One mansion that escaped demolition was the Colvin House at 5901 North Sheridan Road, designed by Maher for printing industry executive Edwin M. Colvin (born in 1867), his wife, Clara, and their four children: Jay, Edwin, Willard, and Ruth. Maher also designed the Harry M. Stevenson House at 5940 North Sheridan Road, as well as the Arthur Deppman House at 5356 North Magnolia Avenue.
Two mansions and their carriage houses were preserved in Berger Park Beach at 6205 and 6219 North Sheridan Road (between Granville Avenue & Rosemont Avenue). Berger Park was named in honor of Albert E. Berger (1900-1950), an early proponent of developing street end beaches on Chicago's North Side. He was tax consultant and real estate developer who resided with his family on Sheridan Road before 1950.
The street-end beaches for which he advocated met the summertime recreational needs of Edgewater residents who lived beyond easy reach of the beaches in Lincoln Park. By 1937, the City of Chicago's Bureau of Parks & Recreation operated twenty-seven street-end beaches, including one at the end of Edgewater's Granville Avenue, near Berger's home.
The City of Chicago transferred Granville Beach and Park to the Chicago Park District in 1959. This was part of a larger exchange of properties between the City of Chicago and the Chicago Park District.
By the end of the decade, many of Edgewater's fashionable Sheridan Road homes had given way to modern high-rise buildings. This neighborhood, dominated by the high-rise buildings, between Sheridan Road and Hollywood Avenue is called Edgewater Beach.
The Bryn Mawr Historic District runs along Bryn Mawr Avenue between Broadway Avenue and Sheridan Road. It includes the Belle Shore Apartment Hotel and Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel, which are across the street from each other; Edgewater Beach Apartments; the Romanesque-style Edgewater Presbyterian Church, and the Manor House.
The English architect J.E.O. Pridmore designed the Manor House apartment building at 1021-1029 West Bryn Mawr Avenue. This building was once the residence of the British consul in Chicago and was known as the Prince of Wales House. The British royal coat of arms can be seen in terracotta at the back of the courtyard.
Another apartment building in Edgewater designed by Pridmore is the Beaconsfield-Hollywood Apartments (1913) at 1055-1065 West Hollywood Avenue. The crest at the portal was inspired by that of Castile, Spain.
In an effort to address the recreational needs of the area’s many apartment-dwellers, in 1976 the City of Chicago constructed a playground along the northern right-of-way of Granville Avenue, and leased it to the Chicago Park District. Residents of crowded Edgewater needed still more parkland, though, and in 1981the Chicago Park District purchased three additional acres along the lakeshore from the Viatorian Fathers, a teaching order.
This property the park district purchased from the religious order included two of the few remaining Sheridan Road mansions. The Joseph Downey House (1906) at 6205 North Sheridan Road, designed by William Carbys Zimmerman, became the Berger Park South Mansion, which is a recreational building. Zimmerman also designed the Richard F. Conway House at 6200 North Sheridan Road.
The Samuel H. Gunder House (1910) at 6219 North Sheridan Road, designed by Myron H. Church, became the North Lakeside Cultural Center (also known as the Berger Park Cultural Center). The Waterfront Café is in the carriage house of the mansion at 6219 North Sheridan.
In 1988, the Chicago Park District rehabilitated the homes. Berger Park now offers many activities, including senior aerobics; computer, jewelry making, and writing classes; and theater and music programs for children and adults.
In July of 2005, Chicago Park District General Superintendent Timothy J. Mitchell joined Alderman Joe Moore of the 49th Ward and community members to dedicate the new state-of-the-art playground at Berger Park. The 8,000-square-foot playground has an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-accessible drinking fountain and ADA-accessible equipment.
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The article that formerly held this title is now Part IV.
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