Housing – Page 2 – Truxton Is In Shaw

WSIC data clean up- 132, 136, 210, 214, 218, 220 and 226 Q St NW

This is a filler post. Feel free to ignore this. I am just cleaning up the data answering the question were these properties ever under the control of the Bates Street Associates (BSA)?

132 Q St NW (lot 100)- Yes. There does not appear to be a deed transferring the property from George Basiliko to the DC Redevelopment Agency (RLA) which happened sometime around 1970-1972. There is a contract between the DC RLA and the BSA (document #7800024140) recorded in 1978. Usually there is a deed paired with this contract, but It doesn’t appear in the search. Just to clarify that the contract is not accidental, there is a deed (doc #8000029035) transferring the property from the Bates Street Associates, Incorporated to Bates Street Associates Limited Partnership.

136 Q St NW (lot 98)- Yes. Once again, no deeds located for the transfers from Basiliko to DC RLA and from DC RLA to BSA, but there is a contract (doc #7800024140). BSA did own it and there is a 1980 deed where BSA sold the property to Delois Fields.

210 Q St NW (lot 71)- Yes, and this one is better documented. There is a 1970 deed transferring the property from Basiliko to the DC RLA (doc #1970011877), and a 1979 deed transferring it from DC RLA to the Bates Street Associates, Inc. (doc #7900028039). That deed was sort of paired with the contract (doc #7800024140).

214 Q St NW (lot 69)- Yes. DC RLA gained ownership from deed # 1972001370. Like 210 Q St NW, documents #7900028039 and #7800024140 are the deed and contract transferring the property from DC RLA to BSA Inc.

218 Q St NW (lot 67)- Yes. In 1970 there is a deed transferring the property from Basiliko to DC RLA (doc #1970011877). Then there is a deed (doc #8000020294) and contract ( doc #8000020221) transferring it from the DC RLA to BSA Limited Partnership.

220 Q St NW (lot 66)- Yes. Deed from Basiliko to DC RLA (doc #1970011877), then deed and contract from DC RLA to Bates Street Associates Inc. (docs #8000020294 and #8000020221)

226 Q St NW (lot 63)- Umm, No. There is a deed (doc #8000029035) transferring it from Bates Street Associates Inc to Bates Street Limited Partnership. I think it is a mistake as it includes a lot of former Washington Sanitary Improvement Co houses. The property belonged to Robert W. Ayers.

WSIC data clean up- 139, 141, 206, 208 Bates Street NW

Silly me, I thought I was done, and then I scrolled up. This post is just more data clean up to answer the question of if the BSA, the Bates Street Associates (BSA) owned the property. I’m going to work with clusters.

139 Bates Street NW (lot 34)- Yes. DC Redevelopment Agency (RLA) transferred ownership in a deed (doc #8000020294) and a contract (doc #8000020294) in June of 1980 to the BSA Limited Partnership.

141 Bates Street NW (lot 35)-Yes. I cannot locate a deed but there is a contract between DC RLA and Bates Street Associates Incorporated (doc #7800024140) recorded in July 1978.

206 Bates Street NW (lot 144)-Yes. I cannot locate a deed nor a contract between Basiliko selling the property to DC RLA in 1972 and the BSA Limited Partnership taking out two loans on the property in 1980. It’s safe to assume DC RLA transferred it to BSA.

208 Bates Street NW (lot 143)- No. George Basiliko sold the property to the Urban Rehabilitation Corporation in December 1970.

WSIC data clean up-14, 25, 30 and 57 Bates Street NW

I am procrastinating. One of the goals of this year is to write an article and try to pitch it somewhere on the data gathered from this huge research project on the WSIC houses. I think there is something valuable there.

It seems odd but I hate writing. Well for something other than a blog. I have written an article for a publication and it was a learning experience. It’s a different skill set.

Anyway, instead of writing up 14 Bates St NW, 25 Bates Street NW, 30 Bates Street NW and 57 Bates Street NW, I’m just going to mention what I find in answering the question. The question being did Bates Street Associates own any of these properties?

For 14 Bates St NW, Basiliko sold it to DC Redevelopment Agency in document 1971025715 in 1971. Then there was a contract between DC RLA and BSA document #7800024140 recorded in 1978. No deed that I could find.

25 Bates Street NW, yes. Document 8000020294 recorded 6/30/1980 has a deed transferring ownership from the DC Redevelopment Agency (DC RLA) to the BSA Limited Partnership. BSA is the Bates Street Associates. There is a contract that went with this, Document 8000020221 recorded on 6/27/1980, between DC RLA and BSA.

30 Bates Street NW, yes. It too is recorded in documents 8000020221 and 8000020294.

57 Bates Street NW, I see no mention of them, so no.

Abraham H. Levin- Colonial Mortgage Co.

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.

His brother, Nathan Levin, died while in court in 1956. The May 13, 1956 reported that Abraham was in the room when it happened. Nathan was president of the Colonial Investment Company and executive vice president of the Colonial Mortgage Corporation.

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.

Farewell Citizen Atlas

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.

A suitable pop up- 1721 4th St NW

There is a lot of background with this house, but I want this to be a more visual post.

This was a house that didn’t have a lot of interior space. I don’t think it had a basement. It did not have a 3rd floor.

Now it has a 3rd floor. Notice the difference in the rooftop. The pop up is very subtle. It is currently two condo units.

319 R Street NW

I was going through some of photos and decided to post.

Above is what 319 R St NW looks like now.

Then there was the alternative reality of what it was supposed to look like.

319 R St NW, 20001 — 319 R St NW. Taken March 7, 2018

And lastly, 319 R St NW back when the Korean church owned it for mission work.

Links to my previous posts about 319 R St NW:

319 R St- Off Market sad-face
I provided the gun but I didn’t shoot him: Historic Landmarking of Sq. 519
319 R St NW- There can be a way forward with a turret
319 R St NW- The Turret is Plan B
319 R St NW- Not hoping for the best, but the less ugly with a turret
319 R Street NW- a sign
319 R St NW
319 R Street the plan
Well we need more of this kind of missionary work

First Time DC Government Uses Truxton Circle

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.

Affordable Housing of the Past is Illegal

I was listening to an audiobook and was annoyed with one of the prescriptions that authors are forced to tack on to their books. Housing was a background issue. It would have made more sense if the prescription was unionizing, not touting zoning for more multifamily housing, a topic explored at the 11 hour.

What annoyed me was, after working on the history of this neighborhood, that a historical solution that worked was ignored. Boarding houses and taking in boarders. Many people in Truxton Circle, homeowners and renters, had boarders.

Men and women in boarding house room — 1943 DC Boarding House

However, this very low rung in the housing is almost illegal. Like mobile homes (another affordable housing product illegal in many municipalities), the laws on the books make such a thing impossible to run legally. There are illegal boarding houses in DC. We find out about them when someone dies in a fire.

We’d prefer someone to live in a tent in a park, then have a house with all sorts of people coming in and out, where people live for cheap. I’m not going to romanticize boarding houses either. Poorly run ones were a nuisance. But, they were a roof over a person’s head. Four solid walls (maybe thin walls) where they could call home.

Back when I was in elementary school and at an age where we made friends easily, I had a ‘friend’ who lived in a boarding house near the school. Her family, mother, father and maybe a sibling, all lived in a room in the back of this 2 story frame house that no longer exists. I remember the room being poorly lit & junky. This was a working class Black neighborhood, and if you couldn’t afford to rent a whole house or get into the public housing, well you were pretty bad off.

The author, like Jane Jacobs, assumed a type of housing would make it affordable. Jacobs believed older housing was affordable. I’m in my youngest house, built in 1940, cheap is the last word I’d use to describe it. And likewise, there are multi-unit houses, houses carved up into condos, that are out of the price range for most. Even if DC allowed people to live in converted Home Depot sheds on land they rented or owned, the prices will find a way to jack up.

Okay. Rant over.

Memory Lane- NW Co-op on Q St NW- 2007

Taken on June 27, 2007. 100-200 Block of Q St NW.

Northwest Co-op. These are post 1968 riot affordable housing units. The bay window like sections that jut out on the 2nd floor reference the circa 1900 Bates Street houses with a similar type (but less boxy) window.

They are not public housing. They might accept Section 8, but it is not public housing.