History – Page 22 – Truxton Is In Shaw

Black Truxton Circle Notables

So Ward 5 Councilman Zachary Parker introduced legislation designating streets in honor of prominent Black figures with ties to Ward 5. The key word is “ties”.

For the Truxton Circle neighborhood, his office picked Rayford Logan. Logan’s tie? He went to Dunbar. sigh. A whole bunch of people went Dunbar, way more famous and notable than Logan.

I get why they didn’t pick Dunbar graduates such as Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, or Councilman Vincent Gray or Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, because they aren’t dead yet.

Portrait of Charles Drew.jpg — Dr. Charles R. Drew, Dunbar alum

But why not Dunbar graduate Dr. Charles Drew? Is it because he has a number of schools and health centers named after him? Is it because he got a postage stamp? Is colorism at play and Dr. Drew is too light skinned?

Okay, then maybe Billy Taylor, jazz pianist. He went to Dunbar.

I see another Dunbar graduate Sterling Allen Brown was designated to Brookland, where he lived. Which seems to be more of a tie than Logan’s “tie” to Truxton Circle.

I believe Rayful Edmond went to Dunbar. He’s the drug kingpin mentioned in TC author, Tony Lewis Jr.’s book, Slugg: A Boy’s Life in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Edmond had a huge impact on the Hanover St section of Truxton Circle, but I wouldn’t rename any streets after him.

You know what is across the street from Dunbar? Armstrong. It was a technical school or high school. Duke Ellington went there. But I understand not wanting to name another thing after the great Duke Ellington. I love Duke Ellington, but you can have too much of a good thing. Another jazz great went to Armstrong, Billy Eckstine, but no body cares about Billy Eckstine.

I hadn’t even touched on the people who ACTUALLY LIVED IN TRUXTON CIRCLE!

Peter Murray Portrait We have Dr. Peter Marshall Murray who was president of the National Medical Association and who lived at 1645 New Jersey Ave NW.

Next is female filmmaker, Eloyce Gist. Not only does she have a Wikipedia page, she has an IMDB page. She was married several times so she has a few different names, but she lived at 134 R St NW, which no longer exists.

Before this gets too long, I did decide to take a look at the other neighborhoods and the names Councilman Parker’s office ( don’t believe Mr. Parker came up with this list) came up with.

Edna Brown Coleman was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She was one of the 22 founding members. Delta Sigma Theta planned and constructed the Delta Towers in Ward 5 in the 1970s, so therefore Coleman who died in 1919, gets a street. I mena her brother Sterling A. Brown gets Brookland, why not? Trinidad neighborhood, you have my sympathies. The link Logan has to the TC is kinda dumb, but not this level of dumb.

Moving on…

Ivy City gets Alexander Crummell. His tie? A school in the neighborhood was named after him.

The Carver-Langston area will get John Mercer Langston. Sure the whole neighborhood is kinda named after him. A street? Sure why not?

WSIC-1950 Sell Off- 1529 3rd Street NW

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). Let’s see what happens at 1529 3rd St. NW.

photo of property

December 1950 (recorded Jan 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 1529 3rd St NW to divorcee Elizabeth Ashby and widow Nannie Grace Jones.
December 1950 (recorded Jan 1951) Ashby and Jones borrowed $4,250 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
December 1950 (recorded 1/18/1951) Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 1529 3rd St NW to Grant A. and Myrtle T. Dungee.
December 1950 (recorded 1/18/1951) the Dungees borrowed $4,400 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
June 1957 (recorded in 1958) the Dungees sold 1529 3rd St NW back to Evans, Taube and new partner Harry A. Badt.
November 1961 (recorded 1/5/1962), as part of a larger package the Colonial Investment team (Evans, Badt, their wives, and Levin’s survivors) sell their interest in 1529 3rd St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
May 1962 the Dungee’s are released from their debt to Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
August 1962 Ms. Ashby and Mrs. Jones are released from their debt to Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
July 1975, Nannie Grace Jones, the surviving tenant, sold her half of 1529 3rd St NW to George Basiliko. (Doc 7500024652)

Basiliko did not sell this property to DC’s Redevelopment Land Agency.

Bad Photocopy- Maybe 100 blk of Bates Street NW- Maybe 1960-1970s

This is the last of my posts based on a set of photocopies of photos taken around the late 1960s, maybe the early 1970s. The cars on the street hint at maybe the 60s. I don’t know.

The caption says it is the 100 block of Bates Street NW. Take a look and you tell me. Is it?

WSIC-1950 Sell Off- 141 Bates Street NW

Unlike many properties in this series, I’ve already featured this address before. 141 Bates St NW- Newspaper Search from last year is interesting. It will be even more interesting when adding the land records component. photo of property

So as usual we will start off with the three fellows the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company sold the properties to, Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans as the Colonial Investment Co. for $3 million dollars in 1950. Then they will sell two halves of the property to two different African American households who borrow the money from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman. After that it’s a bingo game with foreclosures, George Basiliko and the DC Redevelopment Land Agency. Let’s see what happens with 141 Bates Street NW.

January 12, 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 141 Bates St NW to Bertha, Robert and Thelma Freeman
January 1951 the Freemans borrowed $3,025 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
December 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold the other one-half of 141 Bates St NW to Eva M. Richards.
December 1951 Mrs. Richards borrowed $3,025 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
February 1954 the Freemans borrow $977.33 from the Columbia Federal Savings and Loan.
In October 1954 the Freemans sold their half back to Evans, Levin and Taube.
December 1961 there was a foreclosure against the Freemans and the property returned to Evans, Taube and Levin’s survivors via an auction. Not sure how that worked.
November 1961 as part of a larger package, Evans, Taube, Badt (and their wives) and Levin’s survivors sell their interest in 141 Bates St NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
June 1964, Mrs. Richards sold her half to George Basiliko.
July 1970, as part of a larger package, the Basilikos sell to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency.

And here are the newspaper mentions during this time (1951-1970):

Marriage License Applications– Evening Star, August 19, 1954, Page B-14. Harold Freeman, 18, 141 Bates st n.w. and Jo Stewart, 18, 1364 1st st s.w.

Deaths-Wilson, Eva L.– Evening Star, October 25, 1954, Page A-18. Eva L. Wilson died after a lengthy illness at 141-A Bates st. n.w.

Auction Sales- Thos. J. Owen & Son, Auctioneers– Evening Star, December 20, 1961, Page C-16; December 15, 1961, Page D-7. Auction for Sq. 552 lot 35 (141 Bates St NW), appears minimum price was $8,000.

Carter G. Woodson: History of the Negro Church: Ch.7 Religious Instruction Revived

Ah, let me get this over with. Most years I do Carter G. Woodson’s (father of Black History) Mis-Education of the Negro, his more popular book. Silly me decided, for the second year, tried to get through his History of Negro Church. I give up. This is not fun and it is the last of this year’s series. So I am going to get back to the stuff I love. I learned things, but it’s not an enjoyable read.

As many are aware it was illegal at some point in Southern States to teach slaves to read. Almost all Protestant denominations are biblically focused. Books, like the Bible, require the skill of reading.

Woodson beats up on the Episcopalians in the first part of the chapter because in his opinion they did a bad job of catechizing, and did not advocate for abolition. Woodson doesn’t mention, but I will, the Episcopalians have another book, the Book of Common Prayer. There’s a lot of reading.

Then he moves on to the Presbyterians. The frozen chosen were a tad better. They were interested in colonizing and missionary work using Black Americans. They established a training school, which later became the HBCU Lincoln University. They also provided religious instruction verbally, which was a temporary fix.

Presbyterian pastors such as Rev. Josiah Law, who provided instruction to Georgian Blacks, discovered that some opposed even verbal instruction for fear that it would lead to desires for literary instruction.

Woodson seems to have liked the efforts of the Methodists and the Baptists. Some white Christians were enthusiastic in their faith and would teach their servants how to read the Bible. “General Coxe of Fluvanna County, Virginia, had all his slaves taught to read the Bible in spite of the law and public opinion to the contrary, and so did a farmer whom Frederick Law Olmsted visited in Mississippi.”

Carter G. Woodson: History of the Negro Church: Ch.6 Schism & the Subsequent Situation

So this year I will attempt to get through all of Carter G. Woodson’s (the father of Black History) History of the Negro Church. This post is on Chapter 6- Schism and the Subsequent Situation. However, since this has little to do with Truxton Circle or the history of Shaw. I’ll probably take on the next half, next year. It’s a chore, and this blog needs to be fun for me to do what I do.

This is the chapter where Carter G. Woodson gets into what he really is interested in, how the different denominations that attracted Black congregants dealt with the question of slavery. He looks at the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Baptists and glances at the Episcopalians.

Woodson is interested in if a denominational organization decided that slavery was wrong how did they go about living that out. Up until this point in the book Woodson was looking at the various church organizing and planting that had or was directed at a Black American population. This then sets up an understanding, via how churches were organized, how they could or couldn’t get members to take action against slavery.

So what are some examples? Well there is the tried an true strongly worded statement. The Presbyterians’ General Assembly did this. The Alabama State Baptist Convention denied slaveholders certain appointments.

The surprising thing I found in this chapter was the mention of Black burial societies in the South. The mention is very brief but interesting when you think of all that prompted the necessity for a burial society, raising money to bury someone properly, and the means to keep and maintain a group.

1957 Church Survey: Redeemer Italian Baptist Church

In 1957 there was as survey of churches in the Northwest Urban Renewal Area, which included Shaw, Downtown, and the area near Union Station. One of the churches was Redeemer Italian Baptist Church . To learn more about the 1957 Church Survey read my previous posts, The Uniqueness of the 1957 Church Survey and Church Survey Northwest Urban Renewal Area October 1957.

photo of property Redeemer was a mystery. It was this odd ethnic Italian Baptist church in a largely Black neighborhood. I’d been told, by the owner of Catania Bakery that there was a decent sized Italian population in Truxton Circle. They are no more. I have no idea where they went or how many were here in the first place.

So I will do something new. I will look at the land records.

Redeemer Italian Baptist Church was at 1200 Kirby St NW, sitting on Square 555, lots 62 and 63. In 1923 the trustees of Chiesa Del Redentore Italian Baptist, Leonardo Dell Erba, Olindo Marseglia, and Pasquale Vasco took out a loan of $10,000 from the Perpetual Building Association, a lender that did a lot of business in Truxton Circle. The debit was settled in 1943. In 1964 the church sold the property to New Birth Baptist Church.

According to a website regarding corporations, Redeemer Italian Baptist Church of Washington, DC dissolved in 1967. As I have learned from Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s History of the Negro Church (yes, this is an Italian church), individual Baptist churches can be rather independent entities. As you will see below from the survey, most of the church’s parishioners lived in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. So it would be a fair guess the enthusiasm and spirit that supported the church in the 1920s, was long gone in 1967.

CS-10-Redeemer Italian Baptist Church by Mm Inshaw on Scribd

So let’s look at the state of the church in 1957.

It was a small church with only 125 people, ethnic Italians, most of whom did not live in the city, and none in the area, which included what is now known as Downtown, Swampoodle, Mt. Vernon Sq/Triangle, and Shaw. With 40% of the congregation being under the age of 18, I’d say this was a commuter church of sizable Italian families…. who were not Catholic…. because this is a Baptist church and there is a difference. A normal Sunday would have 60-65 people in attendance. Those families were mostly middle/blue-collar as 30% were white collar and 55% were skilled manual labor, think carpenters, plumbers and machinists.

From the 10/11/1920 Evening Star page 28

The church was founded in 1915 on 48th Avenue NE as a storefront church. From 1919-1923 it met at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. Looking around in the Evening Star, they were at 3rd and E Streets NW in 1922. In 1920 they started building the church that sits at 1200 Kirby NW.

In the 1957 has the pastor as the Rev. Olindo Marsaglia (Olindo Marseglia is on the loan docs) and the founding of the 1200 Kirby St NW church was Rev. MC Marseglia. This, and this is just me guessing, smells like a family business. Let’s wander back to our Woodson, remember Baptist churches are independent of each other with little to no hierarchical body over them. So Rev. Olindo Marseglia died in 1966, and the church dissolved in 1967. So it makes sense, when looking at it as a Marseglia family venture it went away when the last interested Marseglia died.

Rev. MC Marseglia from the 1920 article appears to have been the Rev. Domenico Costantino “Mimi” Marseglia. According to his Find a Grave write up, “Rev Domenico ‘Mimi’ was pastor at the Federal Hill Italian Baptist Mission in Providence, RI. The Euclid Ave Baptist Church in Cleveland, OH. As well as the Church of the Redeemer in Washington, D.C.” Also poking around I found an obit for the daughter of one of the trustees, Angelina Vasco Sepe, that mentions the Redeemer Italian Baptist Church.

Anywho, this was an interesting slice of Truxton Circle Italian-American history.

Bad Photocopy- Odd 200 Blk of Bates St NW circa 1960-1970s

This was a bit of a mystery. This image is a photocopy of a black and white photograph. My notes say 100 block of Bates St NW looking west. I see the house at the end of the street, which makes it either 3rd or 1st St NW. Then there are those decorative balls on the top of the houses.

Looks like Bates St NW looking towards 3rd St NW.

Using Google Street View I attempted to find those decorative items on the roof line.

No dice on the first look.

I am guessing the photographs were taken in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Google Street View is from 2019, well after a fair amount of renovation work. But on the other hand this area experienced a fair amount of disinvestment after the original builder and owner, the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) sold its rentals. Many of those rentals wound up in the hands of George Basiliko who had many a housing violation.

Something that hints of those decorative balls appear on the tops of 225-229 Bates St NW. The tops of a curve remain. The balls are long gone. It is hard to tell with the tree cover looking at Google Street View. Even if I still lived in Truxton Circle, it’s currently cold, so I probably wouldn’t venture out to look with my own eyes.

Carter G. Woodson: History of the Negro Church: Ch 4 The Independent Church Movement- Revisited

This year I will attempt to get through all of Carter G. Woodson’s (the father of Black History) History of the Negro Church. This post is on Chapter 4 The Independent Church Movement.

In my other post regarding chapter 4, Woodson recognized Richard Allen as important figure and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

A few days ago I was watching with Destructo-kid a cartoon history of Richard Allen. I vaguely remembered the name and as Allen’s life story was told, I realized that Woodson had written about him.

This is way more interesting than Woodson’s take.

Bad Photocopy- Unit Block of Bates St NW circa 1960something

Let’s break up some of these Washington Sanitary Improvement Co. (WSIC) posts with photos from the 1960s(?) or early 1970s (who knows) of former WSIC housing.

This image is from a photocopy of a photo. From the looks of it, it appears to be the unit block of Bates Street NW. My notes say it is Bates St NW facing west.

Bates St NW facing west. Southside of street to northside. Unit block.

I’ll try to compare it with today.
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