History – Page 44 – Truxton Is In Shaw

WSIC- Square 615 lots – A Visual pt1

In a previous post, WSIC- 1930s Ownership of Sq. 615, I wrote: “… the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company owned the following lots on Sq. 615 (bounded by North Cap, Q St, 1st St and P St NW): 65-66, 134-140, 170-179, 195-207, and 236-265.”

I’m going to skip Square 615’s lots 65-66. which are 22 and 24 Q St NW. They do not look different from the other adjoining town homes.

So let’s first look at lots 134-140. And here is where we find our first problem. The lot numbers changed. Lot 140 would be 31 Bates Street NW. That address is now lot 285. I find a lot number changes. Sometimes the property undergoes some sort of conversion or there is another reason for the lot number change. It doesn’t happen too often but it does happen.

photo of property — 31 Bates Street NW, 2004

Next is lot 139, which like 140, no longer exists in the tax rolls. It was 33 Bates Street NW, which is now lot 286.

So what are we seeing here in these two images of Bates Street NW houses. The image for 31 Bates St NW shows the distinctive 2nd floor centered bay and the two entrances, reflecting the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company’s (WSIC) idea of having a two flat unit. The second door, is a window in the image for lot 285.

The pattern for the row is bay, no bay, bay, no bay.

WSIC- Square 617- A visual

In my last post about the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) and Square 617 (bounded by 1st, N, North Cap, and O Streets NW) I said the architecture looked annoying. Take a look at the entryway below.

Note the stairs in the photo (0617 0225). The original iron stairs were replaced by brick and there doesn’t seem to be a clear line in the brick.

This works when the owner owns both buildings. This can cause all sorts of headaches when there are two different owners, with different attitudes about maintenance and repairs.

Please forgive me, I am not an architect and have very little interest in focusing on the architecture of Truxton Circle, because that just leads to the Great Satan that is historic districting. But WSIC buildings in the TC have distinctive bays. In the case of the O Street buildings, I think what I am seeing is a bay with adjacent entryways.

For 14 O St NW, this is fine.

It doesn’t have an entryway close to another unit’s entry. In the photo above, taken in 2004, it appears 14 O St NW was two units. Even the second unit is not too close to the neighboring house’s entry.

1957 Church Survey: Paramount Baptist Church – rando church not in Shaw

In 1957 there was as survey of churches in the Northwest Urban Renewal Area, which included Shaw, Downtown, and the area around Union Station (Swampoodle). One of the churches was Paramount Baptist Church at 723 1st St NW. 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.

Currently there is a Paramount Baptist Church in SE DC, and according to their church history, they purchased 723 1st St NW, in 1954 and they paid the mortgage in 1957. They have this in their history:

The church conformed to the specifications of the Redeveloping and Land Agency Act in 1964 that we must vacate the space for the area was being redeveloped.

Not sure what that means. But I do know that that address is now a parking lot. [Mari starts humming Big Yellow Taxi]

They didn’t provide much of any information for the Church Survey. So here it is:

CS 9 Paramount Baptist by Mm Inshaw

WSIC-Square 617

In the last Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) post I searched the DC Recorder of Deeds for any other properties in Truxton Circle they may have owned besides the ones on Squares 552 and 615. I discovered Sq. 617.

On Square 617, they owned lots 169 to 183.

617-LC-1909

So that would be 14-42 O St NW.

This is 14 O St NW. Note the difference in lot number. It was lot 183 100 years ago.

This is 42 O St NW.

I’m noticing a particular building style here, but it looks irritating.

1957 Church Survey: St Stephans Baptist -church in Mt Vernon Sq

In 1957 there was as survey of churches in the Northwest Urban Renewal Area, which included Shaw, Downtown, Mt. Vernon Square and the area around Union Station. 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

Well this is currently owned by the United House of Prayer, or UHOP. Before it was St. Stephans Baptist it was Peoples Congregational Church. St. Stephans Baptist Church is currently in Temple Hills, MD.

Let’s take a quick look at the survey for St. Stephans Baptist. It was an African American church with a large unskilled labor congregation. It is located at 628 M St NW in Mt. Vernon Square.

CS 17 St Stephans Baptist by Mm Inshaw

WSIC-What Else In the TC They Owned

Just to cover my bases I’m going to check the Recorder of Deeds and see what else the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company (WSIC) owned around here.

This image is deceptive.

There were more than 7 properties.

Let’s look at the earliest document, document #192402020030 a release, which means a debt was paid. It is dated February 2, 1924 and John B. Larner, surviving trustee, is the grantor, the one who held the debt. WSIC, along with the Washington Loan and Trust Company, George H. Harris, George M. Kober and George M. Sternberg, were the grantees, the ones who paid the debt. The document were for a whole list of properties on Square 509, which is juuuuust outside of Truxton Circle. They were for lots 170-181.

The next document was #1931017623 a 1931 deed. It is for one property, Square 552 lot 25 in Truxton Circle. Today it would be several properties with some facing the 100 blocks of Q and Bates Streets NW. But Sq. 552 has been covered and will get covered going forward, so I’ll move on.

552-LC-1903

Next are two 1947 deeds, document #1947005806 for Sq. 5867 and lots 3 and 868, and doc #1947005805 for about 37 lots on that same square. No clue where that is, besides east of the river in Southeast. Poking around it appears that square no longer exists.

In 1950 it appears WSIC sold properties in documents 1950024326 and 1950024327. These were lots on Squares 245, 4048, 4052, 509, E0546, 552, 615, 617, 651, 654, and 674. There were three TC squares in there and they were 552, 615, and 617.

Okay next time, we will look at Square 617 in addition to 552 and 615.

Carter G. Woodson and The Mis-Education of the Negro- 2022 Wrap Up

I’m really tempted to go off on a rant. Not against Carter G. Woodson and his faults. No, I’ve taken to heart his criticisms of Black college educated people. Because he’s right. We suck.

We, and I am speaking as an African-American woman with two graduate degrees, haven’t done enough, and some of us have done nothing but exploit Black pain and misery for our own advancement. I look at the test scores for Black children and despair, because they are sorely miseducated. And those Blacks who do succeed in academia do they use their education to serve the Black community? Woodson was annoyed at educated Blacks who could not (would not?) use their education to support Black business or understand the Black customer.

Okay, rant over, here’s a list of the 2022 reprints of the 2021 posts, with a little editing.

Chapter 1- THE SEAT OF THE TROUBLE
Chapter 2- HOW WE MISSED THE MARK
Chapter 3- HOW WE DRIFTED AWAY FROM THE TRUTH
Chapter 4- EDUCATION UNDER OUTSIDE CONTROL
Chapter 5- THE FAILURE TO LEARN TO MAKE A LIVING Part 1 and Part 2
Chapter 6- THE EDUCATED NEGRO LEAVES THE MASSES
Chapter 7- DISSENSION AND WEAKNESS
Chapter 8- PROFESSIONAL EDUCATED DISCOURAGED
Chapter 9- POLITICAL EDUCATION NEGLECTED
Chapter 10- THE LOSS OF VISION
Chapter 11- THE NEED FOR SERVICE RATHER THAN LEADERSHIP
Chapter 12 HIRELINGS IN THE PLACES OF PUBLIC SERVANTS
Chapter 13- UNDERSTAND THE NEGRO
Chapter 14- THE NEW PROGRAM
Chapter 15- VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
Chapter 16- THE NEW TYPE OF PROFESSIONAL MAN REQUIRED
Chapter 17- HIGHER STRIVINGS IN THE SERVICE OF THE COUNTRY
Chapter 18- THE STUDY OF THE NEGRO
APPENDIX

This was fun and educational. You should read the whole book or listen to the audiobook.

Source: To save on typing I used the History is a Weapon website’s reprinting of The Mis-Education of the Negro.

Carter G. Woodson: History of the Negro Church: Ch. 2 The Dawn of the New Day

For this year I’m just doing two chapters of Carter G. Woodson’s History of the Negro Church because I find the book a little less interesting. Finding an audiobook made this review easier than the one for the first chapter.

In this chapter he takes a look at the Methodists. Woodson does not give a history of Methodism. Maybe his audience of 1921 readers are familiar with the denomination and how it is one of the dissenting sects coming out of Anglicanism/ the Church of England. My quickie version is that Methodism was founded by Rev. John Wesley (with help from brother Charles) where they reached out to the middling and working classes. There was a difference in how they expressed their faith and that comes into play in this chapter.

Woodson focused on how Methodists tackled the question of slavery. The dates covered in this chapter range from 1750 to 1793, so mainly during the colonial period and before the Methodists broke from Anglicans. The founder Wesley, as well as Thomas Coke, and Francis Asbury opposed slavery.

The Methodists later (1780-ish) required that members not be slaveholders. If a member held a slave, they were expected to not be a slaveholder 12 months. Local leadership were the ones who were supposed to enforce this rule. There were some exceptions made for spouses of slave owners and people who held legal title to people who were too young, too old or too disabled to live on their own.

Despite efforts to purge slaveholding among their ranks, Methodism wasn’t as appealing to African Americans as the Baptist denomination. Whereas the Methodists were making real efforts to address slavery, the Baptists, because they were less organized in this effort, didn’t really address it. The Baptists deferred to local sentiments and there was less of an abolitionist fervor.

Woodson mentions the Presbyterians, another protestant denomination. It appears they encouraged emancipation but did not require it.

WSIC- 1930s Ownership of Sq. 615

In 1903 parties (George Sternberg and George Kober) involved with the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company owned the following lots on Sq. 615 (bounded by North Cap, Q St, 1st St and P St NW): 65-66, 134-140, 170-179, 195-207, and 236-265.

Fast forward to the 1933-1934 General Assessment, and it looks like the Washington Loan and Trust Company was holding or acting as a trustee for the WSIC.

There was a document that the WSIC owned the following lots in 1950. Lots 0134, 0135, 0136, 0137, 0138, 0139, 0140, 0170, 0171, 0172, 0173, 0174, 0175, 0176, 0177, 0178, 0179, 0195, 0196, 0197, 0198, 0199, 0200, 0201, 0202, 0203, 0204, 0205, 0206, 0207, 0236, 0237, 0238, 0239, 0240, 0241, 0242, 0243, 0244, 0245, 0246, 0247, 0248, 0249, 0250, 0251, 0252, 0253, 0254, 0255, and 0256. So basically the same lots, minus lots 65-66.

Next, I need to do a wide search to see if WSIC owned anything else in Truxton Circle, besides Squares 552 and 615. I don’t think so, but I need to check.

Carter G. Woodson- Mis-Education of the Negro- Chapter 18: The Study of the Negro

It’s Black History Month, so I am continuing with a reprint of the series of posts regarding Shaw resident and Father of Black History, Carter G. Woodson and his book The Mis-Education of the Negro, published in 1933.

Okay. Last chapter. Last day of a very short month.

The oppressor, however, raises his voice to the contrary. He teaches the Negro that he has no worth-while past, that his race has done nothing significant since the beginning of time, and that there is no evidence that he will ever achieve anything great. The education of the Negro then must be carefully directed lest the race may waste time trying to do the impossible. Lead the Negro to believe this and thus control his thinking. If you can thereby determine what he will think, you will not need to worry about what he will do. You will not have to tell him to go to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door he will have one cut for his special benefit.

Woodson points to the main problem and the purpose of his life’s work. African Americans in their own schools and in majority white schools were being taught that they had nothing to offer and never had anything to offer to the world. Woodson sought to counter that with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.

The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, however, has no special brand for the solution of the race problem except to learn to think. No general program of uplift for the Negroes in all parts of the world will be any more successful than such a procedure would be in the case of members of other races under different circumstances. What will help a Negro in Alabama may prove harmful to one in Maine. The African Negro may find his progress retarded by applying “methods used for the elevation of the Negro in America.” A thinking man, however, learns to deal wisely with conditions as he finds them rather than to take orders from some one who knows nothing about his status and cares less. At present the Negro, both in Africa and America, is being turned first here and there experimentally by so-called friends who in the final analysis assist the Negro merely in remaining in the dark.

So not all Black people are alike and there is no one size fits all solution to the African diaspora’s problems.

And finally, the last paragraph:

In this outline there is no animus, nothing to engender race hate. The Association does not bring out such publications. The aim of this organization is to set forth facts in scientific form, for facts properly set forth will tell their own story. No advantage can be gained by merely inflaming the Negro’s mind against his traducers. In a manner they deserve to be congratulated for taking care of their own interests so well. The Negro needs to become angry with himself because he has not handled his own affairs wisely. In other words, the Negro must learn from others how to take care of himself in this trying ordeal. He must not remain content with taking over what others set aside for him and then come in the guise of friends to subject even that limited information to further misinterpretation.

A 2022 summation, don’t waste time thinking about white people. Black Americans must figure out on our own how to take care of ourselves. As it goes for the individual it goes for the group. Only you can quit bad habits. No one can lose weight, stop smoking, and exercise more for you. Someone else can ban Big Gulps, over regulate cigarettes, and make gyms affordable but that won’t have the same effect as someone taking on the challenge of choosing and maintaining a healthier lifestyle.