Jazz was born in New Orleans, but grew up in Chicago. This was largely due to Louis Armstrong, who moved to Chicago to play with King Oliver in 1922. His first stop was a boarding house at 3412 South Wabash. But in 1924 he married fellow jazz great Lil Hardin, and the two bought a house at 421 East 44th Street, in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. After a brief stint in New York, he returned to this home and lived there from 1925-1929. These years may have been Armstrong’s most creative and productive. He formed his own band, the Hot Five (later the Hot Seven), and recorded songs like “West End Blues.” He played many of these songs at the Sunset Café, a “Black and Tan” nightclub at 315 East 35th Street. Today, the café is part of Meyers Ace Hardware, but part of the original murals can still be seen in the back room. Armstrong left Chicago for good in 1929, but his greystone still stands. Both edifices are testimony to Chicago’s jazz pedigree.
421 E. 44th and Sunset Café/Meyers Ace Hardware, 315 E. 35th
Fine Arts Building Act One: The Golden Age, A Building Reborn The building itself is actually 138 years old, opening its doors in 1885 as the Studebaker Brothers’ Lake Front Carriage Repository. But they quickly outgrew their showplace. When the Fine Arts Building reopened in October 1898, it had been staged as an artist-only space. The building was a hit. In its first few years, artists and crafters of every kind…
