ABOUT MAXWELL STREET

Chicago's Maxwell Street was one of America's great outdoor markets. People from every nationality assembled freely in this 14 square block area in the heart of the ghetto, "the Ellis Island of the Midwest." It was a safe place, a refuge for the poor and downtrodden where you could always find a bargain. It was where the American hot-dog was born.

Maxwell Street was also "the New Orleans of the North," where partnerships between blacks and Jews spawned the earliest recording studios and launched both the modern blues and the earliest rock and roll.

Maxwell Street was the home of Bo Diddley, Junior Wells, Little Walter, Uncle Johnnie Williams, Big Bill Broonzy, Papa Charlie Jackson, Arthur Crudup, Hound Dog Taylor, One-Armed John Wrencher, One-legged Sam, Snooky Prior, Sonnyboy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and countless blues legends who paved the way for supergroups like The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Cream.

In 1994, Maxwell Street, the birthplace of the modern blues, was lost to urban renewal and campus expansion by the City of Chicago and the University of Illinois/Chicago.