East 5th Street: Home of General and Mrs. M. F. Bell

A well-known architect, Gen. Bell practiced his profession from 1869 until his death in 1929. His designs include Jesse Hall and the Frances Quadrangle at the University of Missouri or the main buildings of Synodical College, William Woods University, and the Missouri School for the Deaf as well as many commercial and residential properties in Fulton’s historic districts remain important parts of our heritage.

Bell had many interests beyond architecture and actively participated in the life of the community. In 1882, he was instrumental in securing a telephone exchange for Fulton (only the fifth in the state) which he managed for almost 50 years. In one biography, Bell is characterized as a man of high character and great energy; another praises him as “public spirited and progressive” citing his repeated election to the City Council as evidence of his concern for the public good. In 1897, the governor appointed him adjutant general of the state, a position he held for four years and which bestowed on him the title of General.

In a 1903 article in Ladies Home Journal, Bell documents the construction of his home on East 5th Street, offering it as an example to encourage all wage earners of the possibility of home ownership so long as they possess “a strong determination to win.” He recounts that he arrived in Missouri with only $2.50 in his pocket, having saved for the railway ticket from his pay of 12 cents a day (plus board) as a builder’s apprentice in his native Maryland. Bell began working in Mexico and spent a brief time in Lawrence, Kansas, before locating permanently to Fulton in 1871.

Now earning $60 a month, Bell was soon able to make a down payment on a “desirable town lot.” He writes that after paying off its $600 cost, he was eager to build a house there, “realizing that vacant lots were unproductive and a bad investment for a poor man.” In 1873, he married Maria Dreps, adding another incentive to secure “a comfortable home.”

During the first year of their marriage, Fred and Maria rented two rooms while construction of their future residence got underway. The “determination to win” of which Bell speaks in the article is evident in the routine he embraced to complete the four room home. Every evening except Sunday, with Maria holding a lamp for him, he worked until 11:00 p.m. on the flooring and woodwork in an old kitchen that served as his home workshop. He rose each morning at 4:00 a.m., directing his attention to the house until 6:30 a.m. when it was time for him to return to his regular job. Once they moved into the house in 1874, he often spent his spare time crafting furniture for their new residence.

After the Bells two daughters, Beulah and Kathryn, were born, the family needed more room and Bell began adding on to the original house. By the time of the 1903 article, nine rooms had been added, “fitted with electric light, water, baths, and steam heating”. Throughout the article, Bell insists on the importance of hard work and the generous help of others that enabled him not only to finish his family home, but also to acquire rental properties such as the three cottages which he built in the 1890s to the west of his own residence.