John C. Bell House
- Architect
- Horace Trumbauer
- Style
- Colonial Revival
- City
- Philadelphia, PA
Built in 1906 at 229 South 22nd Street in Rittenhouse Square, this Colonial Revival house was designed by Horace Trumbauer for John C. Bell, who served as Attorney General of Pennsylvania. It later housed his sons John C. Bell Jr.—Lieutenant Governor, Governor, and Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court—and Bert Bell, co-founder of the Philadelphia Eagles and NFL Commissioner.
the building
A family of public men. Three generations of Bells tied to Pennsylvania public life lived here: Attorney General John C. Bell, his son Governor and Chief Justice John C. Bell Jr., and his other son Bert Bell, who co-founded the Philadelphia Eagles and later served as NFL Commissioner.
the style
Trumbauer worked here in the Colonial Revival style, evoking early American domestic architecture for a Rittenhouse Square townhouse rather than one of his grander Gilded Age mansions.
More on Colonial Revivalthe architect
Horace Trumbauer was a leading Philadelphia architect of the Gilded Age, designing residences, hotels, and institutional buildings for the city's elite.
significance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The Bell family sold the house in 1944 and it was converted into apartments; a top-floor balcony collapsed on January 11, 2014, killing one person and seriously injuring two others.
nearby
- First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia
- Edward Drinker Cope House
- Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia
- First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry Armory
- College of Physicians of Philadelphia
- Horace Jayne House