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. In 1956 Nathan Levin died and Colonial Inv. Co. vice president Harry A. Badt took his place in the foreclosure paperwork. 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 57 Bates St NW:
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 26, 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 57 Bates St NW to Hugh and Lillie Mae Davis.
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 1951) Mr. & Mrs. Davis borrowed $2,525 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- December 1950 (recorded Jan 26, 1951) Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 57 Bates St NW to Audrey E. and Homer R. Nue.
- Dec 1950 the Nues borrowed $2,525 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- October 1951 Mr. and Mrs. Davis sold their half to Margaret M. Moore.
- September 1955 the Nues sold their half back to Evans, Levin and Taube. May 1962 they were released from their mortgage.
- November 1961, as part of a large property package (doc 1962000416), Badt, Evans, Taube, Nathan Levin’s survivors and their spouses sold 57 Bates to Sophia and George Basiliko.
- November 1961 the Basilikos borrowed $57,000 from TELSYNDICATE (represented by Evans and Taube as trustees) for 57 units/lots, including 57 Bates.
- November 1966, Mr. and Mrs. Davis, and by extension Margaret Moore, were released from their mortgage.
- January 1979 Margaret M. and Lonnie Moore sold their half to George Basiliko Inc.
- March 1979 George Basiliko Inc sold the property to H.R.L. Inc (Edward A. Kassoff, President & Gerald Diaz, Secretary).
I’ll leave it there in 1979. There are no foreclosures, no sale to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency nor to the Bates Street Associates. Without those 57 Bates did not fit the pattern. The only thing that fit the pattern was the sale of both halves of 57 Bates to George Basiliko. There was also a resale to Colonial Investment Co.