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 were the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
Let’s see what happens with 208 Bates St NW:
- January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold all of 208 Bates Street NW to Mrs. Lucy P. Gibson.
- January 1951 Mrs. Gibson borrowed $5,800 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- January 1961 Mrs. Gibson lost her home to foreclosure. Due to an auction the ownership returned to Colonial Investment Co partners Evans, Taube and new partner Harry A. Badt.
- November 1961, as part of a larger property sale, Badt, Evans, Taube, Nathan Levin’s survivors, and their spouses sold 208 Bates Street NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- July 1968 the Basilikos sold 208 Bates Street NW to the Urban Rehabilitation Corporation.
This was a quick one. Not too long after the foreclosure, the Basilikos took ownership. I can’t seem to find info about Mrs. Gibson so I can’t say what happened on her end. This differs from the usual story in that the DC Redevelopment Land Agency was not involved.