1903 Goss St. - Alice Baskett

The historic portion of the house is on the corner of 19th and Goss Streets. There is a large contemporary addition on the east side with additional housing units. The building has been converted into condominiums.

Alice Baskett Iived here at 1903 Goss Street from the mid-1920s until she transitioned into the next life in 1953. Born in Missouri in 1865, she married young at age 15 to her first husband Clark Morrision. Clark played the fiddle quite well, and Alice joined him on the piano. They never imagined in their early days together the musical prodigies that would be born to them. Several of their children as you have learned attained musical fame.

The family came to Colorado in spurts. Alice’s two sons Lee and George came as boys in 1900, and she did not see them again until she arrived in 1914. Widowed twice, she married George Baskett who took care of her children like they were his own. In those days Black students in the South had few options for college so some came to Boulder. Although CU admitted them, they were banned from student housing and many restaurants would not serve them, as you have heard from others on this tour.

Alice set up her home as the Baskett Boarding House, offering room and board, and soon many of her neighbors did the same—and the Little Rectangle was bursting at the seams with students and neighbors, taking solace in each other especially in the Ku Klux Klan days of the 1920s. They also took solace in their churches. Alice soon became involved with Second Baptist Church [Stop 16] meetings, and in 1940 she organized the church women as the Busy Bees to keep it going strong. She was always the type of person who saw what needs to be done and did it! The Bees renamed themselves the Queen Alice Missionary Society in her honor that may have been a highlight of her 88 years much of which was spent right here at 1903 Goss Street, the largest house in the Little Rectangle.

Directions to Stop 13: Stop 13 is catty-cornered to Stop 12 located on the southwest corner of 19th and Goss streets.