When I first saw the huge pink apartment building on the southeast corner of Edgewater and Bryn Mawr at 5555 North Sheridan Road, I knew it was a historic building, but I didn’t know the building’s story.
And there is a great story behind the Edgewater Beach Apartments, which were built in 1928. The apartments were once part of the Edgewater Beach Hotel complex and is its only remaining building. Once a famous Chicago hot spot, the hotel’s greatest popularity was in the 20s, 30s and 40s. A reduction in business traffic and hard times hit in the 50s when Lake Shore Drive was extended from Foster Avenue to Hollywood Avenue, and the hotel permanently closed its doors in 1967.
John Tobin Connery and James Patrick Connery owned the hotel which served famous guests like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Babe Ruth, Marilyn Monroe, and Nat King Cole. Currently, the Edgewater Beach Apartments is part of the Brywn Mawr Historic District where it and many other art deco buildings can be found.
Sources
Edgewater Beach Apartments, ebachicago.com/outside_home.asp
The Edgewater Beach Hotel: Making Magic by the Lake, wttw.com/main.taf?p=1,7,1,1,13
Edgewater Historical Society, edgewaterhistory.org/articles/index.html?v08-2-3.html
