“The long-delayed redevelopment of an early-1900s orphanage building that later was a cornerstone of Wicker Park’s renewal by artists will get underway soon, now that recent owners who tried to make it a giant single-family home have sold it.

“The new owner, a legal entity associated with Chicago Pro Builders, plans 26 housing units in the 22,000-square-foot building and an addition on the northeast corner of the site in the L shape the building forms.

“The long-delayed redevelopment of an early-1900s orphanage building that later was a cornerstone of Wicker Park’s renewal by artists will get underway soon, now that recent owners who tried to make it a giant single-family home have sold it.

“Michael Mertz and McKenzie Maher sold the former Marks Nathan Orphanage and 1239 N. Wood Street Gallery for $4.85 million on Feb. 20. That’s about 57% of the $8.45 million they were asking when they put the structure, with their renovations unfinished, on the market in June 2021.

“Years later, Mertz declined to tell Crain’s how much they spent on the planned conversion to one large house with two small ground-level rentals, but at the price he was asking, more than $6 million, ‘I’m certainly not going to make any money selling. It’s an enormous loss, probably my worst investment.’

“The stately brick and limestone building opened in 1906 as the Marks Nathan Jewish Orphan Home, housing mostly refugee children. After the orphanage moved to another building in Douglas Park, the Wood Street building housed Polish American veterans for half a century.

“In 1987, as Wicker Park was just starting to be made over by artists, Mary O’Shaughnessy bought the structure and turned it into housing and exhibition space for artists.

“O’Shaughnessy sold the building 27 years later to Mertz and Maher. The ground-level residential units they created were occupied, but it appears the building’s upper two floors and fourth-floor addition have not been occupied since the 2014 sale.” (Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 2/21/25)

Read the full story at Crain’s Chicago Business

• Former Wicker Park orphanage, art gallery sold for redevelopment as 26 homes, Dennis Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 2/21/25
• Plan to Turn Ex-Orphanage into Single-Family Home with Roof Garden OKd, Alisa Hauser, DNAInfo, 3/5/2015
• Marks Nathan Jewish Orphan Home, In operation 1906-1948, Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois
• City Council approves residential development at 1239 N. Wood; The building will be rehabbed and an addition will be built on, Lukas Kugler, Urbanize Chicago, 1/30/25
• City Panel OKs Apartments At Old Wicker Park Orphanage, Irving Park Affordable Housing Update; The City Council’s zoning committee also greenlit plans for an apartment building on a Logan Square lot that’s long served as a Christmas tree market, among other projects, Quinn Myers, Block Club Chicago, 1/9/25