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Chicago’s ’hoods:
Edgewater and Rogers Park

by Jonathan Lewis – February 4, 2010

Spend an evening watching the design shows or real estate programs on HGTV and you may hear a whole chorus of “no.” Either some dithering bride-to-be has never heard of a little invention called paint and says “I don’t like it” with an emphatic finality more total than death. Or some frat boy has decided to grow up and move out of his dorm room/apartment/parents’ basement into a detached man-cave and can’t understand why it doesn’t already come equipped with hot tub, home theatre system and retro bar.

Every one of these shows needs Sandra Rinomoto to slap some sense into these naysayers. On her show Property Virgins, Rinomoto tries to get first-time home buyers to look beyond easy cosmetic fixes and simple construction projects and envision actually living there. Her point is that it is just a house, but it is what you do with the house that makes it a home. For real estate agents and brokers, the only real consideration is (and always has been) “location, location, location.” To them it doesn’t matter if you’re living in a shack, as long as it’s located in a swell neighborhood.

Actually, finding your home in the world requires a bit of both philosophies. With a little tender loving care (what the real estate industry calls “sweat equity”), even a fixer-upper can become your personal palace, but its ultimate value depends on its neighborhood. Buyers spend so much time worrying about whether or not their couch will fit in the living room or how much stainless steel appliances will cost that they don’t ask themselves if they actually want to live in the area.

Like most people, I have lived in many different locations during my lifetime. I was born and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago, lived two short years outside of New York City and then spent the rest of my childhood in Louisville, Kentucky before heading to college. Graduating and starting my adult life, I moved to Washington, DC and made that my base of operations for a decade as I worked there and around the country as an actor. I worked in almost every major city in the United States, and while I liked most of the cities I visited, I never felt at home.

Even at my great studio apartment in DC, I was as much of a mystery to my neighbors on the floor as they were to me. The little old lady who lived in the rent control unit next to mine (and had lived there for almost 40 years) would pass me in the hall, grunt instead of saying “hello” as she pushed past me and slammed the door. Whenever I would come or go out of my place, I’d hear the creak of her door and see one eyeball peering out at me. So much for getting to know the neighbors.

I didn’t feel I had found a home again until I moved back to Chicago in the mid-1990s. I don’t think it has anything to do with the character of people living in the Midwest, because it is naïve to think that every single person here is nice or that the Midwest somehow doesn’t have any unpleasant people living here. Maybe it’s because I choose not to own a car any longer and this city has a good, reliable transit system. Being a gay man as well, living in a large city was also important to me. Most likely, I think it is the layout of Chicago that fosters a sense of community.

Founded in 1833 as a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, Chicago quickly became the nation’s transportation hub, and the city’s environs grew outward past the city core as the trains bought new residents. In the late 1920s, sociologists at the University of Chicago subdivided the city into 75 distinct community areas which at the time corresponded to observable neighborhoods. Now the city recognizes 215 neighborhoods, and realtors and locals invent more. The North Side is the most densely populated residential section of the city and two neighborhoods have become important gay enclaves in recent years – Edgewater and Rogers Park.

Not many people lived in the northern neighborhood of Edgewater until the late nineteenth century. John Lewis Cochran (1857-1923) purchased farmland in the Lakeview community in 1886 which he in turn advertised as the brand new town of Edgewater. Cochran worked to build up the area with mansions, lavish homes and a thriving business district, in addition to providing transportation and modern conveniences to its residents. In doing so, Edgewater became the only neighborhood next door to downtown Chicago to have the luxury of being electrically lit.

In 1898, the exclusive Saddle and Cycle Club became the hot spot for socialites, followed in 1929 by the Edgewater Beach Apartments and in 1916 by the Edgewater Beach Hotel, a lavish pink and yellow resort that thrived for nearly a half-century. In the 1940s, a city-wide housing crisis left the area overcrowded and very expensive as a number of overbearing high-rises replaced the older buildings, smaller homes and stately mansions. Opulent, older apartment buildings were subdivided into smaller units to make room for more tenants, the neighborhood became congested, and Edgewater entered into a period of decline as many residents fled to the suburbs.

It wasn’t until some 20 years later, that the community banded together to develop the Edgewater Community Council to take back control of their beloved waterfront neighborhood. The council pursued actions all geared toward repopulating the area, rebuilding the tax base by attracting more residents and bringing Edgewater back up to the diverse and reputable place it once was. Bordered by Lake Michigan on the east, Edgewater’s boundaries are Foster Avenue to the south, Ravenswood Avenue to the west and Devon Avenue to the north.

Today, Edgewater is home to the fifth highest concentration of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples in the country. It also in inhabited by families and singles of many different ethnicities and cultures. Through the ebb and flow of historic influences, such as war, the Depression, the economy and greedy overdevelopment, Edgewater is once again the hotspot it used to be.

Immediately to the north, Rogers Park is the last neighborhood on the farthest reaches of the Chicago city limits. Its current boundaries are Lake Michigan to the east, Devon Avenue to the south, Damen Avenue to the west and Howard Street to the north.

To look at it now, it’s hard to imagine that Rogers Park was once a vast bog prairie with a thriving Native American culture. One of the earliest white settlers was trader pioneer Philip Rogers, whose family snapped up 1,600 acres of land from the U.S. government. Roger’s children continued to develop the area after his death, and within several years stagecoach routes were linking with the trails of the local tribes, making for one of Chicago’s earliest network of roads.

Between 1830 and 1850, a wave of European immigrants, primarily from Ireland, England, Luxembourg, and Germany settled in East Rogers Park. Consequently, the influx of new arrivals pushed the Native American tribes further west, and this Chicago neighborhood took root. The neighborhood was relatively untouched by the Civil War from 1981 to 1865, but the Great Fire of 1871 changed the landscape both downtown and up on the northside. As the city rebuilt, the downtown transitioned into more of a business core and home owners moved further north to other neighborhoods, including Rogers Park.

By 1893 the neighborhood was annexed, becoming an official part of Chicago city boundaries, just in time for the Chicago’s Columbia Exposition. The optimism of this world’s fair carried over into the early 20th century as Chicago neighborhoods grew with new businesses and entertainment districts. Four palatial movie theaters were constructed in East Rogers Park with lavish interiors and flashy exteriors, attracting residents seeking entertainment and new businesses to handle the influx of visitor and homeowners in the area.

Even though it too has experienced its own ups and downs, Rogers Park is going through its own renaissance with new businesses and the ongoing trend of home rehabilitatopm. Fortunately, it still retains the character of a charming village along the lake, where old architecture of bungalows and First World War-era six-flat buildings mingle with newer condo buildings. Beautiful lakefront parks and the city’s largest beach give the area a relaxing, vacation-like feel that spills over into the neighborhood’s laid-back lifestyle. Old diners and corner coffee houses sit alongside newer sandwich shops and chic eateries.

While Rogers Park may not be the only zip code of choice for the area’s LGBT residents, the gay contingent gets bigger every year here as people look for a more affordable option within the city limits. No matter where you choose to live, whether it’s Edgewater or Rogers Park or somewhere else, home is what you make it and where you find it. For me, I feel that I’ve found mine.