Month: June 2023

Look Ma No Safety Goggles- Armstrong High School 1942

Learning to use an electrical jigsaw to make model airplanes for the U.S. Navy at the Armstrong Technical High School. Library of Congress.

African American students at Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, DC use a jigsaw in 1942.

Feeling Like A Bit Player In A Greek Tragedy

The podcast Myths and Legends is a pretty good reminder of one of  the problems with being in a Greek tragedy, that bad thing you’re trying to avoid is going to happen. Sometimes the very actions taken to avoid the bad thing, lead straight to the bad thing. That’s one way of looking at things, the other is to blame the Oracle for giving vague easily misinterpreted answers.

Shaw has experienced tragedy. It took 30+ years for the neighborhood to mostly recover from the 1968 riots. Of course, prior to the first window broken or building fire, the neighborhood suffered as a slum.

Southeast on 7th and M Street, 1969

I wonder, and this is just me spitballing, if some actions taken to ‘improve’ the neighborhood, or anywhere, could wind up doing the opposite. I used ‘improve’ in quotes because I’ve seen enough government records to get a bit jaded. Along with plans from the past that did not work out the way they were supposed to. And in the case of George Basiliko and his “improving” the Bates area, I see the road of good intentions being contracted out to a corrupt front that on paper is supposed to build the road but pockets the money elsewhere.

Ignore me. I’m in a mood.

WSIC-1950 Sell Off- 18 Bates Street NW

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.

photo of property

Let’s see what happens with 18 Bates St NW:

  • December 1950 Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 18 Bates St NW to Alberta Colson.
  • December 1950 Mrs. Colson borrowed $2,875 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  • December 1950 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 18 Bates St NW to Lorenzo J. and Mary N. Evans.
  • December 1950 the Evans borrowed $3,125 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  • February 1958 the Evans lost their half of 18 Bates to foreclosure and via an auction the property returned to Evans, Taube and new partner Harry A. Badt.
  • February 1958 as part of a larger property package, the Badts (Harry A. and wife Jennie) transfer/sold their interest in 18 Bates St NW to Nathan Levin’s survivors.
  • September 1961 Mrs. Colson paid off her mortgage and disappears from the record.
  • November 1961 as part of a larger property package, Badt, Evans, Taube, their wives and Levin’s survivors sold 18 Bates St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
  • December 1978, George Basiliko Inc sold 18 Bates St NW to Edward L. Young.

I looked to see if Alberta Colson appeared anywhere else because sometimes the land records were entered in the system incorrectly. Nope. The last we see of her is in 1961. Also I will stop at 1978 because there are a slew of documents with water liens, wrongful housing and all sorts of messy things.