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 61 Bates St NW:
- January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold all of 61 Bates St NW to Randall R. Evans.
- Jan 1951 Evans borrowed $5,050 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
- March 1957 Evans sold the house back to Colonial Investment Co. to Badt, Evans, and Taube. Jan 1962 he was released from his mortgage.
- January 1962 Badt, Evans, Taube, Nathan Levin’s survivors and their spouses sold 61 Bates to divorcee Frances R. Atwood.
- Jan 1962 Atwood borrowed $7,500 from the Perpetual Building Association, represented by trustees Junior F. Crowell and Samuel Scrivener Jr. at 6% interest.
- Jan 1962 in the third consecutive document, Atwood sold/transferred the property to Evans, Nathan Levin’s survivors, and Taube.
- October 1962 Evans, Levin’s survivors, Taube and their spouses, as part of a property package, with other 1/2 houses on the block, to Colonial Mortgage trustee Robert G. Weightman and his wife Eleanore L.
- October 1962 the Weightmans borrowed $32,709.85 from TELSYNDICATE, represented by Colonial Inv. Co’s Evans & Taube, for 61 Bates and 10 other properties.
- April 1971 the Weightmans sold 61 Bates to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA) for $12,000.
- May 1971 it appears the Weightmans paid off the Atwood loan taken out in Jan 1962, along with several other separate loans.
- July 1978 there is a contract (doc 7800024140) between the DC RLA and the Bates Street Associates, Inc. (BSA) There is no corresponding deed located, but the property was transferred to BSA.
There are some unusual things with this property. There are no foreclosures, but it does get sold to the DC RLA and then BSA. The first unusual thing, and maybe I didn’t notice it before, the Colonial Inv. Co. sold it to Ms. Atwood who borrowed money from a unaffiliated 3rd party (Perpetual Building Assoc.) and then sold it to someone else. The second thing was someone associated with the Colonial Investment Co., Robert Weightman buying company property. Not directly, thus Ms. Atwood. I recently discovered Colonial Investment Co. had a spin off Colonial Mortgage Co., represented by Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman. Usually in that time slot it would have been sold to Geo. Basiliko, slum landlord. But it wasn’t sold to him, that’s the third unusual thing.