Maxwell Street

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Coordinates: 41 ° 51 '51.6 "  N , 87 ° 38' 48.9"  W Maxwell Street is a short street in Chicago ( USA ). It runs from Blue Island Avenue east to Clinton Street , beinginterruptedbetween Union Avenue and Jefferson Street by the Dan Ryan Expressway and a warehouse. Halsted Street crossesit roughly in the middle.

Although there were also many shops there, the whole area had for decades more of the character of a large market and was in many places a precursor of the Chicago flea market scene : You could buy and sell almost anything there, whether legal or illegal.

Maxwell Street was later famous for its blues music and street musicians (e.g. Arvella Gray , Jim Brewer ) after many African-Americans came to Chicago from the southern United States because of racial discrimination there in the 1930s and 40s an important part of Chicago's black culture. Documentary filmmaker Michael Shea shot his film And This Is Free (1964; music released as And This Is Maxwell Street ) here.

In the late 1970s, this street was used for some outdoor shots for the film The Blues Brothers .

In 1994 the market on Maxwell Street was demolished as part of an expansion of the neighboring University of Illinois, Chicago campus , and it was re-installed a few blocks away on Canal Street, now called New Maxwell Street Market . In September 2007 he moved again, this time to nearby Desplaines Street, north of Roosevelt Road.

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