Edgewater Historical Society

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The Edgewater Historical Society was founded in Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Their mission is to:

• Involve the community in the research, documentation, collection and preservation of Edgewater History

• Promote the study, sharing and enjoyment of that history

• Promote the preservation of landmarks and historical structures

The impetus to form the Society was the 1986 celebration of the Edgewater Centennial, during which the Edgewater Community Council conducted an oral history project. From that project grew a great interest in researching and documenting neighborhood streets and structures. Learn more about our history

About Us

• Governance: The Edgewater Historical Society is governed by a board of directors consisting of up to 21 members. At least one third of the positions are up for election by the membership every year at the annual meeting of the Society. The term of office is three years. During the year, vacant positions may be filled by the Board of Directors, and a person so elected fills the remaining term of a board member who resigned or died. The officers of the society are elected by the board of directors at its first meeting after the general membership meeting and serve for one year or until their successors are elected. Since its founding in 1988, the Society has had only four presidents: Kathy Gemperle, Betty Mayian, Robert Remer and John Holden.

• Our Community: Edgewater is a Chicago community of 58,000 people in an area bounded by the Lake, Foster, Ravenswood and Devon. The name Edgewater originated with developer John L. Cochran, who began creating a planned community here in 1886. By 1910, the name Edgewater was being used throughout the area. Today, Edgewater is composed of several neighborhoods including Andersonville.

• Land Acknowledgment: The Edgewater Historical Society acknowledges that the land upon which its Museum operates, and the Edgewater Community Area within the City of Chicago that is the focus of the Society’s mission, is located on the traditional homelands of Indigenous peoples, including those of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomie Nations. The Edgewater Historical Society was founded in 1988 for the purpose of involving the community in the research, documentation, collection, preservation and presentation of Edgewater history. Although the Edgewater name was first used in 1885, there is no restriction on how far back in time research can go to understand the community’s origins, especially if it contributes to understanding of the present and planning for the future. Exploring and understanding this history, including tribal cultures and institutions and the government policies that directly affected and continue to touch these populations, is an important part of Edgewater’s past, present, and future. Evidence of the Indigenous past is seen all around us in an arterial street pattern that incorporates historic Native footpaths. The Lake Michigan water highway – the name itself from the Ojibwe word mishigamaa, meaning “large water” – is the community’s eastern boundary within the city, supplying the “water” in “Edgewater.”

• Our Logo: The Edgewater Historical Society logo below represents the four-mile electric railway which Cochran built in 1893 to connect his Edgewater community to Diversey Avenue in Chicago. It also illustrates the style of the word Edgewater which Cochran used in his newspaper ads for the new community.