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 228 Q St NW:
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold the whole of 228 Q St NW to Ernestine Culpepper*.
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Culpepper borrowed $6,750 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- February 1963 Culpepper was released from the 1950 mortgage and owned the house free & clear.
- May 1963 Culpepper transferred the house to Charles P. Muldoon to then transferred it to Ernestine and Nathan Watts.
- December 1963 the Watts borrowed $8,000 from the Perpetual Building Association.
- January 1972 the Watts got divorced and Ernestine got her house back.
I’m going to leave it there. Ernestine died September 27, 1994 as the owner of 228 Q St. NW. Short of the divorce, this was a pretty positive story.
*Just a side note. I noticed in the paperwork the Culpepper was described with “their” and “them”.