Tag: neighborhood history

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 208 Bates St NW:

• January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold all of 208 Bates Street NW to Mrs. Lucy P. Gibson.
• January 1951 Mrs. Gibson borrowed $5,800 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
• January 1961 Mrs. Gibson lost her home to foreclosure. Due to an auction the ownership returned to Colonial Investment Co partners Evans, Taube and new partner Harry A. Badt.
• November 1961, as part of a larger property sale, Badt, Evans, Taube, Nathan Levin’s survivors, and their spouses sold 208 Bates Street NW to Sophia and George Basiliko.
• July 1968 the Basilikos sold 208 Bates Street NW to the Urban Rehabilitation Corporation.

This was a quick one. Not too long after the foreclosure, the Basilikos took ownership. I can’t seem to find info about Mrs. Gibson so I can’t say what happened on her end. This differs from the usual story in that the DC Redevelopment Land Agency was not involved.

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 was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.

Let’s see what happens with 215 P St NW:

• December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 215 P NW to Sudell M. and Walter Williams.
• December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) the Williams borrowed $3,000 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
• January 1951 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 215 P St NW to James J. and Lucille T. Meredith.
• Jan 1951 the Merediths borrowed $3,150 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
• November 1953 the Merediths sold their half to the Williams.
• May 1966 the Williams borrowed $9,000 at 6.5% interest from the Suburbia Federal Savings and Loan Association.
• August 1966 it appears that the Williams were released from the Levin and Weightman mortgages that they and the Saunders took on in 1950.
• October 1968 the Williams lost their home to foreclosure and via an auction the mortgager Suburbia Federal Savings and Loan owned it.
• November 1968, Dorothy C. and Elvin L. Brincefield bought the property borrowing $7,920 from Suburbia Federal Savings and Loan.
• December 1968, as the Brincefield Company they loaned/borrowed?? I don’t understand the document.
• November 1971, the Brincefields sold the property to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA).

The lesson learned here is that if your foreclosure is with someone other than the Colonial Investment Co. partners, then it does not fall into the hands of George Basiliko. But it wound up being owned by the DC RLA.

The Merediths had a not so common name so I will look into their history. In the 1950 census James Junior Meredith was an African American truck driver living at 1115 8th St in an apartment with his wife Lucille, a maid, their 1 year old daughter Carolyn and his mother in law. August 23, 1960 James died. They were living at 208 Bates Street at the time of his death, as renters. I’ll give my regular readers 1 guess at who their slumlord was. He left behind his wife Lucille, and children Carolyn, Kenneth and Patricia.

The Williams were so close to beating the normal fate. Unfortunately, Williams is too common of a name to research. Yes, Sudell is an uncommon first name, but her maiden name was Sudell Myrtle Jones.

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 was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.

Let’s see what happens with 1501 3rd St NW:

• January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold all of 1501 3rd St NW to Frank Alexander, then a single man.
• January 1951 Mr. Alexander borrowed $8,000 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
• September 1966 Mr. Alexander was released from his mortgage obligations and owned 1501 3rd St NW free and clear.
• Sometime before November 1993 the estate of Frank Alexander Sr (Charles R, Frank Jr, Alice N. Alexander and Anna L. McClain) transferred the property to Alice Norita Alexander and Frank Alexander Jr.
• From 1996 to 2006 Alice N. Alexander borrowed often and after adding Lashavio L. Faison to the property, and continue to borrow, lost it to foreclosure.

This is a different story than the usual WSIC house stories. Here a man bought a house. He paid off the house. He was able to leave the house to his family and they lost it.

If I have the right person, Frank Alexander was born February 16, 1918 in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, one of seven children to James and Anna Alexander. His father died when he was young. He was enlisted in 1944 and discharged in 1945. We know in 1951, he purchased 1501 Third Street NW in Washington, DC. He died June 5, 1988 and left the property in a will to people I assume are his family members.

It’s a happier story. The original buyer did not experience foreclosure, the DC Redevelopment Agency or Landlord George Basiliko had no opportunity to take over the property.

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 was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.

Let’s see what happens with 94 Bates St NW:

• December 1950 Evans, Levin and Taube sold all of 94 Bates St NW to Carrie N. and Willie Burns.
• December 1950 the Burns borrowed $6,300 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
• August 1961 the Burns borrowed $5,500 from trustees Junior F. Crowell and Samuel Scrivener Jr., who have lent to other Black Truxton Circle home owners.
• October 1961 the Burns paid off their mortgage debt to Levin and Weightman.
• June 1975 Carrie N. Burns took out a rehabilitation loan from the DC Redevelopment Land Agency with trustee Ralph Werner for $9,150 at 6% interest. It was paid off in 1985.

So this one was unusual. Basiliko doesn’t get involved. The property was sold in whole and the DC RLA was only involved as a lender.

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 was the odd lucky ones who managed to avoid that fate.

Let’s see what happens with 229 P St NW:

• January 1951 Evans, Levin and Taube sold one-half of 229 P NW to Johnnie M. Alford and Oliver Rembert Jr.
• January 1951 Alford and Rembert borrowed $3,400 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
• December 1950 (recorded 1/18/1951) Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the other half of 229 P St NW to Mattie L. Jones.
• December 1950 (recorded 1/18/1951) Mrs. Jones borrowed $3,250 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
• March 1956 Alford and Rembert lost their half to foreclosure. Evans, Levin and Taube regained the property via an auction.
• November 1961 new partner Harry A. Badt, his wife, Levin’s survivors, Evans, Taube and their wives, sold their half to Sophia and George Basiliko.
• January 1962 Mattie L. Jones was released from her mortgage…..and that is the last we hear from her.  There are a lot of Mattie L. Joneses, mainly in Texas, and I don’t have a lot of other information to go on to find her.
• Sometime between 1973 and 1980 the DC Redevelopment Land Agency gained ownership of the whole of 229 P St NW, because later records treat it as one singular property.

Sometime in the future I need to look at document #8000020221, a 32 page contract between the DC RLA and the BSA Limited Partnership recorded June 27, 1980. There are a lot of Truxton Circle properties mentioned in the document. Before I do that I would need to complete the whole WSIC sell off series, analyze Basiliko’s takeover and sell off to DC RLA, which maybe might lead to the mystery document that seems to be missing from this database showing when he sells certain Truxton WSIC and non-WSIC properties to DC RLA. Maybe I need to look at Truxton Circle properties owned by the government. But for right now, I’ll keep chugging away with the 1950s WSIC sell off.