University Village is a renamed near west Chicago neighborhood consisting of newly constructed residential and retail properties. University Village, along with other major developments such as University Commons, University Station and Roosevelt Square is located near the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, the Illinois Medical District, and downtown Chicago. The University of Illinois Chicago borders the neighborhood on the north, the neighborhood of Pilsen borders the south, the Dan Ryan expressway I-94 borders the neighborhood on the east and Ashland Avenue borders the neighborhood on the west.

University Village is a late 1990s housing development in the shadows of the University of Illinois at Chicago. The neighborhood encompasses the old Maxwell Street neighborhood. From the late 19th century until the 1920s, the Maxwell Street neighborhood was an important Jewish neighborhood for many Jews who had escaped government organized "pogroms" in their countries of origin. They established an outdoor market both to replicate many of the traditional markets from their countries of origin, but also as a way to make a living when starting out in the United States with very little. Once the "Great Migration" of African Americans from the south began in 1919, the neighborhood became increasingly African American though many of the businesses remained in Jewish hands. It is at this time that the music known as "Chicago Blues" originated and was performed on Maxwell Street.

The motto of Maxwell street was "we cheat you fair" and it was widely known that people should get to the market early so that they could be the first customer of the day because vendors would go down to any price so they could sell something to the first customer of the day, thinking that it would bring them luck. Nate's Deli which was previously Lyon's deli was an important landmark in the neighborhood. Opened by Ben Lyon, a Jewish man in the neighborhood, in the 1920's, he eventually sold the deli to his devoted employee, Nate Duncan, an African American child of the "Great Migration." Nate kept all of the original recipes until the deli was torn down by the University Village development in the 1990s. The famous scene from the "Blues Brothers" where Aretha Franklin sings "Think" was filmed in Nates Deli.

It was at Maxwell Street where Abe "Fluky" Drexler first began to sell the Chicago style hot dog in 1929, and where Jim Stefanovic created the Maxwell Street Polish at Jim's Hot Dog Stand. (Chicagoans believe that this is where the hot dog itself was invented....) The Original Jim's was torn down around 2002 and relocated to nearby Union Street, just off the Roosevelt road on-ramp to the 90/94 expressway.

The Maxwell street market continues today on Canal Street between Taylor and 16th streets. It is largely a Mexican market today, and is still a wonderful place to find interesting things and great bargains.

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