The Belmont property was purchased in 1903 by Ralph P. Barnard and Guy H. Johnson, Washington lawyers who served as trustees for a syndicate consisting of themselves and two bankers, R. Golden Donaldson and Frank P.

But just months later, they sold the entire property on June 23, 1906, to William J. Sheetz, a white mechanical engineer who was acting as a straw buyer for a group of four Black investors: Alexander L. Satterwhite, James L. Neill, Michel O. Dumas, and Charles S. Cuney.

"Colored People Attention", it said, inviting African Americans to invest in "an ideal suburban lot in the most beautiful and most rapidly improving section of Northwest Washington, Belmont Chevy Chase."

"[4] At least 28 African Americans bought lots, including a Civil War veteran, a Methodist preacher, members of Washington, D.C.'s Black elite society, and several single women.

On July 5, The Washington Times reported that residents of Friendship Heights, Drummond, Somerset, and Bethesda were taking up arms to stop the sale of plots to Black people.

On Sunday, July 15, Satterwhite was arrested by the town marshal of Somerset for selling real estate without a license, which carried a fine of up to $30,000.

Within a month, and without telling the other members of the Syndicate, Satterwhite sold his shares in the Belmont lands to Ewell J. Nevitt and entered into a trust agreement with Babbitt.

[12] Twenty years later, the Chevy Chase Land Company petitioned the court to erase a subdivision called Belmont from the Montgomery County property books, following a settlement with a Howard University trustee named Michel O.