By LORRAINE SWANSON
Editor
Fifty years ago, Edgewater as a community didn’t exist but was considered part of Uptown. Facing breakneck development along the Sheridan Road corridor with its canyon of high rise apartment buildings, a handful of neighborhood clergy and residents convened the first meeting of the Edgewater Community Council in January 1960.
Not wishing to see their neighborhood become a community of strangers inhabiting impersonal high rise buildings, community council members strove to protect the character of their neighborhood and stem the tide of decline on surrounding streets. Uptown was in its own downward spiral as the city’s entertainment district outside the Loop.
Through the years, residents fought for their own identity as a neighborhood, started Operation Lake Watch that would become a model of environmental protection of natural resources for the rest of the country in the 1970s, formed block clubs and other community organizations, and saved the Broadway Armory from becoming a parking lot by preserving it as a Chicago Park District facility.
A lot has happened since that first meeting in January 1960. Today, the Edgewater Community Council serves as a clearing house of information and resources for over 30 neighborhood organizations. Care For Real, a committee of the Edgewater Community Council, has become one of the primary food pantries operating on the North Side.
The Edgewater Community Council offers outreach to immigrants and seniors in need, works to stabilize problem rental buildings, provides after-school and summer programs in art and gardening to low-income youth, presents community information seminars such as its July seminar on property reassessments, addresses safety concerns with neighborhood building and crime prevention activities, offers local artists the opportunity to display their work in vacant storefronts that enliven the street, and provides forums where residents can discuss local issues affecting the future of their neighborhood.
“Edgewater is Edgewater because of the community council,” said Jason Liechty, the organization’s newly appointed executive director. “For 50 years, the Edgewater Community Council has brought together residents, the business community and religious institutions to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood.”
The Edgewater Community Council's annual gala features the musical stylings of jazz talent Elizabeth Doyle. (PHOTO/Scott Montgomery, from Ms. Doyle's web site.)
This Saturday, Nov. 7, the Edgewater Community Council is hosting its primary annual fundraiser, “Going for the Gold” from 6 to 11 p.m. at the Jean Marie Ryan Community Center at Misericordia, 6300 N. Ridge. Proceeds will benefit the council’s fine programs that enhance the quality of life in Edgewater and serve as inspiration for surrounding North Side neighborhoods.
Local singer, pianist and composer Elizabeth Doyle will headline the gala. Doyle was the magnet for many years at Chicago’s famed Pump Room, the Drake Hotel, Convito Italiano, the Palmer House , the Swissotel, Catch 35, the Whitehall and the Fairmont Metropole. She was recently a featured gues on the legendary Marian McPartland’s National Public Radio show, “Piano Jazz.”
“Going For The Gold” kicks off the Edgewater Community Council’s 50th anniversary year, which promises a year of commemorative events including a community time capsule, tree planting, seminars, beach picnic and a cook book compiled of the neighborhood’s favorite recipes, including the Senn High School lunch ladies’ secret recipe for “Senn High School Peanut Butter Cookies.”
Tickets to the gala are $50 and include dinner, drinks, a silent auction and live music. To reserve tickets, please call the Edgewater Community Council office at 773-334-5609 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays or click here.
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Lorraine, thanks for your nice piece ECC’s history, activities, and Nov. 7 fundraiser. I just wanted to clarify that when I said “Edgewater is Edgewater because of the Community Council,” I was referring specifically to ECC’s years-long, tireless efforts to have the City of Chicago recognize the neighborhood as one of its official Community Areas, which it finally did in 1980 (having been grouped with Uptown until then).
The quality of life of our neighborhood today is of course the work of generations of residents and many organizations. During our golden anniversary next year, we’ll be taking a look back at Edgewater’s history and our place in it, but also–and more importantly–at how to best serve our wonderful neighborhood and all its people for decades to come.