vacant – Truxton Is In Shaw

WSIC-1950 Sell Off- 142 Q Street NW

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. photo of property

Let’s see what happens with 142 Q St NW:

December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Evans, Levin and Taube sold all of 142 Q St NW to Proctor E. Butler.
December 1950 (recorded Jan 18, 1951) Mr. Butler borrowed $6,750 from Colonial Investment Co. favorite trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
July 1952 Mr. Butler lost the home to foreclosure and via an auction the property returned to Evans, Levin and Taube.
August 1952 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold one half of 142 Q St NW to Annie R. and Roosevelt Johnson.
August 1952 the Johnsons borrowed $3,450.31 from trustees Abraham H. Levin and Robert G. Weightman.
August 1952 Evans, Levin and Taube sold the other half to Dora C. and Howard O. Hackett.
August 1952 the Hacketts borrowed $3,250.30 from trustees Levin and Weightman.
February 1952 the Johnson lost their half to foreclosure and via an auction it returned to Evans, Levin and Taube.
May 1954 Evans, Levin, and Taube sold the foreclosed half to divorcee Evelyn S. Brown and widow Louise M. Smith.
May 1954 Smith and Brown borrowed $3,955.38 from trustees Levin and Weightman.
May 1956 the Hacketts lost their half to foreclosure and it returned to the possession of Evans, Levin, and Taube via an auction.
November 1961 new Colonial Investment Co. partner Harry A. Badt, Evans and Taube, their wives, and the survivors of Nathan Levin sold the remaining half of 142 Q to Sophia and George Basiliko.
July 1967 Brown and Smith lost their half of 142 Q to foreclosure and via an auction the survivors of Nathan Levin, Evans and Taube.
July 1970 Evans, the survivors of Nathan Levin, and Taube sold the remaining half to George Basiliko.
August 1970 (document # 1970016172) the Basilikos sold 142 Q St to the DC Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA).
May 1976 the DC Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings condemned the building then cancelled that order in October.
July 1978 (doc #7800024142 ) DC RLA transferred ownership to the Bates Street Associates Inc. as part of a larger property package. They failed to improve the property.

Side note- this house has been vacant for like—- forever.

Memory Lane: 1227 First Street NW

When I posted this back in 2007 it was a vacant house. It has been renovated and brought back to the land of the living.

Looking at the land records there was a lot of…. it looks very confusing and it appears to be an issue with the title in 2009. So from 5 minutes of poking around it appears in 2003 the city condemned the property and the owner did something to cancel that. From 2007-2009 there was a lien on the property, for back taxes. In 2008 Maryland B. Jackson sold her interest in the property to Read Investment Corp. for $160K. I am guessing Read Investment renovated the property because in 2009 they sold the property to Mark Beavers for $409K. And looking at Google Street view from 2008 and 2009 there is a change from a shell of a house to a house with the permits in the window.

It was last sold in 2015. Redfin says that the house is now worth $843,948.

Vacant house next to occupied homes. — 1223-1227 1st Street NW. Taken around December 20, 2007.

2007 post below

Okay, once again because all the cool kids are doing it, another vacant house. This also has been bought this year, so the pitiful state that it is in *might* not the new owner, Ms. M. B. Jackson’s fault. Ms. Jackson of McClean, VA acquired the house in May 2007 for an unknown amount. The unknown makes me wonder if it was a transfer, tax sale foreclosure, or something else. According to the DC.Gov tax assessment site, the place is assessed at $248,570, for 2007, and will go up to $296,570. The $570.00 at the end of both prices make me wonder if the assessor just decided, “OK, add $48K, viola!” Anywho, there is an interesting “Special Assessment” dated 7/30/2004 and 12/13/2007 for $62,213.03. I wonder what that’s all about.
It was built sometime during the turn of the century, as the DC government lists it as being built in 1900, which means they have no clue. My census of 1900 notes aren’t revealing any residents of the 1200 block of 1st, and my maps (which I admit neglects the Hanover/MVSQ crossover area of the TC) don’t show anything, so I have no clue either.

Memory Lane: 219 P St NW

I’ve featured this address before as a former Washington Sanitary Improvement home that was sold to African American buyers in the 1950s. All did not end well as you could gather in 2007 when this photo was taken. There were some questions about ownership that weren’t clear.

Well somebody, or somebodies own it now. I looked on Redfin and it looks like it has been split into 3 units, with 3 separate entries, up from the original 2.

509 O St NW- Finally

I’m hoping this was not a hallucination but in a cab, back from the doctor’s I spotted a pile of rubble where 509 O Street NW stood. Upon seeing it I exclaimed, “Finally”.

I would have investigated further, but I’m contagious and need to avoid people. And stay home and do this thing called resting. So I don’t have an updated image of 509 O Street.

If you are newish, you may wonder, what’s the big deal?

The problem with 509 O Street was that it was stuck as a vacant property for at least 20 years. That means it was vacant when the neighborhood started gentrifying. It was vacant when shells in the area cost half a million. It has been vacant now, still vacant. Now a vacant lot. It had the resistance to development like a Shiloh Baptist property. And even some Shiloh properties not on 9th, managed to get developed.

I have my opinions. And it was my opinion that the woman who owned the property was crazy. Whether bat-shyte crazy or crazy like a fox, I don’t know. But the crazy was the only thing to explain why this property managed to stay vacant despite legal action from the lender, vacant rate taxes and a white hot real estate market.

Just for my records, the lot number for 509 O Street NW is a PITA to locate. In the tax assessment database searching for O St lots on Square 0479, all I could find was lot #0818. In the DC Atlas I found 3, lots 0044, 2001, & 2002. This makes me wonder if the taxes could be wiped out with a shell game of lose the lot number? Looking at the Recorder of Deeds paperwork, that’s a confusing mess and introduced more lot numbers. Lot number 0813 for condo unit (yeah it was a ‘condo’) A. sigh.

So in summary, I seriously hope that pile of rubble was 509 O Street NW. Hopefully, it can move on. Maybe there is a serious developer behind this who will plop another million dollar condo on the spot with quartz countertops and Lutron light switches.

I’ll probably cross post this with DC Vacant Properties.

So after 20+ years Shiloh might do something with its vacant properties

My usual path no longer takes me along 9th Street anymore. Trips to Giant stops right at 8th Street. I might wander over to 9th to see if Buttercream has any ho-hos. And so the search for specialty cake products brought me over to the 1500 block of 9th Street NW and I was surprised to see what looked to be work on Shiloh Baptist Church’s long vacant properties.

This might be old news to some, as I did notice another Shiloh property on the opposite side of the street appeared no longer vacant. And the poster celebrating Victory Village looks, old. When doing a Google search for Victory Village and Shiloh, I came across a 2010 CityPaper article about the project. That doesn’t provide a lot of confidence. What does provide confidence is the scaffolding up along the sidewalk. And the fact that the block is a little less vacant than 10 years ago.

Next to the National Park Service’s Carter G. Woodson House, formerly owned by Shiloh were some 3 story high scaffolding with the banner of a contractor, Thomas Archer on it. That looks a bit more real, and this thing might actually happen. Maybe. Hopefully. Lord willing.

I pray that in 5 years the 1500 block of 9th Street NW is as healthy as the 1500 block of 7th St NW. I hope that Shiloh will no longer be known as the church with all those run down vacant properties. I don’t expect Shiloh to gain the real estate mojo of UHOP, that would be akin to expecting Keneau Reeves to out act Christian Bale.

This has been cross posted with the DC Vacant Properties blog.

BACA on Langston School

The Langston School on the unit block of P St NW has been vacant, and crumbling for years, possibly decades. The building is in such bad condition, charters who get 1st dibs on DC school buildings have given it a hard pass.

So after decades of nothing from the city, the Bates Area Civic Association (BACA) has decided to attempt to tackle the problem. Take a look at the BACA Resolution in Support of Development Proposal for Langston School. To sum it up, BACA says it has been vacant for too long and is hurting the surrounding area, and maybe the National Peace Corps Association seems interested in it, please let them buy it.

Is that thing on top new?

Structure on NJ Ave NW I’ve been watching this building as the wind slowly undresses it, ripping away the Tyvek from its plywood skin.

And today I’m just noticing the roof top access.