• The 1911 Harmon subdivision plat (east bank of the Chicago River)
• Ravenswood Manor-Gardens Community Club (1914, first civic association)
• Rockwell Brown Line 'L' Station
• North Branch of the Chicago River (western boundary)

Ravenswood Gardens was platted in 1911 by New York real estate developer William Elmer Harmon on the east bank of the Chicago River's North Branch, a companion subdivision to his Ravenswood Manor development just across the water. Before Harmon's arrival, the land had been farmed for pickles, celery, and flowers, supplied to the city by horse-drawn wagon. By 1914, only about 100 houses stood across both of Harmon's subdivisions combined, prompting concerned property owners to organize the Ravenswood Manor-Gardens Community Club that September — the neighborhood's first civic association.

That same year, residents also formed the Ravenswood Manor-Gardens Park District, electing Helen Meder as its first board president to oversee shared parkland between the two communities; it was absorbed into the Chicago Park District in 1934. Ravenswood Gardens remained formally joined to its sister neighborhood's improvement association until 1947, when it became its own community. Today, the Rockwell Brown Line station anchors the neighborhood's eastern edge, connecting residents to the rest of the city.

From a shared river-bank farm to a self-governing riverside community, Ravenswood Gardens' century of quiet independence is a history worth wearing on your own side of the water.