Patrick and Christine Campbell grew up in Southeast D.C. listening to stories about their great-grandfather, Wesley Plater: a sharecropper, unofficial lawman and homeowner in Charlotte Hall, Maryland.
Mixed in with the many stories was one piece of business advice that stuck with the siblings: “Real estate is a long game.”
“Hold on to property versus selling it, especially if they’re in places that are not necessarily overly favorable to Black Americans,” Patrick said, recalling his great-grandfather’s guidance.
That guidance is now paying off for the siblings, who are the new owners of the Keystone Inn, an historic eight-bedroom bed-and-breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The duo teamed up with their older brother Stephen to buy the 111-year-old inn at the height of the pandemic.
First Black-owned B&B in town
Their purchase made the Keystone Inn the only Black-owned bed-and-breakfast in the historic town. The siblings hired two innkeepers, one of which worked full time — but they split the property management and marketing duties, like planning and hosting the inn’s first murder mystery weekend later this month, amongst themselves.
“It’s hard work if we didn’t enjoy it,” Patrick said.
At 56, Patrick is Christine’s younger brother — but there’s no sibling rivalry. He says he and his siblings actually enjoy being around each other: “We recognize that we’re a bit of an oddity of three siblings that continue to work very well together.”
The inn’s close proximity to famed Civil War and Underground Railroad sites make it highly attractive to history buffs, couples and families.
“We wanted to make sure we were adding to the story,” Patrick said. “There’s a rich story of African Americans who were living in Gettysburg even before the war began. And I know that is very appreciative of many the guests that stop by the inn.”
A deep history for this family of ‘natural hosts’
The close-knit siblings also purchased the B&B as a central gathering spot for their family during holidays. Those events often remind them of their grandmother, Flossie Plater Campbell, whose two-story brick rowhome on Walter Street in the District was the place of many large Thanksgiving dinners.
“Our family are natural hosts,” Christine said. “That’s what we do. We welcome people in. So, Patrick being the businessman said, ‘If we’re going to have this property, let’s make sure we live our values.’”
In 1927, Flossie and her husband Leroy Campbell bought the home on Walter Street for $4,000. The neighborhood was segregated, with many of the Black homeowners on the street working as maids, servants and groundskeepers for Lincoln Park’s white families.
“I actually have a news article that shows that when these houses were built, they were built for colored people,” Christine said. “And my grandmother was one of the first owners.”
Then, in the early 1950s, the couple had the opportunity to purchase a house a couple blocks away on Kentucky Avenue SE. It was owned by a white family, who employed Flossie for years as a maid. The Campbells bought it and later bequeathed it to their grandchildren.
The lesson to hold on to property continues as Stephen owns the Kentucky Avenue property and Christine owns the Walter Street home.
But the neighborhood doesn’t look as it once did — only about two or three original Black owners are left on the street. Most of the homeowners are white and the value of each house has skyrocketed to nearly one million dollars, Christine said.
“It shows the brilliance of my great-grandfather, my grandfather and grandmother to ensure that we knew the value of property,” she told WTOP. “My niece spends a lot of time at my house and jokes that it will be hers one day. But it’s not a joke. It will be hers one day.”
Looking toward the future
The Campbells will bequeath something else to their young family members: a corner market.
Two years ago, Mott’s Market, the neighborhood bodega, near the family’s Walter Street property, went on the market.
Christine said the corner store had a special place among the family. Her father, Plater Campbell, would buy candy with money his mother, Flossie, had given him for church.
“It’s always been a part of our history,” Christine said. “At one point there were four or five Plater families living on Walter Street. So, it was kind of a hub. I had great uncles who played numbers down at Motts.”
The siblings teamed up with about 60 other Lincoln Park neighbors, formed a limited liability corporation and bought shares to purchase the store for a little more than one million dollars.
The newly renovated mart is set to open this summer with a coffee and sandwich shop that it didn’t previously have.
The purchase proves that their great-grandfather’s time-tested real estate advice is still thriving.
“That’s the legacy we pass on to the next generation,” Christine said. “Having a sense of home and family and a place where you are fully at ease and comfortable is the way we live our lives.”
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