Slot Machines for Bars in Forest Glen, Chicago

History

Miami and Potawatomi people camped and hunted in these woods, and the Potawatomi chief Billy Caldwell, known as Sauganash, was granted a tract here by the federal government. Commuter rail stops at Forest Glen and Edgebrook drew settlers by the 1880s, and Captain Hazelton founded the area's first church and subdivided ten acres in that decade. Milwaukee Railroad executives laid out a residential retreat beside a golf course at Edgebrook. Most of the area, once part of Jefferson Township, was annexed to Chicago in 1889. Distance from downtown and limited transit probably slowed growth, and home building began in earnest only in the 1920s. By 1940 the area's present character had taken shape. German, Czech and Irish families settled alongside the English and Swedish households already here, and new Catholic parishes opened beside older Protestant churches. The Park District acquired vacant land in Forest Glen in 1949 and 1950 and named Wildwood Park in 1953. The population peaked at 20,531 in 1970, helped by Mayor Richard J. Daley's insistence that city workers live in the city.

The area today

The Encyclopedia of Chicago puts Community Area 12 about 10 miles northwest of the Loop and calls it perhaps the most stereotypically suburban of the city's community areas, set apart by a ring of forest preserves, parks, golf courses and cemeteries. The North Branch of the Chicago River winds through the eastern part and bends the streets off the usual grid. Edgebrook, Sauganash, Wildwood and Forest Glen are among its neighborhoods. Metra's Milwaukee District North Line stops at Forest Glen, where a gateway sign went up on the Metra bridge at Elston and Forest Glen avenues in 2021, and at Edgebrook on Devon Avenue. Bikers and hikers come for the North Branch Trail and the preserves, and Wildwood Park on Hiawatha Avenue shares gym space with Wildwood School.

Bars and restaurants here

Devon Avenue runs through Edgebrook's main business district, which the Metra tracks cut through along with busy streets such as Caldwell. Chicago Breakfast Restaurant opened at 5419 W. Devon in June 2025. Near the Edgebrook station on Central Avenue, the Edgebrook Coffee Shop and Diner at 6322 N. Central has been open since 1957, according to its owner, and was posting weekly specials as of August 2025. Everyday Edgebrook, a business group that disbanded at the start of 2025, ran an Art and Wine Walk and a Beer Stroll. Ancient Grounds Coffee Co. opened at 5242 N. Elston in Forest Glen in November 2025. At the end of the twentieth century the Encyclopedia of Chicago found limited commercial facilities near the major intersections on Cicero, Devon and Lehigh avenues.