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 206 Q St NW:
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold the whole of 206 Q NW to William D. and Annie Queen.
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) the Queens borrowed $6,250 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- December 1956 the Queens sold 1/2 of the property to Evans, new partner Harry A. Badt, and Taube.
- June 1959 Evans, Badt, Taube, their wives, and the survivors of Nathan Levin, as part of a larger property package, sold 1/2 of 206 Q St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- August 1961, the Queens lost their remaining half to foreclosure. Through an auction Evans, Nathan Levin’s survivors and Taube regained ownership of the property.
- December 1961 Evans, Nathan Levin’s survivors and Taube and their wives sold the foreclosed half to George Basiliko.
- July 1970 George Basiliko sold the whole of 206 Q to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA) as part of a larger property package in document #1970011877.
- August 1979 DC RLA transferred/sold many Truxton Circle properties, including 206 Q, in a large property package in document #7900028039 to the Bates Street Associates Inc.
So the pattern plays itself out for 206 Q St NW. There is a foreclosure, it gets sold to Basiliko who then sold it to DC who then passed it on to the Bates Street Associates.
So as a side note there are the Queens. I kept seeing “his wife” scratched out, noting that Annie was not William D.’s wife. She was his mom. In the 1950 census 36 year old AfAm truck driver William Dennis Queen lived with his parents, 73 year old Dennis and 66 year old Annie Agnes Queen(nee Johnson) at an apartment at 61 Rhode Island Av NE.