The National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) Archives Assembly will host a presentation by M Marie Maxwell on African American filmmaker and Truxton Circle Home Owner, Eloyce Gist. It will be on the 3rd, a Thursday, in October at 1PM.
This post is just to put it on your radar.
It will be in College Park though at the Archives II location. No problem, there is a shuttle from the Washington, DC National Archives I location, but it is on a limited schedule. I’ll tell you which shuttle to hop on as we get closer.
This is to correct some of the data on a previous version of this post. Mainly regarding George Basiliko. I had written, “November 1967, the property was included in a larger package that was sold/transferred to Sophia and George Basiliko.” Since I did not quote the document number, I cannot find the document now. Also it didn’t make sense.
There are loan documents for this lot 130 on Sq 552 for Basiliko. I suspect there were so many properties that people got sloppy, or careless, not checking to see if Basiliko owned each and every one of the properties listed.
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). Then there were the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
The house was foreclosed January 1924 from Mayo and Sarah Scott. Because the first mention of the Scotts is a foreclosure, it does not state the relationship between Mayo and Sarah.
Looking up Mayo J. Scott, because his name is so unusual, I found there were two Mayo Scotts, Sr. and Jr. Neither of them married to a Sarah.
A Mayo Scott appears in the DC Recorder of Deeds for a lease from July 1923 for 1707 New Jersey Avenue. It was between just Mayo J. Scott and William Taylor. There was no William Taylor listed as an owner for that block. The closest I can find was a Grace Taylor who was on the deed with Amelia Green at 1703 New Jersey Avenue.
Looking at the City Directory, I found the link between Mayo and Ida Dorsey Scott. They were apparently married. Ida was married to a man named Arthur C. Dorsey. Arthur died in 1936 and the Rev. Ida Dorsey Scott is mentioned as his divorced survivor.
Going back to Mayo J. Scott, I will assume the elder. He was previously married to Annaca Alberta Jackson, but divorced her in 1923 citing ‘desertion’. They were married in 1901 and had three children, one I will guess was Mayo James Scott Jr, who sometimes switched it up to James M. Scott. I gather he didn’t want to be a sandwich condiment.
Marie. Dad was born 1903, Mom was born 1900. Her maiden name was Jackson .
Susan. Your dad, his middle name was “Mayo.”
Marie. Yes, James Mayo Scott.
Susan. Mom and Dad—what were they like? What did they do?
Marie. Well, Dad worked for the railroad up here in Bluemont. He had a job there. I guess cleaning and washing, I don’t know. I know he worked at the railroad station. My grandfather worked at the Bluemont hotel, and then later drove Miss Ruth’s car for her. The hotel was a big house up on the side of the road, on Railroad Street. Ruth’s Home bought it from the Beatty’s.
Susan. And Mom, what did she do?
Marie. Mom, she just stayed home and raised the children. But she worked for the Beatty’s also. And she worked for 30 years at Ruth’s Home.
Marie Scott goes on and briefly mentioned her grandparents along with their photos.
Mayo James Scott the elder
Ida D. Scott was the mother of Raymond Dorsey who died in 1952. She was listed as his next of kin. She was also the mother of Mildred Proctor who died at 1717 NJ Ave NW in 1928. But from Mildred’s death certificate we learn Ida’s maiden name was Ida R. Tyler.
Ida Scott had also the title of Reverend. It was mentioned in her own obituary when she passed away in 1956 and in her ex-husband’s obit. However, an Ancestry Family tree has her death in 1971 in Kent, MD. But the 1956 obit mentions brother Jerry Tyler. In the 1934 city directory, she was listed as a ‘Spiritualist’ under the heading of clergymen. So there is the possibility that an ad in the October 1944 Sacramento Daily Union advertising “Psychic readings by appointment,” could have been her. However, I have found a lot of Rev. Ida Scotts all over the US and one who still exists to this day.
The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company houses sold by the Colonial Investment Company, made up of Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans used trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman. Early on, I was not aware of a connection between Nathan and Abraham H. Levin. Currently, I am aware that Nathan and Abraham were brothers.
When Nathan Levin died in 1956, he was replaced by Harry A. Badt in the paperwork for further foreclosures and sales of WSIC Truxton Circle houses. In researching Badt, I found the brotherly connection.
According to a 1946 ad, Colonial Investment Co. was established in 1925. So starting there, I looked for him in the papers. In 1933 Abraham Levin passed the bar. The next year he married Naomi Lillian Bersh. He worked for the Census Bureau. In the 1940s he went into real estate, obtaining his license in 1945.
According to Abraham’s obituary he returned to federal service in the 1960s, working for HUD. He died in 1998.
Abraham H. Levin was one of two trustees who issued mortgages to African Americans purchasing Truxton Circle homes from the Colonial Investment Company. His name was on countless foreclosures.
I got a warning months ago but didn’t really understand it. Citizen Atlas is gone. Sort of.
For years I have been using https://propertyquest.dc.gov/ to find information about houses in Truxton Circle and sometimes other parts of DC. I have used photos from Property Quest, which leaned on Citizen Atlas for photos for churches and other places.
But now that’s gone.
It makes sense in some ways. These photos are old enough to buy themselves a strong drink. So I hope they are with an archive or something. That is something I’ll have to look up later because this summer is personally busy for me.
Most places use Google Street View. Real estate websites use it along with the government. Those are the most up-to-date images of a property….. unless the owner or former owner has blocked it.
The photos aren’t completely gone. Not knowing when the photos will disappear, I copied all the ones used for the blog and the URLs (for now) work. Unfortunately, I THOUGHT, I had copied all the photos for Truxton Circle. But alas, no. I only did it for one block.
So I will eventually update the URLs on the blog to a page in the InShaw universe where I am hosting the images I have used. Yes, they are over 20 years old, but as far as I’m concerned they are government created and free to use.
I’m changing my Flickr account from paid to free and to do that I had to delete over 2000 images. Some of the images were transferred to this blog. The exercise did have me going down memory lane.
In 2017 two artists, Brian Bakke & Ira Tattleman, and myself had an exhibit in Truxton Circle called the Triangle Known as Truxton Circle. One of my exhibits showed the demographic changes to Truxton Circle from 1880-2010.
The drawings were of the filling out of the neighborhood. The top map was 1880. The following were 1900-1940.
On the maps, I took house by house information and colored white households with yellow; Black households with brown; government in blue with who they served filled in; and commercial properties in red.
The boxes of beans were to show the decline of the population. It was at its highest in 1940. The boxes had black beans for African Americans; Navy beans for Whites; and pinto for everyone else. The TC became a majority Afo-American neighborhood in 1930. You can see a lot of black beans in the 1950 box, along with speckles of navy beans. When WSIC sold off their rentals, those White renters left by the time the 1960 census rolled around.
As you can see the number of beans keeps decreasing year after year. And it isn’t until 1980 when the neighborhood starts seeing some racial diversity again.
Okay firsts are tricky. They are very hard to prove. So with that said, I am going to write that in this advertisement from 1989, this was the first time the District of Columbia government called Truxton Circle, Truxton Circle.
For a mere $80,000 62 Bates St NW was being sold by DHCD. For a paltry $250.00, they offered 22 Hanover St NW.
Advert for houses for sale in 1989 for houses sold by the District Government from $250 to $80,000
Is it the very first time the DC government called Truxton Circle by the name we know it as now? Possibly. This is just the first bit of evidence I located to prove the point.
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). Then there were the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.
Let’s see 137 Bates’ property history:
January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold the whole of 137 Bates St NW to two couples, George A. and his wife Gladys L. Watson, along with Clayton and wife Lizzie M. Williams.
January 1951 the Watsons and the Williams borrowed $5,050 from the Colonial Inv. Co’s preferred lenders, trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
February 1963 the Watsons and the Williams were released from their mortgage.
August 1963, through an intermediaries Barbara and Robert Drake, the Watsons and the Williams placed the property solely in the Williams’ name.
March 1964 the Williams borrowed $5,000 from Republic Savings & Loan, later the Home Federal Savings & Loan Association.
November 1981 the Williams were released from their 1964 mortgage.
May 2018 the estate of Lizzie Mae Williams, being that she died July 13, 1997 and Clayton died July 25, 1971, sold by the Estate of Diane Alexander, which was represented by Alisia Alexander sold 137 Bates to Leben Holdings LLC for $805,500.
For information about the Watsons and the Williams, see the earlier post. But this transaction seemed to work for everyone. There were no foreclosures and the property stayed in the hands of one of the families (I could not find a connection between the Watsons & Williams).
So I thought this was a WSIC house. It wasn’t built as one. However, it was sold as one.From the picture above of 127 Bates from 2004, the lot number is 0821. The land records for that lot number only goes back to 2013. So to the 1919 map
1919 Baist Map of section of Square 552
127 Bates Street NW appears to have been Lot 804. The record for that lot end in 1929. That’s the year the house was built, well after the majority of WSIC TC houses were erected.
Working on the house history of 129 Bates Street NW, it was sold as a fourplex. However, the current structure doesn’t look like a former 4 unit property. But if you combine it with 127, it does. So lets go with that. For that history check out the link above for 129 Bates.
The summary, if assuming 127-129 Bates was one, there were 3 foreclosures. It was sold to DC RLA who then sold it to the Bates Street Associates.
This is a redo of a previous post to add a little bit of more info.
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 Investment Company 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.
1919 Baist Map. Portion of Sq. 552
First, the lot number 822 doesn’t work. Looking at maps 129 Bates fits on lots 819 & 820, formerly of lot 25. So this examination will look at sales for lots 819/820 combined.
The last time I tried this, titles were too messy for me to do a decent tracking for this address and I gave up. I’ll make another stab at it.
Let’s see what happens with 129 Bates St NW:
March 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold 1/4 of the unit to Harold J. and Margaret A. Price.
March 1951 the Prices borrowed $3,700 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
May 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold 1/4 of 129 Bates to Elsie M. and James W. Horton.
May 1951 the Hortons borrowed $3,650 from trustees Levin and Taube.
May 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold 1/4 of the property to Doris E. and Thomas H. Brown Jr.
May 1951 the Browns borrowed $3,650 from Levin and Weightman.
June 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold the remaining 1/4 to Marian and Thomas P. Gale.
June 1951 the Gales borrowed $3,700 from Levin and Weightman.
July 1951 the Prices sold 1/4 of their property to Charles M. and Mabel C. Bowser.
June 1953 the Browns lost their quarter to foreclosure, and Evans, Levin and Taube repossessed the property via an auction.
August 1954, in a large property package Evans, Levin and Taube transferred several foreclosed properties to themselves via an intermediary Lillian M. McGowan. I don’t know why.
December 1954 the Hortons lost their quarter to foreclosure, and Evans, Levin and Taube repossessed the property via an auction.
December 1957, the Gales lost their quarter to foreclosure, and Evans, Badt and Taube repossessed the property via an auction.
December 1957, as part of a larger property package ( doc # 1958019347) Harry and wife Jennie Badt transferred their interests in this and other properties to the survivors of Nathan Levin.
October 1963, the Prices, and by extension the Bowsers, were released from their mortgage.
December 1972 James B. and wife Carmen Evans, in a very large property package (doc#1972027675 ) sold their interest to R & R Investments Inc.
November 1972, James A. Mitchell’s* survivors, Sidney H. and wife Olivia Matthews, along with Harry C. and Gloria Matthews, Nathaniel Taube, and Nathan Levin’s survivors sold their interest in the property to the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency.
January 1973, R & R Investments sold their interest to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency.
May 1974 the Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings decided that 129 Bates Street NW was condemned (doc# 7400013192) and informed the owner, DC RLA.
June 1975 129 Bates was considered sanitary.
About 1978 DC RLA transferred/ sold this and other properties to the Bates Street Associates, Inc.
129 Bates does not strike me as a 4 unit property. I’m not sure what happened with the Bowsers. Their quarter was not foreclosed, like the other 3/4th of 129 Bates. Eventually, 129 Bates was owned by the DC RLA and then Bates Street Associates. The slum landlord who usually shows up, did not.
Looking for the deed history of 127 Bates St NW, it is pretty much the same as 129, except it also has lot 782, which only appears once.
The National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) Archives Assembly will host a presentation by M Marie Maxwell on African American filmmaker and Truxton Circle Home Owner, Eloyce Gist. It will be on the 3rd, a Thursday, in October at 1PM.
From the picture above of 127 Bates from 2004, the lot number is 0821. The land records for that lot number only goes back to 2013. So to the 1919 map
