Maxwell Street has always been, since its founding in the middle of the 19th century, a working-class immigrant neighborhood. The market to which it gave its name is by nature a changing place, based upon shifting buyers and sellers, the rise and fall of the economy, the migration of artists and musicians, the movement out of one ethnic group and the influx of another. You will be rewarding those who demolish historic places. This is, of course, in direct opposition to your purpose as Keeper of the National Register. There are some at the University of Illinois who argue that history does not need to be represented in buildings and landscapes.
History can happily reside in books and some photographs, they say.
The National Register, and the millions who protect buildings in their communities, and the millions more who visit landmarked buildings and historic sties around the country, are living evidence that this belief is simply false. Our past, and our collective memories of the past reside not only in books but also in physical places. Halbwachs forced us to reckon with the intimate connections between collective memories and the physical landscape. In an era where identities are the subject of intense and often violent struggle, we must be able to turn for instruction to the history of places where races and classes and ethnic groups interacted peaceably and productively. If there is hope for the renewal of public life in modern America, it will require the celebration and protection of places like Maxwell Street.