7th District Police Station

Infobox_nrhp | name =7th District Police Station
nrhp_type =

---

caption =
location= Chicago, Illinois
lat_degrees = 41
lat_minutes = 51
lat_seconds = 52
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 87
long_minutes = 39
long_seconds = 2
long_direction = W
locmapin = Illinois
area =
built =1888
architect= Edbrooke, Willoughby James; Burnham, Franklin Pierce
architecture= Romanesque
added = May 02, 1996
governing_body = State
refnum=96000515cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

The 7th District Police Station, or Maxwell Street Station in Chicago, Illinois was built in 1888 in response to the need for increased police presence in "Bloody Maxwell", known colloquially as "the Wickedest Police District in the World."cite web|url=http://www.uic.edu/depts/police/History%20of%20Maxwell%20Street%20Station.htm|title=History of Maxwell Street Station|date=2008-06-07|work=University of Illinois at Chicago Police Department|publisher=University of Illinois] The neighborhood, a changing melting pot of Irish, German, Italian and European Jewish immigrants, grew mightily in the years following the Chicago Fire of 1871. The housing and sanitation situation in the district was substandard, and the residents poor. Criminal activity flourished.

The Romanesque style station 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 brick and limestone building became the home of the University of Illinois at Chicago 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."cite web|url=http://www.uic.edu/depts/police/History%20of%20Maxwell%20Street%20Station.htm|title=Maxwell St. Station|date=2008-06-07|work=University of Illinois at Chicago Police Department|publisher=University of Illinois]

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". ["Mystery Reader's Walking Guide:Chicago", iUniverse ISBN 0-59523-021-0. (Excerpt at [http://books.google.com/books?id=Efj3-rh2XE0C&pg=PA326&lpg=PA326&dq=7th+district+police+station+chicago&source=web&ots=3_2xn4iTmP&sig=V_brGFr5G4eN-K59AucmvTzdU-M&hl=en] , accessed 2008-06-07)]

References