Month: July 2023

Piecing Together Lost Truxton Circle or What the what am I looking at? Pt 2

Continuing on from Part 1….

Look at this photo taken in 1942.

Military unit in Armstrong Technical High School being trained by an U.S. Army lieutenant. Library of Congress.

Now same day in March 1942, same event.

Washington, D.C. Military unit in Armstrong Technical High School being trained by a U.S. Army lieutenant. LOC

Behind them appears to be the National Homeopathic Hospital. Below is a photo of the hospital from 1910.

National Homeopathic Hospital, ca. 1910

You can see the front of the hospital in the top photograph. In the second photo you can see part of the old Dunbar High School building. Despite it being an event for Armstrong High School boys, it appears they are on Dunbar’s campus.

Below is an aerial photo from 1951 or 1952 taken by the US Geological Survey. Keeping in mind where the two tallish buildings of the hospital sat, and the corner of old Dunbar, you can see where the boys were parading.

WSIC-1950 Sell Off- 215 P 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.photo of property

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 215 P St NW:

  • December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 215 P NW to Sudell M. and Walter Williams.
  • December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) the Williams borrowed $3,000 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  • January 1951 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 215 P St NW to James J. and Lucille T. Meredith.
  • Jan 1951 the Merediths borrowed $3,150 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  • November 1953 the Merediths sold their half to the Williams.
  • May 1966 the Williams borrowed $9,000 at 6.5% interest from the Suburbia Federal Savings and Loan Association.
  • August 1966 it appears that the Williams were released from the Levin and Weightman mortgages that they and the Saunders took on in 1950.
  • October 1968 the Williams lost their home to foreclosure and via an auction the mortgager Suburbia Federal Savings and Loan owned it.
  • November 1968, Dorothy C. and Elvin L. Brincefield bought the property borrowing $7,920 from Suburbia Federal Savings and Loan.
  • December 1968, as the Brincefield Company they loaned/borrowed?? I don’t understand the document.
  • November 1971, the Brincefields sold the property to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA).

The lesson learned here is that if your foreclosure is with someone other than the Colonial Investment Co. partners, then it does not fall into the hands of George Basiliko. But it wound up being owned by the DC RLA.

The Merediths had a not so common name so I will look into their history. In the 1950 census James Junior Meredith was an African American truck driver living at 1115 8th St in an apartment with his wife Lucille, a maid, their 1 year old daughter Carolyn and his mother in law. August 23, 1960 James died. They were living at 208 Bates Street at the time of his death, as renters. I’ll give my regular readers 1 guess at who their slumlord was. He left behind his wife Lucille, and children Carolyn, Kenneth and Patricia.

The Williams were so close to beating the normal fate. Unfortunately, Williams is too common of a name to research. Yes, Sudell is an uncommon first name, but her maiden name was Sudell Myrtle Jones.

Piecing Together Lost Truxton Circle or What the what am I looking at? Pt 1

I’ve been looking at the Library of Congress’ photo collection online for Truxton Circle related images. I found a slew of Armstrong High School photos, and some Dunbar High School images, some of them outside.  Looking at them I noticed buildings in the background that no longer exist and tried to figure out where the photos were looking.

The LC photos were from March 1942. Below is an aerial photo from 1951 or 1952 taken by the US Geological Survey.

Armstrong as a building still exists.

Dunbar exists, but not the original building. The 3rd building for Dunbar High School exists on that block.

The Homeopathic Hospital no longer exists either.

A lot of buildings shown in the above aerial photo no longer exist. Currently there are no buildings on the east side and southwest side of Armstrong, as there were in the 1951 photo. Dunbar now takes up the whole block but in 1951 had structures on its western side. The Homeopathic Hospital got absorbed by the New York Avenue playground.

In later posts I will compare the 1942 photos to the 1951 aerial photo and try to match up the buildings or structures.

WSIC-1950 Sell Off- 1501 3rd 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.

photo of propertyLooking 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 1501 3rd St NW:

  • January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold all of 1501 3rd St NW to Frank Alexander, then a single man.
  • January 1951 Mr. Alexander borrowed $8,000 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
  • September 1966 Mr. Alexander was released from his mortgage obligations and owned 1501 3rd St NW free and clear.
  • Sometime before November 1993 the estate of Frank Alexander Sr (Charles R, Frank Jr, Alice N. Alexander and Anna L. McClain) transferred the property to Alice Norita Alexander and Frank Alexander Jr.
  • From 1996 to 2006 Alice N. Alexander borrowed often and after adding Lashavio L. Faison to the property, and continue to borrow, lost it to foreclosure.

This is a different story than the usual WSIC house stories. Here a man bought a house. He paid off the house. He was able to leave the house to his family and they lost it.

If I have the right person, Frank Alexander was born February 16, 1918 in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, one of seven children to James and Anna Alexander. His father died when he was young. He was enlisted in 1944 and discharged in 1945. We know in 1951, he purchased 1501 Third Street NW in Washington, DC. He died June 5, 1988 and left the property in a will to people I assume are his family members.

It’s a happier story. The original buyer did not experience foreclosure, the DC Redevelopment Agency or Landlord George Basiliko had no opportunity to take over the property.