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 121 Bates St NW:
- April 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 121 Bates NW to Horace R. and Mary F. Jones.
- April 1951 the Jones borrowed $1,900 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- April 1951 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 121 Bates St NW to Arthur and Elizabeth Little.
- April 1951 the Littles borrowed $1,900 at 6% interest from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- March 1953 the Littles of 121A Bates got a rare 2nd mortgage from trustees Roland Brown Jr and Jacob Sandler for $1,038.97 to pay Consolidated Eng. & Dist. Co. Inc.
- July 1954 the Jones lost their half to foreclosure. Evans, Levin, and Taube regained possession of the property via an auction.
- June 1959 as part of a larger property package, new owner Badt, Evans, Taube, their wives and Levin’s survivors sold the foreclosed half of 121 Bates St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- September 1967 the Littles were released from their mortgage with Levin and Weightman.
- June 1974 the Littles sold their half to George Basiliko.
- August 1978 Sophia and George Basiliko sold 121 Bates to Bates Street Ventures Partnership.
I’ll end this with 1978. There was one foreclosure and it wound up in the hands of Basiliko but not the DC RLA.