Old Town's Historic Landmark Wacker House is Defaced

Defaced Wacker House (above)

By Don DeBat

Old Town’s famed Wacker House, once a pristine landmark at 1838 N. Lincoln Park West, is undergoing a tragic and unthinkable “remuddling” that has totally defaced the “Mona Lisa” of Chicago’s rare surviving Victorian-era properties.

Like the 1950 movie, “Sunset Boulevard,” starring Gloria Swanson, today—the once classically beautiful, but aging star—is no longer ready for her close up.

In fact, developer and beer baron Frederick Wacker likely would be spinning in his grave today if he toured his once noble 12-room Swiss-chalet style Victorian mansion originally completed in 1874.

The 150-year-old Wacker House received city landmark status in 1977, and was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The historic landmark home later belonged to Frederick’s son, Charles Wacker, who served as chairman of the

Chicago Plan Commission for 17 years.

Charles Wacker helped carry out Daniel Burnham’s landmark 1909 Plan of Chicago, championing projects including the widening of Michigan Avenue, expansion of

the lakefront-park system and construction of the double-deck boulevard that now bears his name.

Here’s how the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks describes Wacker House:

“The unusual house that Swiss-born Frederick Wacker built has a fairy tale quality about it. It has all the characteristics of a Swiss chalet: a wide over-hanging veranda supported by curved brackets, openwork hoods above the windows and carved wooden spindle railings

flanking the broad stairway.”

Today, Wacker House commands a leafy view on the exclusive 1800 block of Lincoln Park West, a one-way street crowned with a canopy of stately oaks and flowering trees. For decades, the street has been a popular residential haven of million-dollar-plus homes

coveted by some of Chicago’s top corporate executives.

New owner clueless to history?

Over the past few years, preservationists say the current owner, an apparently clueless New Yorker from Manhattan, has dramatically defaced the historic home’s exterior with the following destructive alterations:

• Protective vinyl siding has been removed, exposing the original vintage clapboard that covers much of the façade. Then, the lead-based paint was stripped off the entire building, including decorative Victorian brackets and irreplaceable railings.

• The once-grand front-staircase bannisters now are capped with rough, raw-wood tree trunks that resemble the cabin logs split by Abe Lincoln when he was a youth in Southern Illinois.

• Unsightly circular six-inch thick log-pancake “caps,” with the circumference of a Weber charcoal grill, replaced the classic, white hardwood ball-shaped crowns on the twin-banister posts.

• The vintage 2-story brick coach house at the rear of the property has undergone extensive alterations that make it virtually unrecognizable. Decades ago, the coach house featured two living units and a roof deck.

“While some may dismiss the Wacker House alterations as homeowner prerogative, or a whimsical artistic interpretation of an old building, it is nothing of the sort,” said preservationist Karl Hjerpe, president of the Old Town Triangle Association’s

Historic District. “We are witnessing the intentional harm of an iconic Chicago building.”

Here is the text of a harsh report on Wacker House issued last week by the Old Town Triangle Association (OTTA), the overseer of historic landmark properties in

the neighborhood:

“The rich heritage of this iconic Triangle landmark is now threatened. Over the last four years, the house has been altered to an alarming degree. The most noticeable changes are the obvious and inappropriate tree sections clumsily attached to the front stairs and

now the back of the building.”

However, the worrisome preservationist report said: “The most harmful work was done by stripping the lead-based paint off the entire building. The unprotected wood will not last long in Chicago’s climate, and we are in grave danger of losing this priceless exposed

woodwork.”

The OTTA said that it is not aware of any attempt to obtain a City of Chicago building permit for any of the work. “In the process of this non-permitted construction, the properties to either side of the property were damaged by unauthorized equipment and

lead dust,” the report said.

The OTTA is urging city officials to intervene before more of its historic landmark character is lost. After years of raising concerns privately, the organization is asking neighbors to report any ongoing work at the property to city officials.

The move follows years of complaints to the Chicago Dept. of Buildings, which noted that it has issued two stop-work orders at the property since 2023 and responded to multiple complaints in recent years alleging work without permits, alterations to a landmark building and other construction-related concerns.

“We know that living next to a construction project that has gone on this long is difficult, and we understand why neighbors on this block have raised concerns,” said Nefsa’Hyatt Brown, the department’s spokesperson. “The Dept. of Buildings continues to monitor this property.”

Under Chicago’s landmark ordinance, exterior alterations to designated landmark properties and contributing buildings within landmark districts generally require review by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks before permits can be issued.

The rules are intended to preserve the historic character of protected buildings while allowing owners to repair and rehabilitate them in ways that are compatible with the surrounding district.

“While the OTTA 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,” the organization’s members said in a statement.

From 2023 through 2026, the Dept. of Buildings received 13 complaints related to the property. Complaints included reports of work without plans or permits, paint stripping, alterations to a landmark building, work encroaching onto neighboring properties,

construction on the coach house, rooftop work and jobsite-safety concerns.

In June 2025, inspectors issued a second stop-work order after observing construction on top of the property’s coach house, according to the buildings department.

Wacker House owner silent

According to an investigation by the local Block Club newspaper, the owner of the Wacker House, Michael Gancarz, did not return multiple requests for comment.

Block Club reported that Gancarz allegedly was facing foreclosure of the property as of April of 2026, according to county records. Bank of Barrington is the mortgagee on the property.

The Block Club also reported that “Gancarz appears to be” the same person who was charged in 2024 with burglary, petit larceny and trespassing in New York City. Then, The New Your Post reported officials said he went into and removed wine from a luxury wine shop he and his then-wife had previously owned there.

Award-winning history of Wacker House Wacker House is listed in the American Institute of Architects Guide to Chicago, a source book of the city’s noteworthy architecture and landmark properties.

Winner of the 1990 Chicago Sun-Times “Painted Lady Award,” Wacker House has been listed for sale and sold four times over the past three decades.

The late Mrs. Maurice Forkert, a former owner, was interviewed by listing broker Sara Benson, president of Benson Stanley Realty in 2001 at age 89. Mrs. Forkert, who resided in Wacker House in the 1960s and led the landmarking of the Old Town Historic District in 1977, had fond memories of the house and the neighborhood.

“Old Town was an exciting place to live in the 1950s and 1960s when many of the residents were artists, writers and graphic designers,” Mrs. Forkert recalled.

Swiss-born Otto Maurice Forkert, a graphic designer, purchased Wacker House in 1950, and resided there with his first wife, Louise. He ran his business in the two-story coach house. Later, the rambling main house was divided into three rental apartments.

“After Louise died in 1958, Maurice purchased the adjoining home at 1836 Lincoln Park West, and we married in the early 1960s,” Mrs. Forkert recalled.

The Forkerts shared a love of architecture and gardening. “Maurice served on the board of the Landmarks Preservation Council. Together they worked to preserve the vintage architecture of Old Town and fought teardowns,” she said.

In 1952, preservationist Forkert rescued ornate ornamental ironwork fencing which surrounded Mecca House, built in 1891. It was being razed at State and 35th streets on the South Side. He recycled the historic fencing and installed between his two Lincoln Park West homes. Mecca House housed sultans and their harems during the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

“Wacker House’s architecture is so striking that architecture buffs can be seen photographing it almost daily,” Benson said. “In 2001, the home’s lushly

landscaped front gardens were accented with an attractive fountain topped with a statue of the Greek goddess Diana.”

The interior of the Wacker House was amazing 25 years ago. The home featured 13-foot ceilings on the main level, intricately inlaid octagonal hardwood floors, and three original wood-burning fireplaces. The home also showcased floor-to-ceiling arched windows with original pocket shutters, and ornate fretwork in the living and dining rooms.

Wacker House fireplace (left)

Carved wooden dragons framed the top of the interior doorways in the living and dining rooms. “The original living room fireplace featured a glazed ceramic-tile grape-leaf design and the heads of Dionysus, Greek god of fertility and wine, and his wife, the Goddess Ariadne,” Benson said.

A sweeping, ornate grand staircase led to the third-floor bedrooms. French doors opened from the master bedroom to a trellised 14-by-11-foot private deck with a view of the Willis Tower and St. Michael’s Church.

Situated on an oversized, L-shaped lot—measuring 33 feet of frontage by 125 feet deep, plus a 50-foot width at rear—the main residence consisted of 5 bedrooms and 4½ baths housed within approximately 4,700 square feet of living space. The original 1,800-square-foot brick coach house was substantially demolished in recent years. Now only one room and a roof deck exist, along with 4-car garage below.

The Old Town Triangle Association asks readers and neighbors to share any new construction activity at Wacker House so the organization can document it. Email

to: hdoz@oldtowntriangle.com.

Let’s hope this on-going saga on the defacing of the remarkable Wacker House does not turn into the 1944 horror movie, “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”

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For more housing news, visit www.dondebat.biz. DonDeBat is co-author of “Escaping Condo Jail,” the ultimate survival guide for condominium living. Visitwww.escapingcondojail.com.