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.
Okay, let’s get back to some depressing local history.
Why depressing? The WSIC properties tend to have a pattern where the properties were sold by business partners, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. 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). And doing this over and over again, is depressing.
Let’s see what happens with 19 Bates St NW:
- December 1950 (recorded Feb 14, 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 19 Bates St NW to Miss Elsie M. Mitchell.
- December 1950 (recorded Feb 14, 1951) Mitchell borrowed $1,900 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- January 1951 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 19 Bates St NW to Theodora and Thomas Ferguson.
- Jan 1951 Fergusons borrowed $1,900 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- March 9, 1953 Thomas Ferguson borrowed $965.83 from trustees Roland Brown Jr and Jacob Sandler in order to pay for work done by Consolidated Eng. & Dist. Co. Inc.
- September 1954 Thomas Ferguson borrowed $575.65 from the Irving Trust Company.
- April 1958 the Fergusons lost their half of 19 Bates St NW to foreclosure.
- July 1958, as part of larger property package, new Colonial partner Harry A. Badt transferred their interest in the foreclosed half to the survivors of Nathan Levin.
- June 1959 the Colonial Investment Co partners and the Levin survivors, in a larger property package, sold their interest in the property to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- January 1962 Mitchell was released from her mortgage, thus owning her half free and clear.
- December 1969 Elsie Mitchell Traylor and her husband Melvyn H. Traylor sold their half to notorious landlord George Basiliko.
- November 1981 Sophia and George Basiliko sold 19 Bates St NW, along with two other WSIC properties to the Bates Street Ventures, Gerald Diaz and Edward A. Kassoff.
There was a foreclosure. But on the other hand the other buyer, Elsie Mitchell, was able to pay off her mortgage, thus one success. But she and the Colonial Investment Co wound up selling their halves of the house to George Basiliko. Despite owning it prior to 1970 Basiliko did not sell the property to the DC RLA. I’m not sure if Bates Street Ventures is pretty much the same as Bates Street Associates (BSA) and all that mess.