Maxwell Street 7th District Police Station on "Dead Man's Corner," Chicago, Illinois.

The 7th District Police Station, located at 943 West Maxwell Street, also known as the Maxwell Street Station was built in 1888 in response to the need for increased police presence.

Maxwell Street Precinct - Morgan & Maxwell Streets

Maxwell Street Precinct Restored - Morgan & Maxwell Streets

It was built during a period of tremendous growth after the Chicago Fire of 1871, as the city’s population exploded from 298,000 to almost 1.1 million. As late as 1850, the entire police force of Chicago consisted of just nine men, but the growing population, along with the social and economic changes, created the need for more law enforcement.  

The force expanded from 9 officers to 455 policemen assigned to 11 precincts in 1872, to more than 1,255 policemen in 20 district police stations by 1888. In 1906, the Chicago Tribune called the district “Bloody Maxwell”, and “the Wickedest Police District in the World”.

The neighborhood was termed “the terror district” by a newspaper reporter of the time. It was a changing melting pot of Irish, German, Italian and European Jewish immigrants and grew mightily in the years following the Chicago Fire of 1871. This densely populated area echoed with the sound of 50 foreign tongues, the clatter of the push cart wagon and the ragged vendors peddling their produce and wares in the market a block due east. There were thousands of ram-shackle wooden hovels (a small, squalid, unpleasant, or simply constructed dwelling) and airless worker cottages with the outhouse inconveniently located in the alleys of tenements pushing up against the police station.  

Between 1880 and 1920, the most violent spot in "Bloody Maxwell," the most violent neighborhood in Chicago, was the corner of 14th place and Sangamon, otherwise known as Dead Man's Corner. Conveniently near the Maxwell Street Police Station, Dead Man's Corner was continually the site of gun battles between police and criminals.

Very often the Maxwell Street police officer, bewildered by the old world customs and buzz of strange languages he heard on the street, thought he was the foreigner in the foreign land. In 1898, the city census taker counted 48,190 residents living in squalid tenement buildings along Taylor, DeKoven, Forquer, Loomis, Lytle, and other streets comprising Little Italy nearby. It was a tough assignment in a dangerous area of the city for a young officer learning the ropes. Poverty bred crime. In “Bloody Maxwell” there were an escalating homicide rate and the scourge of the Black Hand terrorists who preyed on the immigrant Italians living near Taylor Street in the 1890’s and early 1900’s. The term “Bloody” was loosely applied to many police districts and city wards in the old days, but it seemed to take on special significance along the Near West Side corridor, especially during the wild and woolly 1920’s when Taylor Street, located in the heart of the old 19th Ward, evolved into the production center for bootleg alcohol in the City of Chicago.  

It was a vast criminal enterprise controlled by the “Terrible” Genna brothers - Angelo, Pete, Jim, Tony and Mike from Marsala, Italy, who were graduates of the Black Hand. Their liquor warehouse stood at 1022 Taylor Street. It was rumored that at least half of the uniformed patrol working out of “Bloody Maxwell” in the early 1920’s received $15 every Friday from the Genna brothers by simply stopping by the warehouse for their weekly envelope.

Lieutenants and captains from neighboring districts were said to receive upwards of $500 a week - quite a sum in those days. Over the years, the legendary station played host to some of the nations most notorious criminals, including Sam Giancana and Al Capone.

The 7th District, anchoring the western end of the Maxwell Street market, quieted down considerably following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. After World War II, the district witnessed the slow exodus of its immigrant population - a process that greatly accelerated in the early 1960’s when hundreds of acres of residential property west of Halsted were bulldozed to make way for the University of Illinois campus.

The station itself is Romanesque in style and is architecturally significant as an example of pre-1945 police stations in Chicago. It was designed by Willoughby J. Edbrooke and Franklin Pierce Burnham. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. 

The Chicago Police Department vacated the station in 1998. After extensive renovation, the red pressed brick and Joliet limestone building with walls three feet thick at the base became the home of the UIC Police Department. The renovations were done in a manner designed to uphold the historic significance of the building’s architecture. The building’s original windows were sent to a company in Kankakee for restoration, the masonry cleaned and repaired, the roof replaced and parapets at the top of the station rebuilt using custom-made bricks, the exact texture and color of the originals.

The building is known in popular culture because the outside was used as the picture of the precinct house in the opening credits of the iconic television series, Hill Street Blues which ran on NBC from 1981 into 1987. The exterior was used for the television series Chicago P.D.

Hill Street Blues TV Show - Note Maxwell Street sign has been changed to Hill Street.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Chicago Common Brick and Street Paver Brick History.

Chicago was built and rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 using Chicago common brick. Also produced for roadways and fancy building brickwork were known as Chicago Street Paver Bricks," all of which were produced in Chicago from local clay. Although some people assume the streets were "cobblestone," Chicago DID NOT use cobblestone for public works.

Chicago Street Paver Bricks - These have been saved from street resurfacing projects.

Chicago bricks look different from bricks produced in other regions due to the geological composition of the clay in our area and the method used to fire the bricks. This clay produced salmon and buff shades of color when it was heated intensely in the old brick making process. These colors are uniquely different from the reds, creams, and browns found in other regions.

Original surface uncovered Trolley Tracks and Setts (see below) around the heavily used tracks.

Chicago Street Paver Bricks uncovered.

In the peak of Chicago common brick production, Chicago was home to over 60 different brick manufacturers, some of which started in 1872 to keep up with the demand for Chicago common brick after the Great Fire.

The Front and street side of 1363 N. Bosworth, Chicago. The front facade is the most heavily composed side, with stone and Chicago Street Paver bricks (heavily articulated finish brick). The street-side comes second, with a lesser grade of brick but still ornamented with considerable corbeled brickwork.

Street Pavers were much denser than the common bricks used for buildings, although some multi-unit properties use the Street Pavers for the front facade of the building. When the Street Pavers became worn under heavy traffic or damaged in some way, they were individually dug-up and flipped over, putting the previous underside on top which gave the repair a like-new quality.

The rear of 1363 N. Bosworth, Chicago, Illinois. The utterly plain backside is done in Chicago common brick.

Demand for Chicago common bricks eventually decreased with the increased use of concrete block and wood and the remaining brick production companies in Chicago were consolidated under one company name, the Illinois Brick Company. 

Then Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1970 and the newly established Environmental Protection Agency required the Illinois Brick Company to bring their kilns and processing facilities into compliance with new regulations. This would have cost the Illinois Brick Company millions of dollars so, rather than complying, they decided to shut down brick manufacturing operations.

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NOTE: 

As seen in this image, Sett granite pavers, cut like brick were used mostly by industry's where there was heavy traffic, for a business that uses heavy construction vehicles and around railroad track spurs and loading docks. You can see from this picture that cobblestone was not used in Chicago.

For people that insist Chicago used cobblestone on the streets, contact the experts at:

Colonial Brick Company at 2222 S. Halsted, Chicago.
"Specializing in Chicago Antique Brick since 1968." 
312-733-2600

They will verify that Chicago did not use cobblestone for street paving. They were Chicago Street Paver Bricks. They reclaim, clean, and resell Chicago Street Paver Bricks for commercial use.

Learn about Chicago Belgian woodblock paving.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.