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.
Now let us look at the history of 135 Bates St NW post-WSIC:
- December 1950 Evans, Levin and Taube sold half of 135 Bates St NW to Helen M. and Nathaniel Lee.
- December 1950 the Lees borrowed $2,525 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold the other half of 135 Bates St NW to married woman, Mamie S. Green.
- January 1951 the Mrs. Green borrowed $2,525 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- February 1952 Mrs. Green sold her half to Lorene Ruth and Benjamin Randolph.
- August 1954 the Lees lost their half of 135 Bates St NW to foreclosure and the property returned to Evans, Levin and Taube via an auction.
- September 1959 Mrs. Green (in turn the Randolph family) lost their half to foreclosure and the property returned to Evans and Taube and new partner Harry A. Badt via an auction.
- September 1959 as part of a larger property package, partner Harry Badt & his wife transfer half of their interest in the property to the survivors of Nathan Levin.
- November 1961, as part of a larger package the Colonial Investment team (Evans, Badt, their wives, and Levin’s survivors) sell their interest in 135 Bates St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- Sometime before 1978 George Basiliko transferred/sold 135 Bates to the Bates Streets Associates Incorporated, which has some ties to the District of Columbia government (135 Bates St NW mentioned in this WP article). Not exactly a sale to DC RLA, but close-ish enough as RLA chose the Bates Street Associates Inc to renovate properties such as 135 Bates.
Getting back to the common themes found in these histories we have half of the property sold to two different households; a couple of foreclosures and a sell off to George Basiliko who then dumps the property.