45.3 F
Naperville
Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Curious Curator – That name ‘Rings a Bell’

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This is the story about two Bells. One is a doctor and the other is an architect.

J. A. Bell

Dr. John A. Bell was born in Ohio in 1838 and came to Illinois with his family in 1853. He was trained as a doctor first in Jacksonville, Illinois, and later in Chicago at the Hahnemann Homoeopathic Medical College. Dr. Bell served in the 10th IL Inf. Reg. in the Civil War. During the war, Dr. Bell was a field surgeon and later served at an army hospital in Cairo, IL. He came to Naperville in 1868.

Dr. Bell practiced medicine in Naperville and taught at his alma mater in Chicago. He is the father-in-law of Dr. W. J. Truitt and Dr. Truitt’s half-brother, Dr. Ruliff L. Truitt (whose home is a Naperville landmark at 48 E. Jefferson). Dr. Bell’s grandson, Dr. John Truitt was also a Naperville physician.

Dr. Bell was an active member of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Naperville (a building built in 1864 and now saved as the Century Memorial Chapel). In 1897, Dr. Bell, a library board member, gave the introductory speech at the grand opening of the Nichols Library.

The Nichols Library was designed by architect Mifflin E. Bell. M.E. Bell was born in 1847 in Pennsylvannia, but I have not yet found a family connection between the doctor and the architect.

In 1876, M. E. Bell came to Springfield, IL with his family and studied architecture with A. H. Piquenard, then chief architect of the current Illinois state capitol. At age 26, Bell took over Piquenard’s role and was appointed the superintendent of construction of the Illinois statehouse.

M. E. Bell

Between 1883-1886, Bell was the Supervising Architect of the US Treasury Department. His name appears on the then-rare metal (aluminum) capstone on the Washington Monument.

Bell entered private practice in Chicago in 1887 and was responsible for the designs of more than three dozen US Custom Houses and Post Offices around the United States. He worked primarily in the Second Empire, Châteauesque, Queen Anne, and Richardsonian Romanesque styles, the latter of which according to Dr. William Brown of Northern Illinois University, “are very few…remaining in Northern Illinois.”

From an anonymous author of a landmark application written in 1980, Bell’s building designs “share a solidity and monumentality [and] were eagerly sought symbols of the importance and bright future of the towns in which they were built.” Between 1972 and 1997, more than a dozen of his buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places including the 1896 DuPage County Courthouse in Wheaton (placed on the Register in 1977).

The Nichols Library in Naperville might have been Bell’s last known commission. The Library closely followed Bell’s entry into DuPage County though Bell may have been aware of the resources Naperville had to offer as earlier as 1893. After John Root of the architectural firm Burnham & Root, Chicago died, Bell replaced Root as the superintendent of construction for the 1893 Columbian Exposition or World’s Fair. In this capacity it is possible that Bell would have been introduced to Naperville through the firm of Martin & Von Oven who supplied drain tile and potentially limestone for the land on which the Fair was to be built.

Both Bells have contributed significantly to the health and culture of Naperville. Little ZuZu Bailey may have thought of angels every time a bell rang, but we Napervillians should think of the Old Nichols Library, Dr. John Bell and architect M. E. Bell every time we hear a bell ring.

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Bryan Ogg
Bryan Ogg
Bryan Ogg is a local historian and curator of local legend, stories and lore.

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