When the Cotton Club first opened in 1943, it didn’t take long for other jazz-inclined entrepreneurs to follow suit with their own establishments. Yet as they opened in succession, each club maintained its own unique selling points. For those that loved Squeezer’s, it may have been Doug Duke’s “virtuosic” hands alternating between piano and organ; for those that loved the Ridge Crest, it may have been the promise of seeing a great like Billie Holiday on stage; and for those that loved the Pythodd, it may have been the camaraderie between the patrons who recognized the club’s place at the heart of their community.

Click through the slider above to see the clubs’ geographic locations in relation to one another, and enter the exhibit to learn more about the places where the people were cool, the jazz was hot, and the “Jazzchester” spirit was alive and well.