This is from 2016
I could add context, but I don’t need that headache. I already posted my opinion.
This is from 2016
I could add context, but I don’t need that headache. I already posted my opinion.
I need to clean up the data on this old post from 2022. This was before I started noticing a pattern with the WSIC houses. I’m just going to focus on the property history and not the individuals.
From my last post, I mentioned I would look at a property that was transfer from the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) to three men, who then sold it to a person marking the exit of WSIC from Truxton Circle in the 1950s.
45 Bates St NW is on square 615 in Truxton Circle. During the time of WSIC’s ownership it sat on lot 134. Currently it is now lot 292.
I don’t have the exact date when WSIC came to posses 45 Bates and other homes on the block. In 1903 parties (George Sternberg and George Kober) involved with the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) owned many lots on Sq. 615. So fast forward to June 1950 and the property is transferred from WSIC to the Washington Loan & Trust Company, then from the Washington Loan and Trust Co. to business partners Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans. The business partners borrowed $3 million dollars for Investors Diversified Services Inc. of Minnesota.
So let’s get onto the property history:
I was looking through some old email to “attempt” to clean up my mailbox and found an email from Ray Milefsky or “Ray of Sunshine” as I would think of him.
Ray Milefsky was a Shaw neighborhood fixture. He had bought his Shaw home in the 1980s (according to his obit), but I had the sense he’d been in Shaw for much longer. He’d freely share his opinion and knowledge on the Shaw listserv before Yahoo and more sensitive voices quieted him. He passed away in 2016 and Durham University in the UK has an award in his honor.
Model Cities was different from the Model Inner City Community
Organization headed by Walter Fauntroy, which attempted to thwart or at least redirect the mass redevelopment of the city, that, he correctly argued, would displace many poor people, especially Blacks from the city as happened in the Greater Southwest Redevelopment
Project.
Cheers,
Ray Milefsky
Yes, Mari found a new toy. I’m going to take a little break from the deep research while I clean up the data. Playing with AI made me realize that the WSIC posts aren’t uniform in the information they give, so I will need to fix that. In the meantime, here’s an old post, where I had Grok write it in the style of Raymond Chandler. It is a hoot.
I’m having the bathroom redone in my current home and I forgot how dust gets EVERYWHERE.
You’d think after 4 renovations on the TC house, I would know. But I forgot and second guessing our decision to stay put.
I was a single woman for renovations #1 and #2. I stayed around for the kitchen redo in 2003. I stayed with Scott & Matt on 1st Street for the big to do in 2007/2008.
After getting married, I did the basement and put on an addition. We stayed with Rose across the street then rented a friend’s place on the unit block of Bates St NW for the addition. Even with the basement, and the plastic barrier, dust got everywhere.
So now we’re doing a 1st floor bathroom renovation. Silly us left doors open and dust really got everywhere. We had moved the kid upstairs because his room was right next to the bathroom. After a few days we moved up with him.
And no. Those plastic barriers do not keep all the dust out. Anyone who has shared a wall with a place undergoing renovations knows, that stuff is like a ghost and travels through walls.
So that’s why posts for the next month or so is going to be meh or non-existent.
In this series of looking at the odd numbered side of the 1700 block of New Jersey Ave NW from 1920 to 1930, I decided to look at the other end of the block. The change from 1920 to 1930 for most of the block was from white renters to black home owners. My post The sell off of the 1700 block of New Jersey Ave NW pretty much explains the why.
The Gray family were the only renters in 1723 New Jersey Ave NW in 1920. It was headed by George Abbott Gray, a 53 year old house painter. He lived in the home with his wife, 52 year old Sarah Ellen (nee Peters) a German-American housewife, their adult children and a roomer. Son George Leslie Gray was a 25 year old machinist and daughter Emma RW a clerk at the War Department.
The census prior Emma lived at 1723 with her grandmother Harriett A. Gray a 69 year old widow. It was just those two, sharing the address with the Lamb family. Her father, mother, brother, and maternal grandmother were living not far away in LeDroit Park at 666 Elm St NW.
The senior George Gray died in 1925, so he would not appear in the 1930 census. The widowed Sarah Gray lived with her daughter Emma who was a clerk for the US Veterans Bureau. Son George L. Gray was working as an auto mechanic and living with his wife Edna at 660 Kenyon St NW.
The earliest document for this house appears to be a deed from August 25, 1924 where Robert Oscar Underwood, acting as executor of the estate of Robert DuBois Underwood transferred the home to Clara M. Ward. I am left to assume Robert D. Underwood was the original purchaser from the Chiswells who developed and sold the 1700 block row of homes to African Americans.
Clara Ward appears to have been working as a go between as in the next document, on the same day, Ward transferred/sold the home to Mary L, Johnson and Fannie C. Stewart. Johnson and Stewart took out a loan for $1,850 from trustees WC Prather and Robert W. Savage. The next year, on October 7, 1925, Johnson and Stewart sold the home to Cora B. and Ernest Boozer. The Boozers borrowed $2,625 from trustees Lucie R. Pollard and Arthur C. Proctor. It was the first of seven mortgages before their heirs sold the home in 1966 to East Coast Equities Inc. Earlier in 1963, Ernest Boozer’s name was removed from the property as the couple had divorced. Cora Boozer died in Rock Hill, SC on June 6, 1965. Her brother Fielding Robinson Jr , was her heir, along with his wife Mae.
Cora Bell Robinson Boozer, was born in Columbia, SC August 8, 1910. Frank was also born in Columbia, SC but in 1899. In the 1930 census Cora and her husband Ernest lived with half a dozen lodgers. Frank was a 35 year old barber and Cora worked as a servant in a hotel. Their tenants included a janitor, a laborer and an elevator operator.
So once again I played around with A.I. and got something, not 100% right. It isn’t exactly wrong either. It’s a POV that isn’t mine and I’m not really on board with it.
I can imagine my research being taken over by some young producer type who ‘jazzes’ it up, and this is what you get.
I plugged in several Eloyce Gist blog posts here and my script for the ASALH conference and got this:
In this series of looking at the odd numbered side of the 1700 block of New Jersey Ave NW from 1920 to 1930, I decided to look at the other end of the block. The change from 1920 to 1930 for most of the block was from white renters to black home owners. My post The sell off of the 1700 block of New Jersey Ave NW pretty much explains the why.
There were three households living in 1721 New Jersey Ave NW in 1920. There were the Burgess family, the Matthews family and the Burtons.
Let’s start with the Burgess family. It was headed by William F. Burgess, a 33 year old chauffeur. He lived with his wife Annie and their three children, Della (10), William E (8) and baby Boyd R. Prior to living on New Jersey Avenue the family lived at 723 Morton St. NW during World War I. Continue reading 1920 to 1930- White to Black- 1721 New Jersey Avenue
In this series of looking at the odd numbered side of the 1700 block of New Jersey Ave NW from 1920 to 1930, I decided to look at the other end of the block. The change from 1920 to 1930 for most of the block was from white renters to black home owners. My post The sell off of the 1700 block of New Jersey Ave NW pretty much explains the why.
1719 New Jersey Ave had two households living in the town home in 1920. One was a single person, 72 year old widow Harriett A. Gray. The other was the Hessler family.
Harriett Gray was born in 1848, possibly in the District of Columbia. Unfortunately, there was more than one woman named Harriett A. Gray born in 1848. The other one was born in Maine, another in Illinois. She was living alone and did not have an occupation. If she was related to the Gray family living at 1723 New Jersey Av NW, then she is Harriet Ann (nee Abbott) Gray who died in 1929.
The Hesslers or Heslars were a 29 year old father, 31 year old mother and their 7 year old son Earl. James Kelly Heslar was born February 16, 1891 in Brown, Ohio. In 1910 he was a single teacher in Ohio. He married Mollie Caldwell in 1911. At some point he moved to Washington, DC and worked as a clerk for the War Department. By 1930 the family was back in Ohio where they owned their home.
William H. and Katie Randall bought 1719 NJ Ave NW from M. Harvey Chiswell around October 1920. Katie and William Herbert Randall were the owners up until 1960. Between 1922 to 1960 the Randalls took out 9 mortgages. In a 1970 loan with the Perpetual Building Association, the borrowers were William E. and Janice B. Randall. Those Randalls lost the home to foreclosure in 1973.
William Randall was born February 2, 1888 in Washington, DC. He married Katie Pauline Thomas September 4, 1920. In the 1930 census William was an independent ice dealer. They lived there with adopted daughters Lillian N. (9) and Audrey V. (7). They also had a lodger, 26 year old Lewis Chase who worked as a government messenger. In 1940, William, but this time W. Herbert, was working as a ‘delivery boy’. He died in 1949. In the 1950 census Katie was living at 820 L St NE with 29 year old niece and former foster daughter Lillian M. James, and 5 & 4 year old nephews William E. Thomas and Kenneth I. James. It’s unclear to me who William E. Randall was to the couple.
So I asked an AI to look at the web pages for 14-42 O St NW and summarize them. AI is imperfect. It incorrectly believed the George Basiliko purchased homes in 1950. I can see where it got that idea in some of my posts. sigh.
From Grok: