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 happens with 218 Q Street NW:
- December 1950 (recorded 1/18/51) Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 218 Q St NW to Mary A. Hall.
- December 1950 (recorded 1/18/1951) Ms. Hall borrowed $3,125 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold the other one-half of 218 Q St NW to Helen R. and Walter Roberson.
- January 1951 the Robersons borrowed $3,275 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- May 1953 the Robersons borrow $682.98 from trustees Roland Brown Jr and Jacob Sandler to pay a debt from Consolidated & Engineering Co., Inc.
- December 1955 (recorded 2/2/1956) Ms. Hall sold her half of 218 Q St NW back to Evans, Levin and Taube.
- January/ February 1958 the Robersons lost their half of 218 Q St NW to foreclosure. The property, via auction, it was returned to Evans, Taube and new partner Harry A. Badt.
- February 1958 (recorded 7/3/1958) as part of a larger package, Evans, Taube, Badt (and their wives) and Levin’s survivors sell their interest in 218 Q St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- Eventually, July 1970, the Basilikos, as part of a larger property package, sell 218 Q St NW to the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA).