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 22 O St NW:
- February, 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 22 O St NW to Flora V. and Richard T. Kidd.
- February 1951 the Kidds borrowed $3,125 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- March 1951 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 22 O St NW to Bessie O. and Leroy Howard*.
- March 1951 the Howards borrowed $3,125 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- May 1955 the Howards lost their half to foreclosure and via an auction the ownership returned to Evans, Levin, and Taube.
- June 1957 the Kidds lost their half to foreclosure. The property returned to Evans, Taube, and new partner Harry Badt via an auction.
- June 1957 (recorded July 1958) as part of a larger property package, the Badts (Harry A. and wife Jennie) transfer/sell their interest in 22 O St NW to Nathan Levin’s survivors.
- March 1959 as part of a larger property package, Badt, Evans, Taube, their wives and Levin’s survivors sold 22 O St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- July 1971 the Basilikos, in a large property package, sold (doc 1971013980) 22 O St NW, along with a lot of other houses, to the Housing System Development and Construction Corp.
I’m going to stop at 1971. It is not sold to DC RLA but it was depressingly sold to George Basiliko.
*I noticed the Howards had bought 18 O St NW, next door. And they lost that to foreclosure too in June 1956.
So who were the Howards? They were an African American couple who for the most part lived in Prince George’s County Maryland. So I am not sure if they ever lived in DC during the time of their ownership.
Leroy Howard was born August 27, 1903 in Hertford County, North Carolina. His parents were John and Catherine Howard. He married the daughter of Ed and Annette (nee Gatling) Bonner, Bessie O. Bonner in 1921 in Perquimans, NC, when she was 18 and he was 21.
In the 1930 census the Howards lived in DC. Leroy Howard was listed as a 21 year old laborer renting 1021 50th St quadrant unknown. He lived there with wife, 25 years old, Bessie Howard and their three children Dorothy (7), John E (5), and Colee/ Cora L. (3).
By 1940, the Howards moved to PG County, and lived at 5149 Mash Street, Fairmount Heights, MD, a house they claimed to have owned. A quick look at Fairmount Height’s government website, it appears it was a Black community back then. I once knew where to find historic maps of PG Co. but I don’t feel like hunting them down. My skill set is DC.
The 1950 census had the Howards at 5114 Maple Road in Seat Pleasant, MD. The thing with the 1950 census, ownership status is unknown. Leroy was a self employed laborer. They lived with their three adult children and granddaughter Audrey Washington (1940-2006), daughter of Dorothy May Howard. Dorothy M. Washington also shows up in the 1950 census living in DC as a roomer without her daughter and separated from her husband Norman, living at 1-C 49th St SE.
I can’t find when Leroy died, but Bessie Olivia Howard appeared to have remarried sometime in the 1970s. According to the U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, she became Bessie Jenkins in 1975. She was born Oct 8, 1902 and died in 1979.