Bell Mansion

A Victorian mansion constructed in 1884 for Civil War veteran and lawyer Robert Bell. The building later served as a funeral home starting in 1926 and has been an event center since 2020.

The Bell Mansion is a striking Richardsonian limestone residence at 420 West Wayne Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana, designed by the architectural firm Wing and Mahurin and built in 1884 for Robert Clark Bell. Bell was a distinguished Civil War veteran who served with the Eighth Indiana Regiment, attended the University of Michigan Law School, and became a prominent attorney and state legislator serving in the Indiana General Assembly from 1874 to 1886. His law partner was William H. Miller, who went on to serve as United States Attorney General under President Benjamin Harrison. Bell's wife, Clara Wolfe Bell, helped found the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. The mansion's exterior was constructed entirely of native Indiana limestone, with interior woodwork sourced from the Jacob Klett and Sons Lumber Yard.

Robert Clark Bell died in the home in 1901, and his widow sold the property in 1904 to businessman William K. Nobel. In 1926, Nobel sold the residence to William R. Klaehn, who converted it into the Klaehn Funeral Home. For the next ninety-two years, the mansion served as a funeral home under successive operators including Klaehn, Fahl, and Melton, meaning that thousands of wakes, viewings, and funeral services were conducted within its walls. Ballrooms were added to the west end of the building in 1935 specifically for larger viewings. The funeral home finally closed in 2018, and Belle Castle Enterprise purchased the property in 2020.

The combination of a death in the home, nearly a century of funeral services, and the building's sheer age has produced a rich environment for paranormal activity. New managers Nick Carboni, himself a paranormal investigator, and Angie Sturm began offering ghost tours and investigations when the venue opened in January 2022. Carboni stated plainly that he knows the building is haunted and has evidence to support it. Sturm, initially skeptical, became a believer after participating in investigations and hearing disembodied voices and names spoken by unseen entities. The Olde World Paranormal Society of Fort Wayne conducted investigations at the mansion and captured evidence including spirit box responses, rempod hits indicating electromagnetic disturbances, and visual anomalies on camera.

Visitors to the Bell Mansion report unexplained footsteps echoing through the limestone corridors, chilling apparitions in the former viewing rooms, and the pervasive sense of being watched that is common in buildings with this depth of history. The mansion now operates as an event center hosting weddings, corporate meetings, and yoga classes alongside its paranormal investigation nights, making it one of the few venues in Fort Wayne where guests can celebrate a wedding in the same rooms where the city once said its final goodbyes.