Open Doors & Hidden History: Edgewater's 35th Annual Home Tour Returns September 20 — With a Bonus Maps Talk the Day Before
By Socialhood News · Edgewater ·
One of Edgewater's most beloved annual traditions is back for its 35th year, and this time it arrives with an extra layer of neighborhood history baked right in. The Edgewater Historical Society's 35th Annual Home Tour is set for Sunday, September 20, 2026 — a self-guided walkthrough of some of the neighborhood's most distinctive private residences that gives curious Chicagoans a rare peek behind the doors of Edgewater's remarkable architectural stock.
The Home Tour has been a cornerstone of the EHS calendar for three and a half decades, and its staying power says something real about this neighborhood's relationship with its own past. Edgewater sits on one of the most architecturally layered stretches of Chicago's North Side, where Gilded Age mansions, Prairie-style two-flats, mid-century courtyard buildings, and modern infill exist in genuine conversation with one another. The annual tour is the community's most direct way of making that conversation accessible to everyone — not just architecture buffs or longtime locals, but anyone who has ever walked down a tree-lined Edgewater block and wondered what was on the other side of a beautiful front door.
For those who want to warm up with a dose of cartographic history the day before, the EHS has paired the tour with a special Saturday morning event: a talk titled "History of Chicagoland Maps and Mapmaking" on Saturday, September 19, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. The presentation features Donald and Tanya Smith, whose family has been involved in land surveying and map making, and it takes place in the Betty A. Barclay Community Room at the Edgewater Branch of the Chicago Public Library, 6000 N. Broadway. Admission details and registration are available through the EHS at edgewaterhistory.org.
Taken together, the two events form a natural weekend of neighborhood discovery — from understanding how Edgewater's streets and parcels were surveyed and platted over a century ago, to walking through the living results of that history on Sunday afternoon. It's exactly the kind of programming the Edgewater Historical Society has built its reputation on: intellectually rich, deeply local, and genuinely welcoming to newcomers and old-timers alike.
The 35th anniversary of the Home Tour is no small milestone. That kind of longevity — running continuously for 35 years — speaks to an Edgewater tradition that has outlasted recessions, pandemics, and every shift in neighborhood character the North Side has seen since the early 1990s. The EHS has used it not just as a fundraiser but as an annual reminder of why the neighborhood's physical fabric is worth knowing, protecting, and celebrating.
For details on the Home Tour, tickets, and the full Saturday maps talk, visit edgewaterhistory.org. The Edgewater Branch Library is easily accessible via the CTA Red Line — exit at Granville and it's a short walk north on Broadway.
Sources:
1. https://www.edgewaterhistory.org/ehs/