Category: Buildings

In 1920 ’twas a man, a Black man, who operated in the business of chickens and owned a house on N St NW. His name. Benjamin Franklin Holland. Just say that name five times fast, sounds like a mantra.

Around 1917, he sold chicken at the market at O and N, right where the Giant Supermarket sits right now. He sold those chickees at stall #15, and I imagine that is where the previously frozen chicken sits in a chiller may have been.

Sadly, his story is not a long one. We meet the poultry man in the 1920 census, living with his wife, Cecelia Valeria (formerly Jackson), their son Benjamin, and an aunt, Julia I. Davis. By the 1930 census, he’s dead and Cecelia V. Holland is a widow. At the age of 53, she was living with her 14 year old son Benjamin and roomer from the British West Indies, William A. Thomas.

Once again there is something in the land records that confuses me. There are the usual releases and trusts, the paying and borrowing from investors through trustees. It would help to know when exactly Ben Holland died because there is a 1929 deed with just his name, Cecelia is missing, selling the property to a Peter P. Richardson. Without Cecelia’s name on the deed, something looked off. February 17, 1930 Lottie and Peter Richardson transfer the property to Ester L. Jackson, who transfers it to Cecelia on the 19th. Also on 2/19/1930, Cecelia was advanced $2,100 from the Washington Permanent Building Association. In 1949 she borrowed again from teh Washington Permanent Building Association, for $2,500 and changed her name from Cecelia V. Holland to Cecelia V. Tildon. In 1952 Cecelia Tildon sold the property to the Seventh Realty Corp out of Delaware.

In 1920 city Post Office clerk Chas A. Booker lived at 202 N St NW with his wife Mary C. and their young daughter Gladys. Chas is another way of saying Charles.

Charles Alexander Booker was born October 1, 1878 in Jetersville, VA to Churchill Booker and Lucy Alice Johnson. In 1902, he married Mary C. Scott in Amelia, VA.

The Bookers lived in Bloomingdale prior to Truxton Circle in 1910. They lived at 1942 3rd St NW. They appeared to be the primary renters and had the Morton family (four adults and two children) were lodgers at that address.

It appears Charles Booker lived at 202 N St NW for a long time. He was at the address in 1913 and 1954 city directories. For the 1941 World War II draft card he was on N St living as a 63 year old retired government employee.

The earliest record from the Recorder of Deeds online records starting in 1921, is a trust from August 1937. In 1937 the Bookers borrowed one thousand dollars via the Washington Loan and Trust Company. The next set of documents are two deeds on November 19, 1940, moving the property from and to Charles Booker as Mary C. Booker died September 2, 1939. These kinds of deed pairs are confusing to me, but it appears the purpose of this was to remove Mary’s name from the property. In 1947 the 1937 debt was paid and the document for that release has daughter Gladys B. Walker as a co-owner. The end of the Booker family’s ownership came in June 1964 when the executor of Charles A. Booker’s will, James E. Walker, Gladys’ husband, sold the property to George Basiliko. G.B. Basiliko turned around and transferred the property to Ms. Kay Monte who turned around and transferred the property back to Basiliko the next month. Basiliko held on to the property until 1974.

This should be a quick one, as Albert A. Poole died in 1934 around about the age of 53 (born 9/9/1881). But his family held on to the property up into the 1970s.

Hello, if you are new to my blog, I regularly take the names of Black home owners from the 1920 census and write about them.

Prior to living at 214 N St NW Albert Ambrose Poole lived at 412 U St NW in LeDroit Park according to the 1909 to 1911 city directories. He worked as an elevator operator and a messenger. In the 1910 census Poole was living with his wife’s, Estella Poole, brother, Ferdinand A. Bradley, a hotel bellman who owned the home. The 1914 city directory has him on N St so we can guess that was the time he purchased the Mt. Vernon Sq/Truxton Circle home.

He lived at 214 N St NW with his wife since 1900, Estella, also mentioned as Stella and their children Albert Bradley Poole and Ruth Louise (later Ruth Carson and Ruth Hall). The online land records start in 1921/1922 the earliest we have for the Pooles is a 1929 trust with the Washington Loan and Trust Company, borrowing $19,000, possibly (I could be misreading it).

There is plenty of borrowing and repayment, with the Washington Loan and Trust Company, with the Equitable Co-Operative Building Association, and the Perpetual Building Association. I’m going to focus on the deeds since I want to zoom to the end of the Poole family’s ownership of the property.

The first deeds are from January 1931 and are those odd deeds where the owners transfer the property to a party who immediately transfers the property back to the previous owners. The next deed is from 1939 where the deaths of Albert A. and Stella are mentioned, transferring the property to the adult children Ruth and Albert B.. Albert A. died February 14, 1934 and Stella departed this world January 8, 1939. The 1939 deed also includes Albert B.’s wife Minnie Taylor Poole. That same day, in another deed, Ruth Hall transfers the property to her brother and sister-in-law, who become the legal owners of 214 N St NW.

In the 1940 census Albert B. was listed as the owner. He lived there with wife Minnie, who worked as a maid, his unemployed sister in law Mary Wynn, Mary’s 8 year old daughter (?) Patricia, and two unrelated lodgers working as maids. His 1940 job was that of a messenger for a private company. In his WWII draft card his employer was the Diplomat Cab Company on Georgia Ave.

The next deed after the 1939 transfer comes in 1975. Minnie Taylor Poole or Minnie M. Poole died in 1968. The executors of her will appear to be Barbara G. Williams and Barbara’s husband Russell B. Williams. They sell the property to Alrose Investments Inc. on September 23, 1975.