WSIC-1950 Sell Off- 1519 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 1519 3rd St NW:

  •  January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold half of 1519 3rd St NW to Delores M. and Thomas L. Brock Jr.
  • January 1951 the Brocks borrowed $3,525 from from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  •  January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold the other half of 1519 3rd St NW to Gladys Banks and Robert S. McGee.
  • January 1951 Banks and McGee borrowed $3,525 from from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  • December 1953 the Brocks sold their half of 1519 3rd St NW back to Evans, Levin and Taube.
  • March 1954 Banks and McGee lost their half of the property to foreclosure and Evans, Levin and Taube regained it via an auction.
  • May 1954 Evans, Levin and Taube resold the foreclosed half to Bettie K. and Charles R. Williams Sr.
  • May 1954 the Williams borrowed $4,153.41 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  • May 1956 the Williams lost their half of the property to foreclosure. Evans, Taube and new partner Harry A. Badt regained ownership via an auction.
  • May 1956 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, the Badts, the Evans, the Taubes, and Levin’s survivors sold this and other properties to Sophia and George Basiliko.
  • At some point between 1971 and 1978 the DC Redevelopment Land Agency gained ownership of 1519 3rd St NW.