I’m going to guess it was 2005 when I visited 23 N St NW to look inside the home. I was impressed by its storage.
So many cabinet doors…. Interesting floors. It had a slightly arty bo-ho look. A look that has been renovated away by the looks of the real estate photos from its 2017 sale of over a million dollars.
I vaguely remember it having a loft in the bedroom, along with wooden bookshelves. It was a neat home.
In this series of looking at the odd numbered side of the 1700 block of New Jersey Ave NW from 1920 to 1930, I decided to look at the other end of the block. The change from 1920 to 1930 for most of the block was from white renters to black home owners. However, in the case of 1741 New Jersey Ave NW, which no longer exists as a house, but part of the parking of a corner gas station, there was no Black resident recorded for the 1930 census.
But then again, the 1930 census had some house number errors, so maybe there was someone there.
First we’ll look at the white renters who lived at 1741 NJ Ave NW in 1920. Look back to 1910, see where they were or learn more about them. Then where they were in 1930. The reason why they vacated is simple, their homes were sold to M. Harvey Chiswell, who then sold the row of homes to African American buyers. They didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.
In the 1920 census, the recorded tenants were the Sussan family. It was headed by a 41 year old baker Charles Sussan, and his wife Lillian. They lived with their three children Charles Jr. (18 yo) (1901-1968); Emily (16); Frank (7)(1912-1987) and Charles’ sister Elizabeth (58 y.o.). Ten years prior the family was living at 612 L St with Charles Sr. working as a baker and Lillian as a dressmaker. They lived with their sons and Lillian’s mother Willey Burgess (1858-1933).
After they left New Jersey Ave the family had moved to Arlington, VA by the 1930 census. Charles Sr. had remained a baker, and lived in the home he owned with his wife and their two sons. Daughter Emily Elizabeth had married and was living with her in-laws at 3110 Connecticut Ave NW. That year Emily would give birth to daughter Hazel Louise Macwilliams (later Brown).
From previous work, we discovered the row of homes on the 1700 odd numbered block of NJ Ave NW were purchased, repaired for sale to African American home owners in Fall and Winter of 1920. 1741 New Jersey Ave NW doesn’t exist, but we can find lot # 30 on a Baist map from the time period.
The first document is a 1923 trust (loan doc) between Mr. and Mrs. James I.(1872–1952) and Lulu (nee Phifer) McCalister and trustees Jesse H. Mitchell and William H. Cowan for $151.89. A November 1923 release document between the Mitchells and W. Wallace Chiswell and Harry A. Kite points to a September 30, 1920 loan. M. (Mary) Harvey Chiswell and W. Wallace Chiswell were part of the operation to sell specifically to African Americans.
1923 was a very busy year as it was also the year James and Samuel McCalister sold 1741 to James M. Woodward, who a few months later sold it to A. Lynn McDowell. In 1925, A. Lynn McDowell, his wife Elizabeth C. and a Julian N. McDowell sold the house to John G. Walker. A little less than a month later Walker sold the property to Mary Hummel. Sometime between 1928 and 1932 the ownership changed to where Conners & Fosters Inc took control of it.
So who were these people? The McCalisters were an African American couple who in 1924 lived at 1509 5th St NW. Prior to that for the 1920 census they were renting 345 Elm St NW. I think that was in LeDroit Park. Mr. McCalister was recorded as a laborer working for the Government Printing Office. I was able to confirm his federal employment by searching the 1919 Official Register of the United States (p.811) to find he was paid 35 cents an hour. In 1930 the McCalisters lived separately. Lulu lived at 946 T St NW, supporting herself as a chiropractor. James was not located for that year. But for 1940 he was a resident at the US Soldier’s Home and Lulu can’t be found. They were back together for the 1950 census living on H St with a lodger. James died in 1952 and is buried at Arlington Cemetery.
To get an idea to see if what I am seeing with the Black Homeowners of Truxton Circle is normal, or not, I am comparing them with white home owners. It helps to look at blocks that were over 90% white in 1950 but also in the same “red lined” zone, which was F1.
Looking at the Library of Congress map this sits on lot 78 on Square 765 in Capitol Hill. It could also be lot 804, but the earliest the info goes for 804 is 1949, and the Houghs had sold their property by then. Document 1943031037, for lots 78 and 79, has the only instance where Catherine B. Hough appears. The document noted that Catherine B. Hough was the surviving tenant, when her husband William I. Hough died June 17, 1928. The document was a deed where Mrs. Hough sold the property to Therese S. Merrill.
With a search of the Hough name on Sq. 765, lot 77 pops up. However, that appears to be a different house. The first is a 1925 document to release Emma V. Hough and William H. Hough from a 1915 loan from trustees Henry H. Bergmann and George M. Emmerich. December 1944, Emma V. Hough Baker sold the property to Frances, Levi T., and Levi T. Wellons Jr.
William Ira Hough married Katie Bertha Dice in 1887. In the 1900 census, they lived at 600 E St (SE?). William was a machinist and Catherine was a home maker raising their three children, William, Arthur and Helen. In the 1920 census, only two of their adult children lived in the home, Arthur, also a machinist at the Navy Yard, like his father, and Helen, a government stenographer. In 1928 William I. Hough died at home from asphyxiation in the bathroom. Mrs. Catherine Hough died in 1945, after a long illness at Leland Memorial Hospital.
It appears the owner of neighboring lot 77 was the son William Hiram Hough, born in 1891. In 1914 he married Emma V. Speiden. Apparently the daughter of Charles Speiden, who I profiled earlier, and lived a few doors down at 232 SC Ave SE. In the 1920 census they were at 230 South Carolina Ave SE. They had no children. Something must have happened with their marriage because in 1937, William H. Hough married Frances Alice Hall in Fredericksburg, VA and listed his home address as 5414 2nd St NW. He died a few years later in 1940 from an illness. In the Evening Star his obituary noted that his widow was Frances, and they lived at 256 18th St SE. At the time of his death he was a senior engineer aide at the Navy Yard.
In part one, we looked at two of the three white families who lived at 1701 NJ Ave NW (in Washington, DC) in 1920 before the African American Benjamin Johnson family purchased it.
The third 1920 household were the Saxtys.
Because names get misspelled in the census, the Saxty family show up as Saxtey. It was headed by Lawrence Spalding Saxty (1879-1922), a Navy Yard machinist. He rented their part of 1701 NJ Av with his wife Mary Emma (nee Burton)(1875-1945), his minor children Florence (later Thompson or Thomas) (1914-1993) and Edwin R. (1918-1979), and stepchildren Samuel B (1895-1925) also a Navy Yard machinist, Earl S. (1904-1968) and assistant operator, Howard (1905-1982) and Mildred Virginia Fitzhugh (later May)(1907-1983).
In 1910 Lawrence Saxty was a single man living with his uncle at 630 15th St NE and running a pool hall. Mary was married to a salesman Samuel S. Fitzhugh (1859-1911) living at 1410 D St NE with their children Samuel Burton, Earl, Howard and Mildred. After Sam S. died in 1911, Mary married Lawrence in 1913.
By 1930, Lawrence Saxty and Samuel Fitzhugh were dead. Mary, Florence, Edwin, and Howard managed to avoid the 1930 census. Earl was living with his in-laws at 717 3rd St NE, and working as a rail road station news dealer. Mildred is a little harder to pin down. Ancestry points me to her marrying Edward Delehanty in 1925. But her mother’s obituary has her last name as May, as well as a notation on her brother’s Find a Grave bio. This other route has her married to John James May. So I am going to ignore Mildred going forward. By the 1940 census, Howard was living in the College Park, MD area with his wife and children. Mary, Edwin, Florence and Earl (divorced) were living together with Florence’s two sons at 454 Maryland Ave SW. Edwin was working for the W.P.A. and Florence worked as a waitress.
In 1930, the residents of 1701 New Jersey Ave NW were 57 year old African American USPS postal clerk Benjamin S. Jackson and his wife Grace B. Unfortunately, I hit a dead end. Benjamin does not appear anywhere in the land records. The first document is a 1923 loan document with only Grace L. Jackson’s name. She borrowed … $20? (that can’t be right) at 7% interest from trustees Edmund Hill Jr and Thomas Walker. Usually this is where I would see a mention that the spouse died and when. Here. Nada.
Then I looked at where Grace L. Jackson’s ownership of 1701 ended. It’s interesting, but not helpful. In 1955 the house was sold to Watha T. Daniel…. yes, that Watha T. Daniel for whom the Shaw Library at 7th and Rhode Island Ave NW was named. But the person who sold it was Leonard S. Hayes acting as a trustee in relation to civil action 576-55. Hunting down court cases is a PITA for me, and I’m sure there are answers there.
The last document with Grace L. Jackson’s name is a June 1939 loan document with the Washington Loan and Trust Company (for the Equitable Co-operative Building Association. The loan was for $2,900 and she was released from the loan the next month in July 1939. And there is no mention of anybody else.
Ancestry doesn’t help either.
Jackson is a very common name so I get pushed towards too many false positives. Ancestry wants me to go to Silas Benjamin Jackson. However that man is married to a gal named Bertha, who also has an “L” for a middle name. But that couple is in Free Union, VA and had a boatload of children who were minors in 1930.
But the Library of Congress’ newspaper website is helpful. Benjamin S. Jackson died January 9, 1944 at his residence at 1701 NJ Ave NW. He was a mason and member of the John F. Cook lodge. There was a “session of sorrow” at the Elks Lodge at 301 Rhode Island Ave NW. He left behind Grace L. Jackson and nieces and a brother in law in Ohio and Indianapolis. There was no mention of any children. There was a wake at his home and the funeral at Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church.
Grace L. Jackson died in 1953 at her home on New Jersey Ave. There was no mention of any relatives or loved ones in her small obituary. The funeral home handling her arrangements, Melvin & Shay, were at New Jersey and R, so across the street. I wonder if the funeral home was the same building her husband protested the classification as commercial of 414 R St NW, where the daycare Home Away from Home sits? In 1936, Benjamin S. Jackson was the named representative of a group of Black residents objecting to the commercial classification. He and his neighbors were concerned that the classification change would bring in a liquor store. Ah protesting possible liquor stores, things never change…..
So in conclusion with this change from white to black, it is the same as with 1735 NJ Av, people move on. All three of the 1920 households were renters, and renters move around. They weren’t at 1701 NJ Ave in 1910 so why would they still be there 10 years later? Several of the 1920 girls grew up, got married and started families. A few residents died, never making it to 1930. Besides sometime between the 1920 census and 1923 when Grace L. Jackson took out a loan, the house was sold to the Jacksons so the Saxtys, the Smiths and the Comelys had to vacate anyway. The idea of blockbusting doesn’t apply here because the three renting households weren’t owners, so they could have been pressured to sell what wasn’t theirs.
In 1920 the odd side of the 1700 block of New Jersey Ave NW was 100% White. So let’s look at 1701 New Jersey Ave.
In 1920 census there are three households living at 1701 New Jersey Ave NW. The first is headed by George Richard Comley (Conney in the census), a 31 year old hotel chauffeur on his 2nd marriage. He lived with wife Gertrude Hattie Scheuch (1900-1923), baby Marguerite, and daughters from a previous marriage, Ruth (1908-1991) and Ethel.
I was able to clear up the Comley’s name discrepancy and discover the 2nd marriage via George’s daughters Ruth Mae (later Scott), then 11 and 9 year old Ethel Elizabeth (1910-1993). In 1910, driver George and then wife Florence (nee Arrington) were living at 1014 7th St NE with son George and daughter Ruth M.. Ethel was born August 10, 1910 and her social security docs say Florence was her mother. When WWI rolled around (1917), George was divorced with 3 dependent children.
I can’t find George R. Comley past the 1930 census. It is possible he died of a heart attack in 1931. It also appears he was an optimist on his 3rd marriage with Helen Hogan (1893-1952) living at 1607 O St NW. That census year he was still working as a chauffeur, living with 10 year old daughter Margaret E. (later Hutchins) (1919-1996) and 7 year old Marie G. (1922-1997). By 1930 Ethel had become Mrs. Pitcock, living in Colesville, MD with her husband and two young boys. Older sister Ruth managed to disappear until her death. Maybe because she was in jail from a vague embezzlement 1935 arrest?
The second household were the Smiths, headed by 27 year old traffic cop Ellis W. Smith (1892-1975). He lived with his 21 yr old brother, Leon S. Smith (1898-1982) an electric car conductor, 17 yr old sister Grace (later Tubbs)(1902-1995) a cigar store saleswoman, and 59 year old widowed mother, Annie E. Smith (nee Hodgeson) (1860-1927). Ellis briefly served in the Army during WWI.
By 1930 the Smiths had moved on but not far. The mother Annie was dead. Sister Grace had married Victor Tubbs and was mother to two girls, Iva & Emma, and a son, Nelson. She lived at 139A Bates St NW. Looking back at the newspaper search for 139 Bates, I see Annie Smith died there. That same newspaper search reveals son Nelson Tubbs was there in 1949 when marrying, literally the girl next door, Beverly J. Trite, of 137 Bates St NW. By the 1950 census, Victor and Grace were empty nesters. In 1930, Ellis was a White House policeman, and had moved to Cottage City, MD in PG County. He lived there with his wife Lucy, daughter Barbara and son Robert.
Brother Leon Standford Smith was in Cleveland, OH in 1930 working in the auto industry. At age 31, he married Ida Maude Miller in 1929 in Homer, MI. By 1940, he was back in DC working as a guard, and back in Truxton Circle at 219A Bates St NW with his wife, an adopted daughter and a couple of lodgers, Mrs. Morgan and her baby Nancy. In 1950 the Smiths were at 3940 Blaine St NE, with their 20 year old daughter who was separated, their 2 grandchildren, and a 10 year old lodger by the name of Nancy Morgan. In the 50s Leon worked for the US Post Office. When he died in Florida, he was a retired mail handler.
This is getting fairly long, I will deal with the third household of the Saxtys in part 2.
I’ve been updating the blog and uploading posts from 2010. It’s slow work because I can’t figure out how to turn old Movable Type html files into a file the importer can read. Luckily I found what I was looking for in another spot.
I was looking for Mrs. Flynn. In 1920, Mrs. Rosa Lee Smith Flynn rented 1735 New Jersey Avenue NW, living there with her three adult daughters, Ethel, Edna (Florence?) and Frances and two sons, George and Charles.
She was a widow at the time (1920), as her husband Zachariah Taylor Flynn died in 1907. They had twelve children. Roley (1879-1905); George (1880-1929); Jane; Henry (1883-1969); Zachariah (1885-1961); Daisy (1887-1951); Benjamin (1888-1953/1962?); Ethel (1890-1924); Florence Edna (1892-1922); Frances (1890-1961); William (1898-??); and Charles (1899-1984).
Prior to living in the District of Columbia and Zack’s death, they were on a farm in the town of Scott in Fauquier County, VA. In 1910, she lived at 112 P St NW, in Truxton Circle. Son George, aged 29 worked as a bookkeeper for a dairy. Maybe the dairy on the 1600 block of 1st St NW? George (bookkeeper), Daisy (a dressmaker), and Edna (clerk in dry goods shop) appear to have supported their mother and younger siblings, Frances and Charles.
When we arrive at 1920, with the exception of Francis, her adult children are all working and supporting her.
I asked myself the question of why was there a 100% racial change on that stretch of New Jersey Ave from 1920 to 1930 and the Flynns provide a mundane answer. Life went on. Continue reading Change from 1920 to 1930, White to Black, Flynn to Keasley- 1735 New Jersey Av NW
The period between 1920 and 1950 seems so short, but those are the years where the DC Recorder of Deeds records and the US Census overlap so I can find the Black people who owned their homes. After 1950 it gets a little hard to get in depth info on people. Prior to 1920, I don’t get the same level of accurate information about home owners.
I mapped out which of the homes on Square E. 509 which were at one time owned by an African American resident:
This table has the addresses with links to the blog post about that home owner.
| House # | Street | Head Surname | Head 1st name |
| 1628 | 4th St | Brooks | Lucinda |
| 1616 | 4th St | Darden | Herman |
| 1612 | 4th St | Richardson | Chester |
| 1636 | 4th St | McLean | Daisie Mae |
| 1632 | 4th St | Penny | Louise |
| 1630 | 4th St | Jackson | Edna |
| 1616 | 4th St | Lee | Lula |
| 1612 | 4th St | Richardson | Chester |
| 1606 | 4th St | Logan | Mary |
| 1604 | 4th St | Branham | Clementine |
| 1600 | 4th St | Walker | Johnnie |
| 1602 | 4th St | Evans | Bennie L |
| 1605 | New Jersey Ave | Bellows | Nannie |
| 1607 | New Jersey Ave | Broadus | Wallace |
| 1613 | New Jersey Ave | Harrison | William |
| 1627 | New Jersey Ave | Lomax | Ernest |
| 1629 | New Jersey Ave | Thomas | Carrie H |
| 1605 | New Jersey Ave | Bellows | Nannie |
| 1601 | New Jersey Ave | Broadus | Wallace |
| 1613 | New Jersey Ave | Jones | Rufus |
| 1607 | New Jersey Ave | Broadus | Bessie |
| 1611 | New Jersey Ave | Hollaway | Olinian |
| 1613 | New Jersey Ave | Jones | Lucy E W |
| 1627 | New Jersey Ave | Downing | Virginia |
| 1645 | New Jersey Ave | Dyson | Sidney |
| 1643 | New Jersey Ave | Freeman | Frank |
| 1605 | New Jersey Ave | Bellows | Pauline |
| 408 | R St | Wheeler | James H |
| 410 | R St | Broadus | James R |
| 410 | R St | Broaddus | James R |
| 406 | R St | Strother | Maggie Taylor |
| 402 | R St | Wilson | Virginia |
| 408 | R St | Wheeler | Mayme |
| 408 | R St | Wheeler | James H |
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 what happens with 40 O St NW:
Once again it appears that the scheme set up just set Africans American buyers for failure. And as a bit of irony housing expressly built to improve renters lives wound up in the hands of a slumlord who did not improve the lives of his tenants.
Robert Martell Pyndell, before buying 40 O St NW, was a Black truck driver living with his in-laws at 521 2nd St SE in 1950. In 1947 he married Helen Odessa Shepard. After this loss in Truxton Circle the family managed to buy a home in 1961 at 306 Channing Street NE. Funnily, looking at the Channing St deed, there is covenant language on document 1961001489 stating that the property should not be sold, leased or conveyed to any person of negro or part negro blood. Mr. Pyndell appears to be unmistakably black. This was in 1961, after racial covenants were found to be unconstitutional in 1948. The Pyndells eventually wound up in Alabama, with Robert selling a plot of land (parking spot? Sq 3554 lot 0106) in 1985.
Unfortunately, there were two John R. Burtons and two Nellie Burtons (married to different people) buying and owning property in DC at the time. I found a John Burton, an Afro-American barber married to a Nellie (nee Lane?) living at 505 O Street NW in the 1920 census. But I’m not 100% sure these are the same people.
To get an idea to see if what I am seeing with the Black Homeowners of Truxton Circle is normal, or not, I am comparing them with white home owners. I am looking at blocks that were over 90% white in 1950 but also in the same “red lined” zone, which was F1.
The first document to show up for this Capitol Hill property is a release, which means a debt has been paid, from 1921 for a 1915 debt. It was in Charles E. and Emma F. Speiden’s name who appear in the 1930 census for 232 South Carolina Ave SE in Washington, DC. On March 30, 1948 the home was sold by Charles and Emma’s survivors to Constance Wilson who sold it to Erika B. Ezzell a few days later.
So who were Charles and Emma Speiden?
Well Charles Edwin Speiden was born January 16, 1863 in Washington, DC to William R. and Sarah Ann Perkins Speiden, one of nine children. In 1880, the family lived at 228 K St SE. His father was a blacksmith, his older brother was a blacksmith and in the 1900 census he was a blacksmith.
In 1885 Charles married Emma Florence Scott. In 1890 the blacksmith and his bride lived at 1206 I St SE. In 1900 they were living with his in-laws, Jasper Scott the iron molder, at 503 12th St SE. That year the Speidens had five children between the ages of 13 and four.
Emma was born in 1863 to Jasper A. and Mary Jane Murray Scott in the District of Columbia. She was about one of five children and she in turn had five children, Addie Florence Speiden Adams (1886–1953), William Jasper Speiden (1887–1971), Emma Viola Speiden Huff (1891– 1956), Mary Jane Speiden McClay (1894–1961) and Charles Edwin Speiden Jr. (1895–1901).
By 1930 Charles Speiden was a business owner, iron worker, running East Washington Ornamental Iron Works at 618-620 C Street SE. His adult daughters Emma Huff, and Addie Adams lived with him and Emma, with and her daughter Florence. Their adult daughters were listed as widows, however the 1940 census revealed that Addie was divorced.
Charles died January 31, 1936 at home. A couple years later, Emma Scott Speiden died January 2, 1948.
Although the African American home owners of Truxton Circle are my focus, I am looking at a few other blocks in Washington, DC to compare them to. So I looked at the census for blocks in the city that were in the F1 or red-lined category, but happened to be 90%-100% white. I included Georgetown, and this is the story of one household.
I’m not sure why document # 192910230142 didn’t show up to document Charles A. and his wife Mabel V. Pendry’s purchase of 3253 P St NW from Emma and Henry Frain on September 17, 1929. They bought it and borrowed $2,700 from trustees Arthur G. Bishop and Arthur J. Bridgett. Then in 1933 the sold it back to Emma Frain. The end.
In the 1930 census Charles Augustus Pendry was a New York born engineer who worked for the federal government. He was previously married to an Ida Pendry who he divorced in 1924 after 31.5 years of marriage. But as we see above, by 1929 Pendry was married again to wife #2 Mabel Victorine. In the 1930 census, he was 59 years old, she 48. They lived with two lodgers Alexander P. Korman (20 yo) and Clarence Sterner (40 yo). He had no children.
By the 1940 census the couple had moved to G-d’s waiting room, aka Florida. They were renting, living as retirees in Tampa. Mabel died in 1949 and Charles passed in 1954.
