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 what happens with 230 Bates Street NW:
- January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold all of 230 Bates Street NW to Joseph and Frances L. Jackson.
- January 1951 the Jacksons borrowed $7,050 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- March 1952 the Jacksons sold the house back to Evans, Levin and Taube. (Released from mortgage May 1962)
- May 1952 Evans, Levin and Taube sold half of 230 Bates St NW to Leroy and Bernice L. Fennell.
- May 1952 the Fennells borrowed $3,882.29 from Weightman and Levin.
- June 1952 Evans, Levin and Taube sold the other half to Booker T. Baird, Booker T. Henderson, and Trueolla Q. Henderson.
- June 1952 Baird and the Henderson borrowed $3,898.38 from Weightman and Levin.
- August 1952 the Fennells sold their half back to Evans, Levin, and Taube. (Released from loan January 1953)
- September 1952 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold that half to Martha Lee and Thornton James Leathers.
- September 1952 the Leathers borrowed $4,097.06 from lenders Levin and Weightman.
- July 1957 Booker T. Henderson removed his wife’s name from the deed.
- November 1961 the Leathers lost their half of 230 Bates St NW to foreclosure. Evans, Taube and Levin’s survivors regained the property via an auction.
- November 1961, as part of a larger property package, new partner Harry A. Badt, Evans, Taube, the Levin survivors and their spouses sold 230 Bates to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- December 1963 Evans, Taube, the Levin survivors and their spouses sold 230 Bates to George Basiliko. Was this the Henderson half? Not sure what happened to Booker T. Henderson.
- Sometime between 1971 and 1980 Basiliko sold/transferred the property to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency.
- June 1980, as part of a larger property package, the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA) sold the property to BSA Limited Partnership.
This was a confusing property, getting sold and resold several times. It was sold as a whole. It was sold in parts. The sole lender for most regular buyers was Weightman and Levin. It eventually wound up in the hands of George Basiliko and the RLA.