EDGEWATER — The "Chicago For Chicagoans" tour is coming to Edgewater, and bringing with it stories about the neighborhood's rich history in architecture, immigration, celebrities, crime and more.
From 1-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (and again the following weekend), the pay-what-you-can tour starts at the Berwyn 'L' station and is led by filmmaker Sam Prestigiacomo and concludes with a meal at local staple Moody's Pub.
"If it's good, it's too good not to share," said Patti Swanson, one of the creators of the Chicago for Chicagoans tour series. "That's been my research philosophy the last few months. If it's really good and really interesting history it's too good not to share."
One major focus of the tour will be Edgewater's storied spectral past.
Tour-goers will stop by the site where serial killer John Wayne Gacy was born in 1942 (also the place where Teresita Basa worked before she was killed in 1977), and learn about the horrific abduction and murder of 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan from her Thorndale Avenue home in 1946.
The tour will also include background on the neighborhood's role in the "motor row" boom of the 1920s and its reputation as a hub for the community's LGBT and immigrant populations and as a place full of summer homes for the elite.
Landmark mansions and multi-unit residential buildings that have become symbolic of the neighborhood, like the Edgewater Beach Apartments, will be showcased as well.
The group has led past tours in other neighborhoods, like Wicker Park, Albany Park and Boystown and said they're heading further north to Rogers Park next.
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