This post serves no purpose other than to have a list of who owned what lots on Square 507. If you are interested in who lived there, check out the Square 507 (bounded by NJ, RI, FL, 4th and R Sts NW, with Richardson Place in the middle) page at TruxtonCircle.org.
This is from the National Archives Catalog for RG 351 entry P1, General Assessment Washington City, 1933-1934, File NAID 143492761.
If you want to match “most” of the lots with whats above, go to DC Property Quest.
I’ve been doing this neighborhood history thing for well over a decade and I have learned some lessons. Doing these mini genealogies and digging into the land records, newspaper clippings and other research I discover the people who lived here were complicated people. Just as complicated as you or I.
Recently, I’ve seen a couple people bring up the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, claiming women could not own land, have a credit card or bank account in their name, etc, before 1974. Really? But several things can be true at the same time. There are women now who are unbanked/ debanked. My sister-in-law was unbanked until she was able to get POA over my mother-in-law’s nest egg & bank account which she drained before abandoning the old woman.*
Anyway, Truxton Circle has many female homeowners and landladies who owned property in their own name with nary a man in sight. Eloyce Gist, never had any of her husbands’ names on the documents. The only man who ever had his name on 134 R St NW was her father when it was purchased with her parent’s help in the 1920s. Dr. Euphemia Haynes-Lofton, owned lots of property in DC in her own name. Then there was Kat Miller who owned several properties as well. Followed by all the divorcees, widows and single women who purchased WSIC houses in the 1950s. Speaking of WSIC homes, I am reminded of pre-WSIC owners Marie Clarice Eustis and Louise Eustis Hitchcock.
Dr. Carrie H. Thomas, who seemed to have inherited 1629 NJ Ave NW from her father, never married. Sometime before 1910 her father had died and she died in 1930, which meant she owned the house free and clear for at least 20 years. She had a career and a life.
It seems to reason that if women were owning property, acting as landladies or real estate investors or plain old homeowners they would have bank accounts. I’ve seen enough mortgages where women held the debt in their own name, sometimes even when they were still married. All well before 1974.
Believe it or not, a woman in say 1920 be unmarried and financially independent. She could be like Mary Harvey Chiswell who was instrumental in changing the 1700 block of New Jersey Avenue in 1920.
She did not marry until she was well into her early fifties. In the 1941 article announcing her nuptials to Maj. Joseph Byers II, she was described as a “prominent Washington career woman”. What she did on New Jersey Ave NW wasn’t her only real estate investment, she was all over the DMV.
I really do need to do a thing on Dr. Haynes-Lofton as I have seen her bank account info.
These women did not need the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. They managed to get along quite fine without it. They owned property. Some had careers. Many were getting on with the business of living (and eventually dying).
*Why yes. My MIL has been dead for 8 years, and we are still hurt and bitter. We forgave but did not forget, and we moved on. Like one does from any major injury.
Let’s Run down the ownership of 401 R St NW (lot 1 or 800)
There were several transactions for Lot 1 but it seems that the property for lot 800 did not change hands until the estate of Louise Gordon sold it.
I was feeling lazy and was going to let Ancestry tell me who Louisa Gordon was. She was born in Germany June 1856. And then I discovered a mystery and I couldn’t pass up a good detective adventure.
I discovered that John H. Gordon was her third husband. Their 1902 marriage license had a 33 year old John with no previous marriages and a 45 year old Louise Voegler with two previous marriages. Prior to John H. Gordon, she was married to German born John A. Voegler. Prior to him, she (nee Steinmann??) was married to Frank York in 1885, who died at the age of 45 on September 6, 1890. Francis York was a bartender/ restaurateur. June 1892, Widow L. York married John Adam Voegler. Mr. Voegler died at the age of 44 on October 19, 1900 at his home at 407 Q St NW. John Gordon died in 1914 at the age of 45. The funeral was held at his home at 1601 New Jersey Ave NW.
I think I see a pattern. The three husbands die at the age of 44 or 45 and two years later she remarries (except after Gordon’s death). They all seemed to be in the saloon/ bar/ restaurant business. Was she a black widow? It is a little suspicious that in John Gordon’s will, which he wrote in 1902, he leaves everything to his wife.
Just briefly on Eftehia and John Swagart. Efethia was born Efethia Mary Basiliko. Yes, her brother was George Basiliko.
I think I have most of the major players who were involved with the sell of the WSIC houses, except Robert Weightman.
Colonial Investment Co. was headed by president Nathan Levin. The VP was Nathaniel J. Taube, who also served as the president of Colonial Mortgage Corp. and the treasurer was James B. Evans. Abraham H. Levin was the legal advisor and general manager of both Colonial Mortgage and Investment, as well as Nathan’s brother. Harry A. Badt was appears in the records after Nathan Levin’s death in 1956. Prior to that Badt was the treasurer in charge of building inspection for Colonial Mortgage.
Abraham Levin and Robert G. Weightman’s names appear in the loan records for the WSIC homes sold to Black home buyers, as well as the foreclosure documents. So three paragraphs in, who was Robert G. Weightman?
Robert Gillain Weightman was born 12/11/1906 in Philadelphia to Helen Hoskin and Robert G. Weightman (1877-1909). He was baptized in the Episcopal church in 1908. In 1930 he was 23 years old, married to wife Eleanore and working as a credit clerk for a gas station in Camden, NJ. In the 1940 census he was living at 800 Talyor St NE, with wife Eleanore and 8 year old son James. At that time he worked as an accountant for a finance company. During WWII he remained at 800 Taylor St NE working for Security Finance Co.
Looking at the 1950 census the family had moved out to Chillium, MD in PG county. He was working as an accountant but for a real estate company. We can guess the company was Colonial Mortgage Corp.
Weightman only appeared in the local papers with Abraham Levin for foreclosures.
Weightman moved back to Pennsylvania and there he died in 1994.
Nathaniel John Taube (1893-1975) was the vice president of the Colonial Investment Company and the president of the Colonial Mortgage and Colonial Construction Company. This is the company that sold homes to African American buyers in 1950-1951 Truxton Circle that were formerly WSIC rentals.
Taube was born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in Philadelphia, PA in either 1893 or 1894, there are conflicting dates, Jacob and Rose Taube. Looking at Ancestry, the 1910 and 1930 census has him as in Philadelphia, later working in the real estate business.
He finally appears in Washington, DC in the 1940 census. At that time he was living at 6432 Luzon Ave NW in the Brightwood neighborhood. He resided there alone with a live in maid. His occupation was that of executive in real estate. The newspapers has him in DC in July 1938, involved in a traffic accident, where he was sentenced to a 10 day jail sentence for failing to give the right of way. The two women he hit sued him for $20,000.
The 1950 census has him in Margate City, NJ. His obit has him dying in Margate City and noting he was the president of the Colonial Mortgage Co . in Washington, DC.
Whereas James B. Evans kept a low profile, Nathaniel was in the papers a lot. Most for run of the mill legal real estate stuff, but interestingly he was also named in a Balm Suit. A balm or heart balm suit is an outdated legal term for a civil lawsuit where someone can sue a former lover, partner or a third party who came between romantic or married partners. In this case, the paper said Taube was living at 6432 Luzon Ave NW in 1946 and the The Washington Daily News wrote that Taube of the Colonial Investment Co. was being sued by John B. Williams of Temple Hills, MD for luring Mrs. Williams away. He was sued for $75,000, 1946 money. The Times Herald had more juicy details. Long story short, Taube was having an affair with Elizabeth Williams, damaging the Williams’ marriage. The Williams had a 12 year old daughter, who the Times names, which makes the story sad. Sort of.
In the 1950 census, where he was in New Jersey, his wife’s name is Elizabeth and his fifteen year old daughter had the same name as the twelve year old. It appears, from his obituary he and Elizabeth had a son, John F. Taube. It’s interesting what human stories get unearthed when doing genealogy. So Taube was a wife stealer. Who knows what kind of marriage the Williams had, maybe he was a rescuer, maybe he was a thief.
Anyway, back to DC.
His name appeared often with the Colonial brand. In several of the large block ads his name would appear, along with stories about developments and projects Colonial was building. Colonial was involved in the growth of the DC metro area with projects in DC, MoCo, PG and Northern Virginia.
HT to Shaw Rez for pointing this out on Redfin.
1530 9th St NW is for sale for a nice round $1 million dollars.
I occasionally listen to a podcast by an ADHD pastor of a dying California church. Recently on his podcast, he noted how dire the situation was (aging congregation, costs of operation, etc), went into some detail and said that some hard decisions had to be made. I thought of that when my aunt, a member of Shiloh Baptist, mentioned how things were there.
Shiloh’s 9th Street properties have been an albatross around their necks. Looking at some of my old photos, I came across one from 2018 advertising a concept Victory Village.
Well that didn’t work out. Going back to that podcast, in that situation the CA church had property that they ‘could’ develop themselves, but he pointed out they wouldn’t necessarily make good landlords. As a former landlady, landlording is a service that requires certain skills. Not everyone has those sets of skills. UHOP has those skills. Shiloh does not and has proven incapable over the past 30 years that I’ve been in the DC area.
Instead of leaning into what is going on in the neighborhood, Shiloh, for their own reasons, have pushed back. As a result, when the taxes become too much or too the property too burdensome scattered properties get sold. It was great when they sold properties to the National Park Service for the Carter G. Woodson house.
Shaw Rez pointed out that having the whole row of vacant properties would make a good development deal. The reasons why the church holds on to these vacant and crumbling properties would make such a deal unlikely.
Shiloh has to make some hard decisions as their congregation gets older and lives further away. Nobody likes hard decisions.
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.
Looking back I can’t seem to find a deed transferring 54 Bates and other properties on the square from the DC Redevelopment Agency (DC RLA) to the Bates Street Associates (BSA).
So when 54 Bates was reviewed earlier this year, it ended with the whole thing sold to George Basiliko. It may have eventually fell into the hands of the DC RLA and then BSA, but as mentioned before, no deed. Instead, there’s a contract. Between 1970-1973 a lot of people on square 615 sold their properties to DC RLA. The DC RLA in turn had a contract with Bates Street Associates. One of those contracts was document # 8000020221. There’s also document 7800024140, but it seems the first couple of pages are missing.
It doesn’t help that 54 Bates is also lot 814 and formerly part of lot 173. It makes tracing the deed, for me, messy. Lot 173 was in the possession of DC RLA, lot 814 was not. But somehow, because I haven’t found the right documents, it goes from Basiliko’s ownership to BSA. Since I’ve seen properties Basiliko sold to BSA directly, I’m going to guess this is what happened.
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.
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
