Bell was born in
McLean County, Illinois, on March 31, 1858, and was educated at West Town Boarding School,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. In 1880, he married Helen Louise "Nellie" Wickham (1858–1913), and they moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1884.[5]
Bell began his career as a carpenter and worked on the construction of the post office in Council Bluffs. He and John Kent established a partnership, and won the competition to design the
Montana State Capitol.[6] They opened an office in
Helena, Montana, for the project.
Bell moved to
Minneapolis, Minnesota and set up a partnership with Menno Detweiler.[5] From 1904 until Detweiler's death in 1907, Bell & Detweiler built courthouses throughout the midwest including
Brown County Courthouse (Wisconsin),[7]Delaware County Courthouse (Iowa),[8] and
Martin County Courthouse (Minnesota).[9] In 1908, Bell joined architects George Augustus Chapman and William W. Tyrie in the firm Bell, Tyrie and Chapman, where he remained until 1913. Bell worked alone, with only brief partnerships, for the rest of his career and died on May 10, 1932, in Minneapolis.[5]
^
abcLathrop, Alan K. (2010). Minnesota architects : a biographical dictionary. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 16–17.
ISBN978-0-8166-4463-6.