Everything Chicago. Mostly random. Always local.

Everything Chicago. Mostly random. Always local.

Living in Edgewater: A Local’s Guide to Community Area 77

Edgewater is Chicago’s community area 77, a lakefront slice of the far North Side that the City split off from Uptown in 1980. Living there means apartment towers along Sheridan Road, walk-ups and 1890s houses inland, four Red Line stations, the shops of Andersonville on Clark Street, and a beach at the end of more than one east-west street.

Housing: lakefront towers, walk-ups and Cochran’s houses

Edgewater’s housing runs from high-rises on the lake to single-family houses a few blocks west, with a lot of apartment buildings in between.

The developer John Lewis Cochran bought land here in the mid-1880s (the Encyclopedia of Chicago says 1886, WTTW says 1885) and built lakefront mansions, with smaller houses inland. After the L reached Howard in 1908, apartment buildings and residential hotels filled the blocks between Winthrop and Kenmore, followed by postwar four-plus-ones. On Sheridan Road, most mansions came down between the 1950s and 1970s for high-rises, which is why it now reads as a canyon.

Three National Register districts hold the older stock. Lakewood Balmoral, around Magnolia, Lakewood and Wayne between Foster and Bryn Mawr, is Cochran’s 1890s-and-later houses on narrow lots. Edgewater Glen, approved by the Department of the Interior on December 30, 2024, documented about 400 buildings, mostly houses from the 1890s to 1920s. The Bryn Mawr Historic District has been on the Register since 1995.

Getting around: four Red Line stations

Edgewater has four Red Line stations: Berwyn, Bryn Mawr, Thorndale and Granville. Berwyn, Bryn Mawr and Granville are accessible; Thorndale is not, so plan on stairs there.

Berwyn and Bryn Mawr are brand-new. Both closed for about four years and reopened on July 20, 2025, as part of the CTA’s Red and Purple Modernization Phase One, along with Lawrence and Argyle to the south in Uptown. The project replaced century-old track structure on the 1.3-mile stretch from Lawrence to Bryn Mawr, removed the old concrete embankment walls and added elevators, escalators, wider platforms and big translucent canopies. Bryn Mawr also got a second entrance at Hollywood, handy for the beach.

Buses fill the east side: the Park District lists the 84, 147 and 151 near Osterman Beach, and the 147 and 151 near Lane Beach. In January, the walk from the platform to the lake will remind you which direction the wind comes from.

Andersonville and Clark Street

The City’s approximate neighborhood map puts two names inside community area 77, Edgewater and Andersonville, and Andersonville is the Clark Street side.

Its commercial strip is a National Register district, listed in 2010, running along Clark between the 4900 and 5800 blocks plus side streets and parts of Ashland, with 116 significant properties. The street’s Swedish history still shows in its buildings. The Swedish American Museum, founded in 1976 and dedicated that April by King Carl XVI Gustaf, occupies the 1905 Lind Hardware building at 5211 N. Clark. At 5400 N. Clark, the former Swedish American State Bank (1913) is clad in white terra cotta and has been a City landmark since 2008. The Calo Theater building (1915) is known for its terra cotta, and Simon’s Tavern (1907) ran as a speakeasy during Prohibition.

Women & Children First, at 5233 N. Clark, opened in November 1979 as a feminist bookstore and changed hands to its current owners in 2014.

Bryn Mawr and Broadway

Bryn Mawr Avenue, between Broadway and Sheridan Road, is the most built-up three blocks in Edgewater, and it’s a terra cotta street.

The 12-story Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel (white terra cotta, Gothic Revival) and the 8-story Belle Shore (green and cream terra cotta, Egyptian-inspired Art Deco) face each other at 1039-1062 W. Bryn Mawr; both date to 1928-1929 and became City landmarks in 2002. At the lake end, the 20-story Edgewater Beach Apartments (1928, Marshall & Fox) wears its original “sunset pink,” repainted from 2025 to match a 1928 can found in the basement. The Edgewater Beach Hotel next door is gone; sources say 1967 or 1971.

As of June 2026, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks had given a 15-building Bryn Mawr district a preliminary recommendation; final designation needs City Council.

On Broadway, the 1916 Broadway Armory, built as a skating rink and later a National Guard armory, is now the Park District’s largest indoor recreation building. The Edgewater branch library, opened in 2013, is at 6000 N. Broadway.

Beaches, parks and the end of Lincoln Park

Edgewater’s lakefront is mostly beaches and small parks at the ends of streets, with Lincoln Park’s northern tip at the south end.

Osterman Beach, between Hollywood and Ardmore, was called Ardmore and Hollywood Beach until 1993, when it was renamed for Edgewater alderman Kathy Osterman. It sits on landfill finished in 1958 as the final extension of Lincoln Park. North of it, the planned extension to Devon never happened, so the lake is reached through pocket parks. Lane Beach, at Thorndale and Sheridan, was long known as Thorndale Avenue Beach and was renamed in 1975.

Berger Park (3.5 acres) at 6205 N. Sheridan keeps two surviving Sheridan Road mansions, the 1906 Downey House and 1909-10 Gunder House, which the Commission on Chicago Landmarks recommended for landmark status in 2013; the north one is a cultural center. City data counts 13 Park District parks centered in Edgewater, including Senn Park (6 acres), Lane Beach and Broadway Armory, plus mini-parks. Five CPS schools are here, including Nicholas Senn High School.

Edgewater at a glance

Edgewater is official community area 77 of Chicago’s 77. Inside its lines: 4 CTA L stations, 13 Chicago Park District parks, 1 public library branch and 5 Chicago Public Schools buildings. Neighborhood names on the City’s map that fall at least partly inside: Andersonville, Edgewater.

L stations

  • Berwyn: Red Line (accessible)
  • Bryn Mawr: Red Line (accessible)
  • Granville: Red Line (accessible)
  • Thorndale: Red Line (not accessible)

Parks

  • Senn Park: 6.0 acres; playground, community center
  • Berger Park: 3.5 acres; playground, community center
  • Lane Beach: 2.9 acres; beach, playground
  • Broadway Armory Park: 2.1 acres; gymnasium
  • Smaller parks and mini-parks: Park No. 517, Park No. 559, Cochran Park, Cedar Park, Bromann Park, Mellin Park, Andersonville Park, D’Elia Park, Park No. 599

Library

Public schools

These are the Chicago Public Schools buildings located inside the community area. Being near a school is not the same as being in its attendance boundary: to see which schools serve a specific address, use the CPS School Locator.

More on the neighborhood

Sources: Edgewater — Encyclopedia of Chicago; Edgewater — WTTW Chicago by “L”; Bryn Mawr-Belle Shore Apartment Hotels — City of Chicago Landmarks; Bryn Mawr and Belle Shore Apartment Hotels preliminary summary — City of Chicago; Swedish American State Bank (Former) — City of Chicago Landmarks; Chicago Landmarks listings — City of Chicago; Sheridan Road Mansions landmark report — City of Chicago; Bryn Mawr Historic District — Edgewater Historical Society; The Historic Districts of Edgewater — Edgewater Historical Society; 1998 Lakewood Balmoral tour — Edgewater Historical Society; Lakewood Balmoral Historic District — NPGallery, National Park Service; Edgewater Glen Historic District: Genesis — Edgewater Historical Society; WIN: Edgewater Glen National Register District Approved — Preservation Chicago; Edgewater’s Landmark Buildings (2015) — Edgewater Historical Society; Bryn Mawr Historic District granted preliminary landmark designation — Preservation Chicago; Bryn Mawr landmark district designation delayed — Preservation Chicago; Edgewater’s historic Bryn Mawr Avenue heads toward possible landmark status — WBEZ; Edgewater Beach Apartments repainting — WBEZ; Four new fully accessible Red Line stations will open July 20 — CTA; Newly reconstructed Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr stations are now open — WTTW; Andersonville listed on National Register — Windy City Times; Swedish American Museum 50th anniversary press release; Women & Children First celebrates 40 years — Block Club Chicago; Osterman Beach — Chicago Park District; Lane Beach — Chicago Park District; Berger (Albert) Park — Chicago Park District; Broadway Armory Park — Chicago Park District; New Edgewater Branch opens — Chicago Public Library; City of Chicago, community area boundaries; City of Chicago, neighborhood boundaries; City of Chicago, CTA ‘L’ stops; Chicago Park District parks; Chicago Public Library locations; CPS school locations, 2025–26. Lists checked October 19, 2026; park features are from Park District data last updated in 2022.