A toddler living next door to one of Chicago's oldest surviving homes tested with a blood lead level more than double the federal reference threshold in November 2023, and her parents say the source traces straight back to unpermitted paint stripping at the 152-year-old Wacker House in Old Town. Despite three separate stop-work orders since then, neighbors say construction at 1838 N. Lincoln Park West has continued, and the city has struggled to get inside the house at all.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Elizabeth and Hunter Case, who live next door to the historic mansion, allege their daughter was exposed to lead from improper paint stripping at the property, which is owned by Michael Gancarz. The Tribune reports the Cases' daughter was about seven months old when the paint stripping began, and city health inspectors who assessed the family's home on December 5, 2023, found lead hazards in both interior and exterior paint and soil. Exterior dust levels at the Cases' home ranged from 1,000 to 111,000 micrograms per square foot, the paper reports — numbers that dwarf the federal action level of 40 micrograms per square foot for exterior porch floors.
A Baby's Blood Lead Level Doubled the National Threshold
The Cases' daughter had a blood lead level of 7.9 micrograms per deciliter in November 2023, per the Tribune's reporting — a figure that exceeded the CDC's elevated-level threshold by about 4.4 micrograms per deciliter. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set its blood lead reference value at 3.5 micrograms per deciliter in October 2021 specifically to flag children in the top 2.5% of lead exposure nationwide and trigger immediate environmental follow-up, according to the CDC. The family's oldest daughter, by contrast, has normalized lead levels and shows no signs of impact from the exposure, the Tribune reports.
City inspectors also assessed Wacker House itself on December 8, 2023, and found lead hazards in the exterior paint and soil there as well, per the Tribune's account. The Cases temporarily moved out of their home, and the family's independent inspector linked much of the lead source to exterior paint removal at Wacker House, the paper reports. The Cases sent Gancarz a demand letter in May 2024 seeking $275,000 for lead-abatement work, according to the Tribune.
Three Stop-Work Orders, One House Still Under Repair
Marlene Hopkins cited an insufficient permit for the paint-removal work in progress and issued a stop-work order for Wacker House on December 11, 2023, the Tribune reports. That was followed by a second stop-work order for roof work on June 24, 2025, and the Department of Buildings filed a third stop-work order in August 2026 — bringing the total to three, per the paper's reporting. Construction continued despite the stop-work order, according to the Cases, as reported by the Tribune. Department of Buildings inspectors were unable to gain entry to the house, the Tribune reports, and attorney Nefsa'hyatt Brown said the city cannot compel entry on its own. Alderman Timmy Knudsen said he would try to expedite a stop-work order, according to the paper.
The Tribune reports that city data recorded 25 service requests alleging complaints and violations at Wacker House since June 2023, part of more than two dozen requests for city service tied to the construction. The city of Chicago filed a housing complaint against Michael and Amelia Gancarz and their mortgage holders on August 27, 2026, per the same reporting. Michael Gancarz has been in foreclosure since April 2025, the Tribune notes, and property records reviewed by Redfin show the 4,700-square-foot, 5-bedroom home was purchased for $1.5 million in January 2012.
Community Groups Document the Damage Themselves
Old Town Triangle Association members have advocated for stronger enforcement against the construction, and in August 2026 the group created an online forum for neighborhood residents to track unauthorized activity at the property and log city inspector responses, according to the Old Town Triangle Association. Preservationists and local groups have documented unpermitted alterations at the house this year, including removal of original 19th-century staircase woodwork and the installation of artificial grass mats, statuary, and plastic leaf pergolas on the exterior, according to a post by Urban Remains Chicago on Facebook. Diane Gonzalez, a neighbor, said the Wacker House is history worth preserving, per the Tribune.
Built in 1874 by German-born brewer Frederick Wacker, the 12-room Swiss chalet-style Victorian was constructed during a brief legislative exception after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, just before the city expanded its Fire Limits ordinance later that year to ban wood-frame residential construction entirely, according to Preservation Chicago. The Wacker family rebuilt the house after it survived the fire that leveled much of the city, and it now anchors the Old Town Triangle district alongside other Wacker-linked properties. Frederick Wacker's son, Charles Wacker, later lived in the home and served 17 years as chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission, leading implementation of Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago and championing projects including Wacker Drive.
Landmark Status Carries Legal Weight — and Limits
Wacker House carries both local and national historic protections: it received Chicago Landmark status in 1977 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, alongside the broader Old Town Triangle Historic District, which Hoodline previously reported was designated to protect the neighborhood's Victorian architecture built by the German immigrants who settled Old Town in the 1850s. Under the Chicago Landmark Ordinance, any proposed exterior work visible from a public way on a designated landmark property requires prior review and authorization from the Commission on Chicago Landmarks through the city's permit process. The Department of Buildings issued two building permits for the address in June 2022 and a second one in October 2023, but those permits specified no structural work and that all work would match the existing structure, per the Tribune's reporting — a limitation preservationists say the alterations documented on-site have not respected.
The city's authority to enforce those landmark protections was reinforced in September 2025, when the Illinois Supreme Court declined to review an appellate decision in Robinson v. City of Chicago that upheld the municipal power and enforcement reach of Chicago's Landmark Ordinance against constitutional challenges, according to SomerCor. Federal officials also inspected Wacker House for potential lead-related violations in 2023, the Tribune reports, adding a federal environmental thread to a case that otherwise runs through city landmark and housing enforcement. The EPA's current dust-lead standards, finalized in October 2024 and effective the following January, set post-abatement action levels at 5 micrograms per square foot for floors and 40 micrograms per square foot for interior sills, treating any reportable lead dust as a hazardous condition — a bar the levels found at the Cases' home far exceeded.
For now, the house that survived Chicago's fire limits, weathered more than 150 years of change, and helped shape the family legacy behind Wacker Drive sits at the center of overlapping investigations spanning landmark law, housing court, and public health. Neighbors who built their own tracking forum say they are still waiting to see whether any of the three stop-work orders will actually hold.
