Another photo to break up the monotony of posts about the Washington Sanitary Improvement Co.’s sell off of their rental stock to people (followed by foreclosures). These images are from a pile of photocopies of photographs I found in an archive.
Judging from the arches in the doorways, this is the unit block of Bates Street NW. Judging from the cars parked on the street I’m guessing mid-late 1960s.
There are a lot of these houses. I’m just going to publish these in big batches.
The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) was a late 19th century charitable capitalism experiment that ended in the 1950s. This blog started looking at the homes that were supposed to be sold to African American home buyers, after decades of mainly renting to white tenants.
Looking at WSIC properties they tend to have a pattern where the properties were sold to a three business partners, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. for $3 million dollars. Those partners sold to African American buyers. There was usually a foreclosure. Then the property wound up in the hands of George Basiliko and or the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Then there was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
Let’s see what happened with 1503 3rd St NW:
There are a lot of these houses. I’m just going to publish these in big batches.
The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) was a late 19th century charitable capitalism experiment that ended in the 1950s. This blog started looking at the homes that were supposed to be sold to African American home buyers, after decades of mainly renting to white tenants.
Looking at WSIC properties they tend to have a pattern where the properties were sold to a three business partners, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. for $3 million dollars. Those partners sold to African American buyers. There was usually a foreclosure. Then the property wound up in the hands of George Basiliko and or the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Then there was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
Let’s look at 1507 3rd St NW:
As a side note, in 1973 the house was condemned. The condemnation was cancelled in 1974. The condemned again in 1981.
There are a lot of these houses. I’m just going to publish these in big batches.
The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) was a late 19th century charitable capitalism experiment that ended in the 1950s. This blog started looking at the homes that were supposed to be sold to African American home buyers, after decades of mainly renting to white tenants.
Looking at WSIC properties they tend to have a pattern where the properties were sold to a three business partners, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. for $3 million dollars. Those partners sold to African American buyers. There was usually a foreclosure. Then the property wound up in the hands of George Basiliko and or the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Then there was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
Let’s see what happened with 1519 3rd St NW:
There are a lot of these houses. I’m just going to publish these in big batches this week.
The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) was a late 19th century charitable capitalism experiment that ended in the 1950s. This blog started looking at the homes that were supposed to be sold to African American home buyers, after decades of mainly renting to white tenants.
Looking at WSIC properties they tend to have a pattern where the properties were sold to a three business partners, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. for $3 million dollars. Those partners sold to African American buyers. There was usually a foreclosure. Then the property wound up in the hands of George Basiliko and or the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Then there was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
Let’s look at 1511 3rd Street NW:
In the end a lot of properties wound up in the hands of the RLA.
There are a lot of these houses. I’m just going to publish these in big batches.
The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) was a late 19th century charitable capitalism experiment that ended in the 1950s. This blog started looking at the homes that were supposed to be sold to African American home buyers, after decades of mainly renting to white tenants.
Looking at WSIC properties they tend to have a pattern where the properties were sold to a three business partners, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. for $3 million dollars. Those partners sold to African American buyers. There was usually a foreclosure. Then the property wound up in the hands of George Basiliko and or the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Then there was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
Let’s look at the post WSIC history of 200 Q St NW:
Basiliko did not wind up selling the house to RLA. Instead he sold it to the Bates Street Ventures Partnership in 1978. But then the Bates Street Ventures Partnership sold/transferred it back to Basiliko after the Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings condemned the building then uncondemned it. In 1984 Basiliko sold it to Florida Exclusive Properties…. this is not Florida, nor in the 1980s were any of these exclusive. There are a mess of mechanics liens after that so I will end it here.
I have in my collection, photocopies of photographs taken sometime maybe in the late 1960s, maybe 1970s of Bates St NW. The image above is looking South on 1st St NW from the corner of 1st and the 100 block of Bates St NW.
When I attempt to look at Google Street View, I notice the mail box is gone. The lamp post is further from the corner. And no fancy schmancy brick in the sidewalk.
The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) was a late 19th century charitable capitalism experiment that ended in the 1950s. This blog started looking at the homes that were supposed to be sold to African American home buyers, after decades of mainly renting to white tenants.
Looking at WSIC properties they tend to have a pattern where the properties were sold to a three business partners, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. for $3 million dollars. Those partners sold to African American buyers. There was usually a foreclosure. Then the property wound up in the hands of George Basiliko and or the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Then there was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
Let’s look at the history of 229 Bates St NW:
This was a new one for me. Typically, Evans, Levin and Taube sold half of the property to families. There were problems with this. The few sales I’ve seen of these half properties to other individuals seems to have failed most of the time. The property either winds up in foreclosure or it gets sold to a party that owns the other half. In this, they started off selling the whole property, but then bought back half.
So who were the Hagins who bought 229 Bates St NW and lost it? In the 1950 census they lived at 1746 18th Ave NW as lodgers of George Green. They were both African Americans from Georgia. He was a 21 year old baggage porter working for the railroad, she was 22.
The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company built a number of homes in the Truxton Circle neighborhood in the late 19th and early 202th century. WSIC sold off a number of their rentals, with the idea of selling to African Americans.
Looking at WSIC properties they tend to have a pattern where the properties were sold to a three business partners, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. for $3 million dollars. Those partners sold to African American buyers. There was usually a foreclosure. Then the property wound up in the hands of George Basiliko and or the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Then there was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
At 139 Bates St NW:
So this address had fit the pattern of properties being sold then those buyers losing their homes to foreclosure and then the property winding up in the hands of a man whom the Washington Post called a slum lord. Because of the way he handled his rentals he was forced/pressured to sell many of his Bates Street properties.
The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company built a number of homes in the Truxton Circle neighborhood in the late 19th and early 20th century. WSIC sold off a number of their rentals.
Looking at WSIC properties they tend to have a pattern where the properties were sold to a three business partners, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. for $3 million dollars. Those partners sold to African American buyers starting in 1951. There was usually a foreclosure. Then the property wound up in the hands of George Basiliko and or the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Then there was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
Let’s look at 38 O St NW:
It appears Basiliko was not forced to sell this property to DC RLA and the whole house eventually belonged to the current owners.
