My notes say this the 1500 block of 1st St NW, but I’m not sure. It could be the houses closer to Q St NW.
Anyway it was a nice small green yard and a nice welcoming porch.
Memory Lane- Nice Porch- 2008
Tag: houses
Memory Lane- 6th and St NW 2013
Please note the house has been renovated and improved since 2013.
Memory Lane- 1640 4th St NW
Detective Stories with AI- the 1700 Block of New Jersey Ave NW- White to Black
Yes, Mari found a new toy. I’m going to take a little break from the deep research while I clean up the data. Playing with AI made me realize that the WSIC posts aren’t uniform in the information they give, so I will need to fix that. In the meantime, here’s an old post, where I had Grok write it in the style of Raymond Chandler. It is a hoot.
The street stretched out like a tired old dame, worn thin by time and the heavy tread of too many soles. New Jersey Avenue NW, a name that carried the weight of a forgotten promise, sat in the shadow of Truxton Circle, where the air hung thick with secrets and the ghosts of yesteryear lingered in the brickwork. It was 1920, and the odd-numbered side of the 1700 block was a pale-faced affair—white renters huddled in their rowhouses, clutching leases like lifelines. By 1930, the tide had turned, and the block was a sea of brown faces, Black homeowners staking their claim on a piece of the American dream. The shift wasn’t no accident, no gentle drift of fate. It was a deal, cold and calculated, with the scent of money and desperation trailing behind it.
I dug into the dirt of it, the way a PI might sift through a dame’s lies to find the truth. The census told one story—white to Black, a decade’s flip of the coin. But the land records, they sang a darker tune. Around July 1920, M. Harvey Chiswell swooped in like a vulture in a cheap suit, snatching up 1707 to 1715 from Charles W. and Amy S. Richardson, then 1717 to 1721 from Ella S. Du Bois. She kept going, greedy fingers closing around 1725 to 1731 and 1733 to 1741 from Mason N. and Ada F. Richardson. The whole stinking stretch of New Jersey Avenue fell under her shadow, a monopoly built on deeds and dust.
Come August, the Evening Star piped up—H.A. Kite was set to patch up 1701 to 1741, a repair job to pretty up the bones of those old houses. But Chiswell wasn’t holding onto her prize for long. She flipped them fast, like a grifter unloading hot goods. September saw 1701 go to Grace L. Jackson for $4,100, a loan stitched up tight with W. Wallace Chiswell and Kite’s names on it. October rolled in, and 1707 went to Susie J.R. Johnson, 1711 to Maria Jones, 1713 to Frank E. Smith, 1717 to Mayo J. Scott and his wife Sarah, 1719 to William H. Randall and Katie. The list ran on—1715 to Fred H. and Hester Seeney, 1709 to Julia G. Holland, 1703 to Amelia Green by December. Every sale inked with Chiswell’s mark, every loan tied to her web of trusts, 6% interest bleeding the buyers dry.
The block wasn’t just sold off—it was carved up and fed to a new crowd, African Americans stepping into homes that white folks had fled. The why of it hung in the air like smoke from a cheap cigar. Maybe the old tenants saw the writing on the wall, the neighborhood tilting toward something they couldn’t stomach. Maybe Chiswell saw a profit in the shift, a chance to cash out before the winds changed again. Whatever the game, the 1700 block morphed into a testament to grit and gamble, a place where dreams were bought on credit and paid for in sweat.
I lit a cigarette and stared down the street, watching the shadows play across the rowhouses. The sell-off was a heist dressed up as progress, a shuffle of papers that rewrote lives. Truxton Circle didn’t care—it just watched, silent as a dame with too many secrets, while the block turned over like a card in a rigged deck.
The Great 1950s Sell Off of Washington Sanitary Improvement Co Houses- So Far
Below is a list of the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company house histories on the InShaw blog. The Washington Sanitary Improvement Company around the turn of the 20th Century (between the 1890s and 1910s) built many two flat rental homes in Truxton Circle with an architectural style that defined the neighborhood. But in 1950 the company came to an end and sold their inventory of rentals to the Colonial Investment Company, then run by Nathaniel J. Taube, Nathan Levin and James B. Evans. The Colonial Investment Co. sold individual units to African Americans. But unfortunately, there was a pattern of failure.
I hope to write an article about this, and if you have suggestions of what journals or publications would be interested please reach out to me, about this failure. I believe it is a story that hasn’t been told. I also want to have all the facts. So I am going to do nothing by WSIC houses until I’m done.
This means no special Black History month posts. This WSIC is a chapter of a segment of Black history so there’s that.
It is arranged by original square and lot numbers. Noting that lot numbers change “Current Sq Lot” is what the lot number is now. Ignore the column “Doc”.
Memory Lane: Somewhere in Mt. Vernon Sq.
I don’t know where this is. But it feels like Mt. Vernon Sq. and this is circa 2007.
Memory Lane: 1623 New Jersey Ave NW
Hey look. A pop up. There are mature trees in the way so it doesn’t stick out.
Sometimes smaller is better
I’m going through my old drafts. Some I rewrite, such as this one. Some I delete. And some I rewrite, still think they’re crap and delete them. This was written October 8, 2008.
Sometimes.
I’ve just finished reading an article regarding the upsides of raising a family in a 1,200 sf house over that of a McMansion. The author writes:
Looking back on 18 years of living small, I see that our snug house has prevented us from easily avoiding one another by retreating into our own spaces. We’ve been able to eavesdrop on our kids as they played with friends and look over their shoulders as they did homework on the dining room table. It’s been good for our health too, forcing all of us, especially our sons, to spend more time out-of-doors. There simply isn’t room to get too rowdy inside, so often they have headed outside to a neighborhood park that’s conveniently located just across the street.I hope we’ve given our sons the message that wealth doesn’t come from our material possessions, but instead from the diversity of experiences we have and the richness of our community.
The author also mentions that with a smaller house she could pay off the mortgage quicker, heat it for less and have a better commute. I already have the great commute. It is my great luck to work for an agency whose DC metro branches are all along the Green Line. My current commute is a 30-45 minute walk, or 20 minutes by metro, and that is priceless. The house is small and there isn’t much to heat or cool, and I tend to be happy lounging in 1/6th of the space. And there is the possibility of actually paying off the mortgages in the next 15 years, but I owe that more to when I bought the house as opposed to the size of the house.
The article was in the conservative online magazine Culture 11 “Living Small”
Memory Lane: Hot Dog House, circa 2005
Going back into my photo vault of photographs of the neighborhood and here is one of a Truxton Circle home on Florida Ave NW. It makes me think of hot dogs.
1640 4th St NW- Blocked from Google Street View
So here’s a little break from Black Home Owners.
I noticed on Google Streetview this property on my old block is blocked. It’s just a blur. But here is what you’re missing.
and
Back when it was yellow.
It is probably blocked because the builders are throwing on a pop up and a bit of a pop back.
So when it is done. I wonder if it will be a fugly thing, of which there is a 50/50 chance. Or would it be an interesting addition.
The Darth Vader house, 1649 New Jersey Ave NW, is, interesting.
That little part that juts out at the front… that’s allowed now?
And yes, some of you are saying, ‘well that’s what you get for not being in an historic district.’ Remind me, Bloomingdale is a historic district and there are some monstrosities popping up and back on Quincy. And around the corner from Quincy on North Capitol, what’s all that going on? Also when the Wardman Flats (Sq. 519 4th, Florida Av, 3rd and R Sts) became historic the residents were not too thrilled about that.
Anyway, we’ll see. Which reminds me, people of Bates St., you have a history, and I’m going to write about it once I’m done with the Black Home Owners of the 1920 census. Do your pop ups, pop backs, and vinyl window replacing now before I provide the world with enough evidence for a historic anything application.