The Maxwell Street Market has been a Chicago staple for over a century.
Over the years, the location has changed but traditions remain. In 1964, the market moved to Canal Street as the University of Illinois Chicago campus grew. It was re-established on Desplaines Street in 2008 and then moved again when the area became the city’s landing zone for migrants arriving by bus.
This summer, the once-bustling market will finally return to its original home near the UIC campus, the city recently announced.
However, it’ll be a far cry from its peak: the market, which once operated year-round with roughly 1,200 vendors, will open for six days with only 35 sellers.
We wanted to know from Sun-Times readers what made the Maxwell Street Market so special in its heyday, so we asked:
What’s your defining Maxwell Street Market memory?
Responses below have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
“My dad was a vendor for years there. I remember him getting up at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning to go get a spot. He made a lot of friends there. We always ordered Congress pizza when he got home Sunday night. His name was Kevin and sadly he past away in 2021. When I heard they went back to the original spot I thought of him and cried. Maxwell Street was a big part of my life.”
— Kimberly Payton
“Playing music in front of the polish sausage stand every Sunday morning with my blues band.”
— Marcus A. Brown Sr.
“When I was very young, my parents, grandparents and I stopped on Maxwell Street to do our Saturday thing. Because my grandparents were from the South, they loved blues, so we joined in a crowd gathered around one performer who my gr’pops on the ride home kept saying, ‘John Lee was really giving that geetar a go.’ I later found out who John Lee Hooker, the great bluesman, was. #greatmemory”
— KweenKee Kween
Low-reen and the Maxwell St. Market Blues Band play at the closing party for the I. Sachs Sons wholesale shoe repair supply store April 26, 2015. I. Sachs Sons has been in the Maxwell Street neighborhood since 1920. It is the last of the original Maxwell Street shops to move.
James Foster/Sun-Times Media
“My father buying me my first sportcoat in 1961 or so. And the crackling energy of the place. There was simply no place like that in my hometown of Aurora!”
— Lee Rusch
“I remembered going there a few times in the mid to late 70s as a kid. One time I remember we were driving very slow in the summer and a man on the street put his arm through the open window in front of my sister and asked if she wanted to buy a watch. On his arm must’ve been seven or eight watches, it was kind of hilarious. She didn’t think so and and of course was startled, but looking back at it, it just makes me laugh.”
— Ed Byers
“Great pricing. Bought first Jordan shoe there, two of them [for] 90 bucks each for my kids.”
— Syed A Ahmad
“Many years ago — maybe 1952 or 1953 — I went with my dad to Maxwell Street. He bought for me my first bicycle (used) — for the total price of one dollar. I wish I still had that bike.”
— Ken Staroscik
“Every time my dad took us there we would start with one of those green branches of sugar cane that you could just gnaw on till the cows came home. It was super sweet and thinking back I think it was addictive! My mom would not approve, of course, but that didn’t stop us. I remember going through the bucket and being choosy, like it mattered! They were all the same, but my brother and I made a big deal out of the selection process.”
— Toni Scavo
“Early to late 60s going on Sundays to get Maxwell Street Polish and Pork Chop sandwiches with grilled onions. I would also buy furniture down there, and loved the live blues music. Oh, I almost forgot, ‘Chicken Man.’”
— Cecil Broughton
“Grew up as a flea market kid setting up shop with my pop to sell beauty products. It was a community, we knew each other and looked out for each other. I loved getting there early setting up shop then splitting a steak and egg breakfast from white palace grill. The sounds, the foods, the camaraderie, it was great growing up here!”
— Nathalie Magallanes
“Bought my wife’s wedding ring from one of the stores on Maxwell [in] 1964.”
— James Lumpkins
“I worked on Rush Street as both a waitress and a bartender, and, when the bars closed at 5 a.m. on Sunday morning, some of us would head over to Maxwell Street straight from work. One day, a guy was selling puppies, and it was cold and they were shivering, so my gal pal asked him. “How much?” He said, “For one?” She said, “All of them.” Each of us took a puppy with us, and she kept them all. She just couldn’t stand to see them so cold.”
— Mary Jane Tala
“Summer 1966 I went to Chicago for the first time with my neighbor’s family. He was a 6’4 tall, stocky farmer and at Maxwell Street in front of a whole stall of bananas, he started singing in a bass voice: ‘Yes, we have no bananas, we have no bananas today.’”
— Kapra Fleming
“My cousin taking me to the market my first time on the back of his motorcycle in 1982. It was a mile from my house, but it was a different world. It was so new, sight, sounds, smells. It was both exhilarating and scary and I loved it.”
— Ryan Holden