Andersonville / Edgewater

Technically speaking, Edgewater is the newest of Chicago's 77 official Community Areas, having split from Uptown in 1980. But in reality, the neighborhood predates the city’s original community area designations. In 1886, a real estate developer purchased land in what was then considered a suburb of the city to create a new subdivision. Proximity to the lake and public transit turned Edgewater into a booming residential neighborhood that offered the amenities of both city life and a beach-side vacation town, and it retains this dual character today. A modern-day subsection of Edgewater, Andersonville’s roots extend back to the 1850s when immigrant Swedish farmers started moving north into what was then a distant suburb of Chicago. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, wooden homes were outlawed in Chicago. Immigrants who could not afford to build homes of stone or brick began to move outside of the city’s northern limits. This migration continued through the early 20th century, as the residential streets surrounding Clark Street densified. Andersonville remains one of the most concentrated areas of Swedish descent in the United States, but its residents and businesses today represent a wide array of cultures including Korean, Mexican and Lebanese. It is also a center of Chicago’s LGBTQ community.