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 37 Bates St NW:
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 26, 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 37 Bates St NW to Lenora Willis.
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 26, 1951) Mrs. Willis borrowed $2,525 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- January 1951 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 37 Bates St NW to Ana Aiken.
- Jan 1951 Ana Aiken borrowed $2,525 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- October 1952 Lenora Willis lost her home to foreclosure and Evans, Levin and Taube regained ownership via an auction.
- October 1952 Evans, Levin and Taube resold the foreclosure to Fred and Johnola M. Thorpe.
- October 1952 the Thorpes borrowed $3,148.94 from trustees Levin and Weightman.
- February 1959 Ana Aiken lost her home to foreclosure. Through an auction it returned to Colonial Investment Co. partners Evans, Taube and Nathan Levin’s replacement Harry A. Badt.
- June 1959 (document # 1959024641) Badt, Evans, Taube, Nathan Levin’s survivors, and their spouses sold 37 Bates, as part of a large property package, to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- June 1974 the Thorpes were released from their mortgage.
- September 1974 widow Johnola Thorpe sold her half to George Basiliko.
- August 1978 the Basilikos sold the property to the Bates Street Ventures Partnership.
- November 1981 the Bates Street Ventures Partnership sell/transfer the property back to George Basiliko.
Since Johnola Thorpe’s name was unusual I decided to look it up. Well I could not find much on her. I did discover that Fred Thorpe died February 1, 1962 and they still lived at 37 Bates St NW. Fred Douglas Thorpe was born October 10, 1910 in North Carolina.
The goal of this was to see if 37 Bates fit the pattern. Sort of. There are two foreclosures and the property got sold to George Basiliko. However, it did not get passed on to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency nor the Bates Street Associates.