When Elizabeth and Hunter Case toured what would become their family home in Old Town, life in the house was easy to picture.
They saw the kids they’d planned to have filling the big open space. They saw the Christmas tree they’d place in the front window, the garden they’d cultivate outside.
What they didn’t anticipate were the doctor’s visits, the calls to police, the lawyers. And the feeling that it all could have been prevented had someone listened and taken a closer look next door.
For years, an Old Town homeowner has been making unlawful alterations to his property — at the expense, neighbors say, of the house’s historic roots and their own safety.
Known as the Wacker House, the home has been a hallmark of the city’s North Side for more than 150 years, dating back to the Great Chicago Fire. The property has historical protections both locally and nationally, which — on paper — should mean that projects are well-vetted and, if approved, conducted with its longstanding tenure in mind.
Unauthorized work, however, is overrunning the structure, according to neighbors and city records. Since 2023, the contested construction has spurred more than two dozen requests for service to various city departments, three stop work orders and an inspection by federal officials.
For the Cases, who live next door, the changes go beyond a fight for preservation. The work has encroached across property lines and into their everyday lives.
Around the outset of construction nearly three years ago, the couple’s then 1-year-old daughter suffered from lead poisoning, according to medical records reviewed by the Tribune. The Cases allege their daughter was exposed to the notoriously toxic metal after their neighbor improperly stripped layers of lead paint from his historic property.
The years since have been a series of pleas to anyone with authority to get the construction to stop. But Elizabeth and Hunter say they’ve been met with repeated indifference and deflection.
“It just felt like we were spinning our wheels,” Elizabeth said.
Lately, local preservationists, too, have tried their hand at imploring action. The Old Town Triangle Association — an advocacy group for the neighborhood — has been raising a more public fight over the construction this summer.
Construction persists, neighbors say.
The owner, listed as Michael Gancarz in Cook County property records, did not return multiple requests for comment. Cook County circuit court records show he’s been in foreclosure since April 2025.
Knocks on the Wacker House went unanswered.
‘This is history’
The Cases have lived in Old Town since 2021. They chose the neighborhood, and their home in it, for the character and charm.
“It pulled on our heartstrings,” Elizabeth said, speaking with the Tribune alongside Hunter in a recent interview.
There were the stained glass windows that framed their entryway, the high ceilings with original light fixtures. And then there was the history.
The area was settled back in the 1850s by German immigrants. Among those early proprietors was Frederick Wacker, a German-born beer baron who was one of Chicago’s most prominent early brewers. For Wacker and his family, home was 1838 North Lincoln Park West.
The brick and frame, Swiss-chalet style house that survives at that same lot today stands at some 154 years old. It’s not quite the original Wacker House — that perished in the Great Fire — but the Wackers were quick to rebuild. The family also built and owned the house to the south, the Cases’ property.
The Wacker House was later owned by Wacker’s son Charles, who went on to become one of the most influential pioneers of modern Chicago (think Wacker Drive).
The Wacker properties anchor what was eventually named the Old Town Triangle District, one of the oldest landmarked areas in the city. The district is also listed on the National Register of History Places.
“This is history,” Diane Gonzalez, of the Old Town Triangle Association, said. “You lose them, then that’s it.”
No amount of lead is safe
The Wacker House was purchased by Michael and Amelia Gancarz in January 2012, county records show.
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Signs of renovation next door started to surface in the summer of 2022, the Cases recalled. By the following spring, the work became hard to ignore — namely, the apparent paint removal. The couple grew concerned when, they allege, the construction started polluting their property. Their daughter was about seven months old at the time.
“Hi! I hate to be the annoying neighbor but we are concerned about the amount of dust and airborne debris from the paint stripping,” Elizabeth texted Amelia Gancarz on June 2, 2023, according to messages viewed by the Tribune. “It’s everywhere and we are nervous about the baby spending time outside.”
After a brief exchange with her neighbor — who said workers would take some precautions to keep the debris contained — Elizabeth thanked her but reiterated their apprehension, particularly over the potential for lead exposure given the age of the house.
Amelia Gancarz did not return the Tribune’s requests for comment. Court filings indicate Amelia Gancarz vacated the residence on or around March 2024.
From pipes to toys, lead is everywhere, said Deborah Schwartz, medical director of the Lead Evaluation Program at Lurie Children’s Hospital. The most common source of exposure, however, is typically paint, Schwartz said. For kids, exposure ordinarily stems from ingestion, usually of a paint chip or dust.
Through the summer of 2023, the Cases repeatedly tried to convey their concerns to their neighbors to no avail, they allege. Prior to the work, they had shared an amicable relationship, the Cases said, but that line of communication broke down as their anxieties amplified.
By the fall, the Cases’ daughter had her one-year checkup at the doctor, which included a test of her blood lead levels. That November, the Cases received their daughter’s results: her blood lead level measured at 7.9 mg/dl, about 4.4 over what’s considered elevated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
No amount of lead level is safe for children. But the CDC threshold determines when public health officials step in, Schwartz said. In Chicago, a child that receives an elevated result is referred to the city’s Department of Public Health for medical screening and a home lead assessment.
On Dec. 5, 2023, CDPH inspectors assessed the Cases’ home for lead hazards, a department spokesperson confirmed. Inspectors found hazards on exterior and interior paint and in soil. Three days later, inspectors also assessed the Wacker House. They found hazards on exterior paint and in soil.
That same week, the Cases sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Gancarzes.
By Dec. 11, Department of Buildings Commissioner Marlene Hopkins issued a stop work order for the Wacker House, citing “insufficient permit for work in progress due to the paint being removed” and “need CDPH to look into it,” according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
In the meantime, the Cases temporarily moved out. They had their home professionally cleaned, then retained their own lead expert.
The contractor conducted an independent review of lead hazards at the couple’s home. Between an interior, exterior and water inspection, the inspector determined “much of the lead source (linked) up with the large exterior paint removal job on the house to the north,” assessment records show.
The highest lead levels found inside were on the window air conditioning unit that had sat in their daughter’s nursery, which faced the Wacker House.
Exterior dust results ranged from 1,000 to 111,000 micrograms per square foot, the report showed. The regulatory limit, per administrative state code, is 40 micrograms per square foot for exterior porch floors, 400 parts per million for bare soil readily accessible to children and 1,000 parts per million for all other bare soil.
The Cases, through the independent review and their own observations, believe lead dust from their neighbors’ construction was being tracked into their home. They allege that’s how their daughter, who was crawling at the time, was exposed.
Because lead is so pervasive, it is often difficult to say with 100% certainty why someone’s lead level went up, Schwartz said. But once someone is exposed to lead, she said, “you can’t undo it.”
The impact of lead exposure varies from case to case. Most harms, though, are silent, particularly at a young age, Schwartz said. For instance, adverse effects can include neurological damage, heightening the risk for lower IQ, underperformance in school and ADHD as children get older. Moreover, there’s often a delay in seeing the impact of lead exposure materialize, Schwartz said. Effects can surface years after exposure.
That said, Schwartz advised, “not every kid will have the same response.”
“Somebody’s two and somebody’s 10 could look completely different,” she said. “You can do your best to just make your kid healthy and happy from here on (out).”
Private property, public duty
Under Chicago’s landmark ordinance, all building permit applications for protected properties must generally go through the Commission on Chicago Landmarks before work can move forward. Projects are reviewed, per the ordinance, to ensure work will not adversely affect any “significant historical or architectural feature” of landmarked buildings.
Since 2012, the Department of Buildings has issued two building permits for 1838 North Lincoln Park West, one in June 2022 and a second in October 2023. They were both issued for largely similar work: paint removal from brick, removal of aluminum siding and restoring of original wood siding and replacement of water damaged wood on the porch. The permits specified “no structural work” and “all work same as existing.”
The city urges that work on existing buildings and structures must comply with lead-safe work practices required by local and federal law.
But since June 2023 to date, city data shows that 25 requests for service have been made to various departments alleging a host of complaints and violations at the Wacker House. A bulk of those calls have gone to the Department of Buildings, asserting paint stripping, work encroaching on neighboring properties, alterations to a landmark building and jobsite safety issues, among other complaints.
Those initial months leading up to their daughter’s one-year checkup, the Cases tried raising their concerns to local officials and authorities. They reached out to their local alderman, Timmy Knudsen, and notified police on several occasions, the couple said.
The Cases wrote to Knudsen again after receiving their daughter’s blood level results. They asked for help getting the city to issue a stop work order immediately. Knudsen replied and said he’d try to get the city to expedite.
The couple’s frustration only grew, however, after the city’s intervention seemed to fall short. Despite the stop work order ultimately issued in early December, construction continued, the Cases say.
“I understand that he is a private homeowner and can do construction,” Elizabeth said, “but his construction (was) poisoning our child.”
Their 1-year-old wasn’t the only one the couple worried for. Elizabeth, at the time, was pregnant. She agonized over how the situation would affect her and her second daughter, from the construction or just the stress alone.
“You love your children so much,” Elizabeth said. Her voice broke as she added, “What’s most heartbreaking is the thought of your child struggling.”
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Owner cooperation, or lack thereof, limits what the city can document and act on after a stop work order is issued, Department of Buildings spokesperson Nefsa’Hyatt Brown said in a statement. Inspectors have not been allowed inside the Wacker House, Brown said. Without access, the city is limited to returning later, leaving a notice for the owner to schedule an inspection or issuing violations for what can be seen from the outside.
“We cannot compel entry on our own,” Brown stated.
Looking for any avenue that would yield action, the Cases said that alongside the city, they reached out to IDPH, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA, to the couple’s understanding, opened an investigation. They still don’t know where that inquiry stands.
An EPA spokesperson in a statement to the Tribune confirmed that after multiple complaints about exterior renovation activities, the agency inspected the property in 2023 for potential lead-related violations. Asked whether there was an open investigation, the spokesperson said it was agency policy not to comment on ongoing enforcement actions.
By the spring of 2024, the Cases had moved back home while their property underwent lead abatement. They put up a privacy fence. Elizabeth had her second daughter that May.
The construction, for a while, seemed to ebb. Then, in the summer of 2025, the work picked up again — this time on the roof. No further building permits had been issued, and the illicit construction raised familiar safety concerns. The Cases tried reaching out to the city again.
“It was the same path,” Hunter said. “We would call. They wouldn’t come.”
The Department of Buildings issued a second stop work order for the roof work on June 24, 2025, according to Brown.
Trying to stop it
Lately, it’s been the Old Town Triangle Association that has renewed attention on the construction. In July, the association sent a newsletter to members urging neighbors to report any work they see.
“We consider (the Wacker House) one of the most important buildings in the Triangle,” the association wrote. “The rich heritage of this iconic Triangle landmark is now threatened.”
Behind the scenes, the association also sent a letter to Commissioner Hopkins, copying Knudsen and the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, requesting “enforcement of all relevant historic, landmark, and statutory regulations.”
In a statement to the Tribune, the association said while it “respects homeowners’ rights to make changes to their property, those changes must comply with the City of Chicago’s Landmark Ordinance requirements governing the Old Town Triangle District.”
Knudsen said he understands the community’s frustrations.
“I wish, in a situation like this, that I could just go in there and enforce some things, right?” he said. But aldermanic offices, he went on, don’t have any enforcement arm. He assured his office has been “advocating as much as we can to the departments.”
Last month, the Department of Buildings filed for a third stop-work order on the house, Brown said. An inspector was unable to gain entry. Now, court records show, officials have moved to induce compliance in court. On Aug. 27, the city filed a housing complaint against Michael and Amelia Gancarz and their mortgage holders.
The Cases still hear the construction. They’ve stopped calling the city.
The couple sometimes wonders what more they could have done. Asked about legal action, the Cases said it’s something they’ve considered. The couple retained a lawyer and in May 2024, sent Michael Gancarz a demand letter requesting $275,000 in compensation for the abatement work they had to perform. But they ultimately haven’t escalated further. They were advised litigation would be a costly and difficult path and wondered, with the property in foreclosure, whether any damages they recouped would even be paid.
It’s still heavy. Every time the Cases take their daughters back to the doctor, the worry creeps back in. And there’s a helplessness, a guilt that they can’t quite shake.
“Even though we tried to prevent it, there was this sense of failure,” Hunter said, “because we never did.”
When the Cases were informed by the Tribune that, as of late, the city would be pursuing enforcement action in court, they said they welcomed the push but are no less disillusioned by the process. They also questioned why now — why in the wake of public outcry over historical protections and not when it was their daughter’s health that was at stake.
These days, the Cases are just trying to move on, they say. Their oldest daughter’s lead levels have normalized, and she’s not yet showing any signs of impact from the lead exposure. They’re focused on making their house into somewhere that’s safe and warm, into the forever home they envisioned when they stepped through the front door that first visit.
They’ve poured as much love as they can into their four walls, because that’s what they’ve found they can control.