WSIC-1950 Sell Off- 1503 3rd Street 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.

photo of property

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:

  • December 1950 (recorded Jan 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold all of (not half) 1503 3rd St NW to James W. Smith.
  • December 1950 Mr. Smith borrowed $7,950 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  • November 1951 (recorded in 1952) Smith sold the property to Miss Edith E. Matthews, and she sold back to him half of 1503 3rd St NW.
  • Same November 1951 day Miss. Matthews sold the other half to Bell and George Myers Jr.
  • November 1951, the Myers borrowed $3,750 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  • December 1957 the Myers lost their home to foreclosure and Evans, Taube, and new partner Harry A. Badt regained ownership via an auction.
  • 7/3/1958 The Badts (Harry & wife) transferred their interest in this and other properties to Nathan Levin’s family (wife Rose, children Lawrence, Myron Levin and Ruth Wagman).
  • November 1961, James W. Smith fulfilled his loan obligations.
  • November 1961 the Badts, Evans, Taubes, and Wagmans sold the remaining half and other properties in a large package to Sophia and George Basiliko.
  • December 1971 Basiliko and James Smith’s heirs sold the property to the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA).