Edgewater was a suburb of Chicago, relatively rural until John Lewis Cochran developed land for lakefront homes in 1885.

He married Lena Kleine in 1885 and the pair commissioned William Carbys Zimmerman to design a house in 1906 for $20,000.

[2] During the Great Depression, the Chicago Bureau of Parks and Recreation sought to add beachfront land on the north side of the city.

When the clerics moved out in 1979, developers sought to purchase the houses and demolish them for high-rise apartments, which now dominated the Edgewater lakefront.

The Edgewater Community Council opposed this type of sale and convinced the park district to purchase the houses.

The district agreed to delay demolition to give local residents to opportunity to raise funds for its rehabilitation.

By 1987, enough money had been raised to save the structure, thanks in large part to a $216,000 contribution from the Community Development Block Grant.

The Gunder house was converted to the North Lakeside Cultural Center, offering workshops and classes.