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 32 O St NW:
- February 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 32 O St NW to widow Roxie A. Jackson.
- Feb 1951 Mrs. Jackson borrowed $3,125 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- February 1951 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 32 O St NW to Bermeda S. and Carl N. Pierce.
- Feb 1951 Mr. & Mrs. Pierce borrowed $3,025 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- June 1952 Mrs. Jackson sold/transferred her half, via Ruth and Charles Rodgers Hawkins, to Mrs. Helena Isabel Ash.
- February 1963 the Pierces paid off their mortgage.
- February 1964 the Jackson loan was paid off.
- October 7, 1959 Carl Nathaniel Pierce died.
- January 1966 Mrs. Pierce, Helena Ash and her husband Charles Ash Jr. sold the whole of 32 O St NW to Anne and Irving Furash.
- February 1966 the Furashes sold the property to the Diamond Housing Corporation.
No foreclosures. I was pleasantly surprised that when Roxie Jackson sold her home that it wasn’t foreclosed upon. I sometimes see that when that happens a foreclosure will follow. It all worked out for everyone. Yay.