Buildings – Truxton Is In Shaw

Memory Lane- Nice Porch- 2008

My notes say this the 1500 block of 1st St NW, but I’m not sure. It could be the houses closer to Q St NW.

Anyway it was a nice small green yard and a nice welcoming porch.

Memory Lane- 6th and St NW 2013

Taken December 24, 2013. 6th and S St NW.

Please note the house has been renovated and improved since 2013.

Memory Lane- 1640 4th St NW

This is from 2016

I could add context, but I don’t need that headache. I already posted my opinion.

WSIC-1950s sell off- 45 Bates Street NW-Revised

I need to clean up the data on this old post from 2022. This was before I started noticing a pattern with the WSIC houses. I’m just going to focus on the property history and not the individuals.

From my last post, I mentioned I would look at a property that was transfer from the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) to three men, who then sold it to a person marking the exit of WSIC from Truxton Circle in the 1950s.

45 Bates St NW is on square 615 in Truxton Circle. During the time of WSIC’s ownership it sat on lot 134. Currently it is now lot 292.

I don’t have the exact date when WSIC came to posses 45 Bates and other homes on the block. In 1903 parties (George Sternberg and George Kober) involved with the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) owned many lots on Sq. 615. So fast forward to June 1950 and the property is transferred from WSIC to the Washington Loan & Trust Company, then from the Washington Loan and Trust Co. to business partners Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans. The business partners borrowed $3 million dollars for Investors Diversified Services Inc. of Minnesota.

photo of property

So let’s get onto the property history:

December 1950 Colonial Investment Co. (represented by James B. Evans, Nathan Levin, and Nathaniel J. Taube) sold half of 45 Bates St NW to Kathleen S. and William W. Johnson.
December 1950 the Johnsons got a mortgage from (not named) Colonial Mortgage Co.’s trustees, Abraham H. Levin (Nathan‘s brother) and Robert G. Weightman for $2,400.
December 1950 Evans, Levin and Taube sold the other half of 45 Bates to George M. and Olivia V. Davis.
December 1950 Mr. and Mrs. Davis borrowed $2,400 from Levin and Weightman.
October 1961 the Davis household was released from their mortgage.
December 1961 the Johnsons were released from their mortgage.
July 1970 Kathleen transferred the property to William W. who in the next document transferred it to Florence Ann Johnson.
1970-2013 lots of stuff happened that I don’t care about.
December, Friday the 13th, 2013 Olivia V. Davis Estate, apparently represented by heir Sterling A. Richardson, who transferred it from the estate to himself.
January 2014 Richardson sold his 1/2 of 45 Bates to Cameron Properties of DC, Inc.
2014-2017 lien drama.
August 2017, Eric M. Rome, who was representing the estate of Florence A. Johnson-Morrison (who might have died in 2014) and Cameron Properties of DC, Inc, sold the whole property to 45 Bates Street NW LLC.

Truxton Circle WSIC Wardmans

If I had good sense I would not write this.

I hope I am providing a good warning to my friends who live in TC WSIC housing. I am not for historic districts (I can be agnostic about landmarks) and I am very aware how my research can be used to create these things. Anywho, there are Truxton Circle Wardmans as highlighted by the site Wardman’s Washington. However, I am just going to look at the WSIC TC Wardmans.

47 Bates Street NW (2 Stories brick dwelling) —Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 7/16/1901
49 Bates Street NW (2 Stories brick dwelling) —Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 7/16/1901
51 Bates Street NW (2 Stories brick dwelling) —Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 7/16/1901
53 Bates Street NW (2 Stories brick dwelling) —Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 7/16/1901
94 Bates Street NW (2 Stories brick dwelling)— Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 9/10/1901
14 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
16 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
18 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
20 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
22 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
24 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
26 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
28 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
30 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
32 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
34 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
36 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
38 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
40 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901
42 O Street NW (2 Stories brick flat) — Architect: Bayliss, Mr. Permit Date: 5/31/1901

The architect was a Mr. Bayliss. So I went looking to see if I could narrow it down to which Bayliss in Washington, DC may have been the architect. I’m guessing it was William Bayliss.

In the 1900 census there was a William Bayliss at 1410 9th St NW whose occupation was listed as “Architect Govt”. Good enough for me. There were other Bayliss men working in DC, a R. inspector, a shoe store salesman, and the like. But so far only one an architect. I looked at the 1902 city directory (the 1900 directory didn’t have occupations) Major W. Bayliss at 1410 9th St NW was a draftsman.

A little digging showed that William Bayliss died in 1919 so I hoped his obit would tell me something useful. Nope. I did locate him in the 1914 Blue Book, a social directory, page 74 reads thus:

Bayliss, Major William, architect and government official of Washington, D.C., was born Nov. 8, 1848, in Canada. Since 1882 he has been superintendent of hospital construction in the office of the surgeon-general of the army.

I’m 80% sure this is the guy.