A longtime Edgewater and Andersonville favorite, the Edgewater Lounge, recently hit the market for a cool $725,000. The two-story mixed-use building features 1,700 square feet of retail/restaurant space on the first floor and a two-bedroom, 1,100-square-foot apartment with 625-square-foot outside deck on the second floor. Since 1908, the divey Edgewater Lounge at the corner of Ashland and Bryn Mawr has been serving up brews and burgers to neighborhood regulars but is now seeking a new owner.
The benefit of the business' history is that it adds character, and in this case, this character has a name: Mary, the woman who owned and operated the bar for 25 years until it was sold to its current owners in 2000. A few short months after selling the bar, Mary passed, but various rumors of mild paranormal phenomena at the lounge suggest that Mary's taproom love has survived beyond the grave. The Chicago Bar Project lists Edgewater Lounge as one of Chicago's favorite haunted bars and this article from the Columbia Chronicle describes some of the mischief witnessed at the building.
By all reports, hers is a minor presence—if there is one at all. If anything, the ghost stories simply support the neighborhood's fondness for the restaurant—and especially its outdoor patio in the summer. But now, based on Edgewater's continued growth and gentrification, it so happens that Edgewater Lounge sits at an ideal location for a mixed-use building. With its prime location and ample street parking, will Mary want to stick around?
·Edgewater Lounge [LoopNet]
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