So here goes...
I live in MAGICAL Edgewater Beach! I added the ‘magical’ - nobody but me seems to go that far. You wont find it listed on any of the City’s official maps. Technically it may be the Edgewater Beach Neighborhood Association in Edgewater of the 48th Ward, but that’s a mouthful!. More importantly, I like the sound of “Edgewater Beach”. It sounds and is romantic; imagine the famous beach scene in “From Here to Eternity” but in color and with better swimwear. And it sounds and is exciting; being ‘on the edge’ is thrilling. And you never know what will wash up on a beach, what ship might land on a beach, or what storm might roll-in on a beach. So that’s where I say I live: MAGICAL Edgewater Beach.
Within the City’s larger and official Edgewater neighborhood is my MAGICAL Edgewater Beach as well as the 'hoods of Andersonville, Magnolia Glenn, and Edgewater Gelnn. The National Register of Historic Places recognizes a dozen or more sites in Edgewater, including the Bryn Mawr Historic District just up the block from me. So if you’re walking around trying to find those historic places, you’ll find you’ve actually wound up walking around the world because you can experience so many diverse cultures and people of divergent incomes its a new adventure every day! I did say exciting, right?
The symbol of MAGICAL Edgewater Beach is the "Edgewater Beach Apartments", which is a not pink but a ‘pink sunset’ colored colossus built in the 1920s as part of the Edgewater Beach Resort. << need to find a pictured of the poster by John Garrison >>
I don't mind most people calling it the Edgewater Beach Hotel which it isn't. The actual hotel was torn down to make room for Lake Shore Drive. (LSD always is spelled with three words unless it is ‘LSD’. Ask me about the US Postal Service and LSD sometime!) The building isn’t actually apartments either. It is a co-op, which I think means if ‘they’ vote you in, you buy shares of the property owner’s company in proportion to your rooms. The Edgewater Beach Apartments building isn't ‘cool’ or ‘neat’. It is flamboyant and ostentatious on the outside and dripping ornamentation within. If Adolf Loos ever saw it I’m sure he disliked it. I don't know if Louis Sullivan saw it either, but I think we’d agree: she’s a beaut’. I’ve been to the lobby a few times and to the Edgewater Beach Cafe inside, which it really isn't, it is really a restaurant. (Yes, it can be a very confusing building!) They don’t seem to mind a pop-in to the lobby from the well-groomed and respectful.