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 58 Bates St NW:
- January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 58 Bates St NW to Ida M. and William H. Chinn, Annabell, Curtis and Essie Mance.
- Jan 1951 the Chinns and the Mances borrowed $2,525 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 58 Bates St NW to Jessie McCowan, Eugene and Helen B. Tillman.
- Dec 1950 McCowan and the Tillmans borrowed $2,525 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- May 1953 McCowan and the Tillmans lost their half to foreclosure and Evans, Levin and Taube repossessed the half via an auction.
- June 1953 Evans, Levin and Taube resold the foreclosed half to Catherine and James Matthews.
- June 1953 the Matthews borrowed $3,274.21 from trustees Levin and Weightman.
- February 1955 the Chinns and the Mances sold their half back to Evans, Levin and Taube. They were released from their mortgage in 1962.
- November 1961, in a large property package (doc 1962000416), new Colonial partner Harry A. Badt, Evans, Taube, Nathan Levin’s survivors and their spouses sold their half of 58 Bates to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- October 1971 the Basilikos and the Matthews sold 58 Bates to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA).
- 1978-1979, as there is no documentation, DC RLA transferred/sold the property to the Bates Street Assoc. (BSA), Inc.
After BSA it is a documentary mess. So there was one foreclosure, Basiliko ownership, the DC RLA and then BSA.