Edgewater is a lakefront community area on the North Side of the city of Chicago, Illinois, 6 miles (10 km) north of the Loop. The most recently established of the city's 77 official community areas, Edgewater is bounded by Foster Avenue on the south, Devon Avenue on the north, Ravenswood Avenue on the west, and Lake Michigan on the east. Edgewater contains several beaches for residents to enjoy. Chicago's largest park, Lincoln Park, stretches south from Edgewater for 7 miles (11 km) along the waterfront, almost to downtown. Until 1980, Edgewater was part of Uptown, and historically it constituted the northeastern corner of Lake View Township, an independent suburb annexed by the city of Chicago in 1889. Today, Uptown is to Edgewater's south, Lincoln Square to its west, West Ridge to its northwest and Rogers Park to its north.

Edgewater transitioned from agriculture and small settlement to residential development around the 1880s with summer homes for Chicago's elite. Today, it provides the northern terminus of both Lincoln Park and Lake Shore Drive. With the exception of pockets acknowledged as historic districts (like the Bryn Mawr Historic District), eastern Edgewater (Edgewater Beach) has a skyline of high-rise apartment buildings, condominium complexes, and mid-rise homes. To the west, Edgewater is characterized by single-family homes; and two-, three-, or four-story flats, including the historic village and now commercial district of Andersonville.

Developers began buying up orchards and truck farms and cutting down the dense woods in Lake View Township (of which Edgewater was a part) in the 1880s to make way for future development. From 1870 to 1887 the population of the township, then north of the City of Chicago, grew from 2,000 citizens to 45,000. As a result, there was growing need of more public-service access, and Lake View was annexed to Chicago in 1889 as a way of meeting those demands.

In 1885, the northeastern section of Lake View was given the name Edgewater by prominent developer John Lewis Cochran. He built the first residential subdivision in the area. Many of his homes can still be found in the Lakewood Balmoral Historic District. After a few years, Edgewater was celebrated as a wonder as it became "the only electric lighted suburb adjacent to Chicago".

Cochran was originally a tobacco salesman from Philadelphia who moved to the area in 1885. Upon arrival, he took his Philadelphia culture and geography with him to the area. This can be seen best by the names of the streets in Edgewater. Every street in Edgewater at the time was named after a train station on the former PRR Main Line, and most still exist to this day. This includes:

By the early 1900s, Edgewater was regarded as one of Chicago's most prestigious communities. Mansions dominated the lakefront, while large single-family homes spread inland to the former farming village of Andersonville (then also called Somerdale). A prominent symbol of Edgewater's affluence and desirable location on the lake was the Edgewater Beach Hotel, which opened in 1916 at 5349 N. Sheridan. The famed "sunrise" yellow hotel was razed in 1970, though the remaining "sunset" pink Edgewater Beach Apartments building is still a landmark at the north tip of Lake Shore Drive. The Edgewater building boom peaked in 1926 and property values reached their height in 1928. Around 1900, the burgeoning affluent population grew so much that developers expanded Edgewater and renamed a portion of the neighborhood community Uptown (which still exists today). Uptown quickly became the commercial hub of the area, with storied nightlife, entertainment and tall commercial buildings. Thus, in the late 1920s, when Community Areas were first designated, the Edgewater area was included as a section of Uptown.

Uptown's affluence declined in the 1950s, as Chicago's suburbs were developed and opened, absorbing some of Uptown's families, both middle and upper class. With the flight of some residents came disrepair and crime for what once was one of the most affluent districts of the city. At the same time, with the extension of Lake Shore Drive to Hollywood Ave. in the 1950s, into the 1970s, highrise condominium developments along Edgewater's lakefront took off, and Andersonville was seeking to promote its unique heritage.

In 1980, the Chicago City Council and local business owners orchestrated a revival for the Edgewater community. Edgewater was separated from Uptown and once again called itself its own community. New businesses came into the community, older buildings were refurbished, and homes touched up to harken back to Edgewater's past. Since 2000, there have been several new additions to the neighborhood, including The Clarovista, Edgewater Glen, and Catalpa Gardens condominium developments. This neighborhood of Chicago is also well known for its antique shops, as the Broadway Antique Market and Brownstone Antiques call the Edgewater area their home.