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 the ownership history of 1509 3rd St NW:
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 1509 3rd St NW to widow Mary A. Jackson.
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Mrs. Jackson borrowed $3,375 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- January 1951 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 1509 3rd St NW to Woodrow W. Jackson. I do not know if he and Mary were related.
- Jan 1951 Mr. Jackson borrowed $3,525 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- February 1960 Mr. Jackson lost his half to foreclosure. The property returned to Evans, Taube, and new partner Harry A. Badt via an auction.
- February 1960, as part of a larger property package, Harry Badt & his wife transfer a portion of their interest in this and other properties to Levin’s survivors.
- November 1961, (recorded 1/5/1962), as part of a larger package the Colonial Investment team (Evans, Badt, their wives, and Levin’s survivors) sell their interest in 1531 3rd St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- December 1962, Mary Jackson borrowed $950.00 from trustees Charles W. Morgan and Ralph O. Weed.
- December 1963, Mary Jackson borrowed $2,650 from trustees A.J. Mascetta and Ralph O. Weed.
- October 1967 Mrs. Jackson borrowed $1,183.68 from Mascetta & Weed for work done by Continental Contracting Co., Inc.
- November 1967 she was released from her debt with Levin and Weightman.
- September 1978, George Basiliko, as George Basiliko, Inc, sold his half of 1509 3rd St NW to Lewis L. Washington.
- March 1983, Mrs. Jackson sold 1509A 3rd St NW to Fannie T. Johnson.
- November 1984, Fannie T. and her husband Sylvester Johnson sold their half of the property to Lewis L. Washington bringing the property under one owner again.
So let’s see if we check the boxes. Halves sold, check. Foreclosure, check. Sold to Basiliko, check. Sold to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency, nope.