As birthplace of the Chicago Blues, its importance to the development of American popular music is undisputed, and no force in recent decades has had more impact on world culture than American popular music.
The large group of buildings that remains in the area is authentic to the middle decades of the 20th century, the most important era for the development of Chicago Blues. One of the oldest structures, 721 West Maxwell, dates from the 1860s and is one of only four buildings left in this part of Chicago from the period before the Great Fire. Many other buildings in the area have historical and architectural significance apart from their importance as part of a cohesive Maxwell Street Historic District.
Most of the historic Maxwell Street neighborhood has already been destroyed, but its final obliteration will be even more offensive because it is so unnecessary. Preserving what remains is perfectly compatible with the university's needs and goals, but the university is oblivious. A demonstrator's sign said it all: "UIC - University Insensitive to Culture."
Since its creation after the 1994 relocation of the Maxwell Street Market, the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition has urged UIC to develop a South Campus Expansion plan that provides for restoration and reuse of the many historic buildings in the Maxwell Street neighborhood. The preservation of these physical remains is essential to our second goal, the creation of an environment in the revitalized neighborhood that recognizes, cherishes and continues the heritage and culture that have made Maxwell Street world famous.
The compatibility of the Coalition's proposal with UIC's needs is obvious. What music-loving student would not want to live on Maxwell Street, once home to Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Hound Dog Taylor and many other blues legends? What music-loving student wouldn't want to hear live electric blues performed on the very street where the electric blues originated? Yet that same student would rightfully be ashamed to live on a Maxwell Street completely annihilated by UIC's monumental ignorance and insensitivity.
The proposal advocated by the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition is supported by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, Chicago's Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, and political leaders such as Congressmen Danny Davis, Bobby Rush and John Conyers, to name just a few.
Coincidentally, the demonstration for Maxwell Street was held on the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and on the 83rd anniversary of the birth of Muddy Waters. It is now up to the people of Chicago to tell their leaders which they want Saturday, April 4, 1998 to represent for Maxwell Street, death or rebirth? UIC has already cast its vote for destruction, disrespect and ignorance. The Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition will continue its fight to ensure that UIC does not have the last word.
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