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 210 Q St NW:
- December 1950 (recorded 1/18/1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold 210 Q St NW to Samuel H. and Virginia B. Divers.
- December 1950 (recorded 1/18/1951) the Divers borrowed $6,250 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- February 1959 (recorded 6/18/1959) the Divers lose their home to foreclosure and Evans, Taube and new partner Harry A. Badt regain 210 Q St NW via auction.
- February 1959 (recorded 9/23/1959) as part of a larger property package, Badt & his wife transfer interest in 210 Q St NW to Levin’s survivors.
- November 1961 (recorded 1/5/1962), as part of a larger package, Evans, Taube, Badt (and their wives) and Levin’s survivors sell their interest in 210 Q St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- July 1970, as part of a larger property package, the Basilikos sell the property to the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency.
And so this follows the usual story of foreclosure, transfer to George Basiliko and then Basiliko’s sell off to RLA in possibly a sweetheart deal.