Maxwell Street - The Maxwell Street Market

The Maxwell Street Market

Maxwell Street Market was located from Halsted Street to 16th street. Although there were many fine stationary department stores located in it, the area's most notable feature was its open-air market, precursor to the flea market scene in Chicago. One could almost buy anything there, legal and illegal, even though the old Chicago Police Academy on O'Brien Street was adjacent to it.

In need of jobs and quick cash, fledgling entrepreneurs came to Maxwell Street – many say it was the largest open-air market in the country – to earn their livelihood. From clothes, to produce, to cars, appliances, tools, and virtually anything anyone might want, Maxwell Street offered discount items to consumers and was an economic hub for poor people looking to get ahead. Merchandise was often considered to have originated from hijacked or pirated railcars/railyards and transport rigs for quick resale and dissemination of articles. Few questions were asked about the origin of a vendor's items for sale, particularly if the price was "right."

Maxwell Street Market represented a fundamental change in American retail and economic history. The market was a response to and rejection of stand-alone retail establishments and their price structures. This microcosm of commerce recognized the availability and influx of Asian and world imports and markets (Taiwan, Japan, China, Mexico) priced dramatically lower than American produced goods. Wholesalers lined Roosevelt Road with goods from all over the world; savvy vendors would buy from them to resell on the market at a profit, usually at a 100% markup. The resulting price(s) fell well below goods available elsewhere, due to low overhead. The market also responded to the spending power of immigrants and minorities; they could take their cash where they were welcome, accepted, and could shop. This transition and market did not go unnoticed; subsequent retailers such as Kmart and Walmart built upon these opportunities. The economic impact and spending dollars of Maxwell Street Market were not unnoticed. It may have become obvious to corporate interests that "cash was green," regardless of clientele.

In an era of civil unrest and political change, Maxwell Street Market thrived as a multicultural phenomenon. Each culture and "group" respected and honored the other and mostly interacted outside what were then current national issues. This milieu of culture and ethnicity was a distinctly American phenomenon; Maxwell Street has been called the Ellis Island of the Midwest. Local politics had an interest in the market's audience. Election time often brought many placards and signs (some billboard-like). Everything seemed to work and run as a well-oiled machine. "Spot-holders" (allegedly of mob influence) roamed the streets and interacted with vendors to maintain regular vending sites for which unobtrusive cash payments were accepted. Those not being gratuitous often arrived only to find their "spot" taken by another vendor.

In 1994, the Maxwell Street Market was moved by the City of Chicago to accommodate expansion of the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was relocated a few blocks east to Canal Street and renamed the New Maxwell Street Market. It was moved again to Des Plaines Avenue in September 2008.

The documentary film Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street, by award-winning filmmaker Phil Ranstrom and narrated by actor Joe Mantegna, was first shown at the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival in April, 2007; at The Sundance Film Festival in January 2008; and in Belgium and Poland. The film details the rise and fall of the Maxwell Street and examines the history of the market, the development of the electric urban blues, the fight to save the market, and the gentrification of the Maxwell Street neighborhood. Cheat You Fair includes the last recorded interview by Bo Diddley and is considered by many to be the definitive work on Maxwell Street. Chicago journalist Rick Kogan called it "One of the most remarkable pieces of work I've ever seen."