One of the saddest events in Nyack’s history unfolded when the melodic bells of the Bell Memorial Tower in South Nyack fell silent. Demolished to make way for the New York State Thruway, the tower’s destruction silenced a beloved village sound. Adelaide Bell, a wealthy New Yorker, built the chapel and tower in tribute to her husband, Isaac Bell. They stood on a 1.5-acre property at the corner of Clinton and Hillside Avenues, where she also established a rest home for working women called Heart’s Ease Cottage.
Few villagers ever entered the private chapel, but everyone enjoyed the hourly Westminster chimes. In late 1953 and early 1954, workers relocated the bells, a clock, a pipe organ, and Gothic stained-glass windows to other locations. Today, the soft chimes have been replaced by Thruway traffic. Colored light once filtered through stained glass; now, high-beam headlights glare. The stone tower gave way to a concrete sound barrier, and the stately clock was replaced by automated toll gantries.
Adelaide Bell
Adelaide Mott Bell died in Paris in 1901, just two years after the tower’s completion. She was the daughter of Dr. Valentine Mott, widely considered the “father of surgery” in New York City. The Mott family lived in an Italianate brownstone mansion at #1 Gramercy Park. Dr. Mott co-founded NYU’s School of Medicine and served as president of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Considered one of the most beautiful women in New York, Adelaide met Isaac Bell on a packet ship returning from Europe with her father when she was just 16. They married and remained together for more than 50 years.
Isaac Bell
Isaac Bell, a wealthy steamboat owner, became a prominent New York figure. He reportedly declined a nomination for mayor and served on the Board of Education as well as the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections. In 1867, he helped build an Inebriate Asylum on Ward’s Island, part of a now-abandoned movement to treat alcoholism by court-ordered institutionalization. During the Civil War, Isaac and Adelaide co-founded the Union Defense Committee of New York and supported the war effort. Adelaide even traveled to the front lines to care for the wounded.
Shortly after the war, Isaac Bell founded the Old Dominion Steamship Company. One of its iron steamboats, Isaac Bell, ran between New York City and Norfolk, Virginia, and Newport, Rhode Island, for over fifty years. He also founded the New York and Havre Steam Packet Company and Bellevue Medical College.
The Bell Family
The family lived in a large mansion at 247 Fifth Avenue and had four children. Their son, Isaac Bell Jr., became a successful cotton investor and one of the founding investors in the Commercial Cable Company, which laid a transatlantic cable. He retired at 31, later served as U.S. Minister to the Netherlands, and became brother-in-law to the publisher of the New York Herald. His Newport home, designed by McKim, Mead & White in the arts and crafts style, is now a National Historic Landmark.
The Bell’s Fifth Avenue home (upper left), Isaac Bell Jr. (right), Isaac Bell Jr.’s Newport cottage, and the Bell tomb in Greenwood Cemetery.
The Church Bells of Nyack
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, church bells rang throughout Nyack, making a bell tower feel both familiar and welcomed. The Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian Churches once rang their bells antiphonally. Later, St. Paul’s Methodist on South Broadway and St. Ann’s on Jefferson Street added bells, while Grace Church installed memorial chimes. The Wayside Chapel on River Road had a single bell. Still, the Bell Memorial Chapel stood out for its melodic Westminster chimes.
Acquiring the Property
In 1898, Adelaide Bell purchased a shaded lot in South Nyack to create Heart’s Ease Cottage and the Bell Memorial Chapel. She envisioned the site as a charitable home for women in tribute to her husband’s legacy. Known as the Weston property and once the farm of John Green, the land featured a three-story house with a mansard roof, then occupied by the Reverend Hagemon and his family. Its proximity to Dr. Simpson’s newly founded Christian Alliance Institute, located just uphill, may have drawn her interest to the South Nyack location.
Heart’s Ease Cottage
Adelaide Bell fully renovated the house on the Weston property. She added a broad staircase and extended the front porch, which opened into a large entrance hall with a fireplace. A library flanked one end of the hall, featuring tall French windows, etchings, and watercolors. Behind it were the rector’s quarters and a small chapel, used until the Bell Memorial Chapel was built.
The top two floors held four bedrooms. The front windows faced South Mountain, while the rear windows overlooked the Hudson River. A basement-level kitchen and dining room filled the back, where the land sloped downward, allowing for open access. The home soon became known as Heart’s Ease Cottage.
Women could stay year-round for a modest fee, with approval from the rector. If space allowed, they could extend their stays beyond a fortnight. Dr. Toms of Nyack provided medical care for the guests.
Adelaide Bell designed the home to offer comfort, peace, and dignity to working women. Above the fireplace, a portrait of Isaac Bell hung beside a bronze plaque that read:
“To be a place of refreshing for the weary and of strength to the weak, this home is given in memory of Isaac Bell, a lover of his kind, by Adelaide M. Bell.”
Adelaide Bell
The Pavilion
Adelaide Bell added a second building northeast of the cottage: the Pavilion. A covered walkway on both floors connected it to the main house. The basement included bathrooms and a laundry. The first floor featured a 30-foot-square dining room, a lavatory, and a sitting room. The second floor housed six dormitory rooms with three beds each. A vented attic space improved ventilation. A broad front porch offered views of the gardens, which also included swings and flower beds.
St. Ignatius Church in Manhattan used the Pavilion each summer, sending groups of 18 women at a time for two-week retreats.
Bell Memorial Chapel
Architect Charles Haight, who also designed Grace Episcopal Church in Nyack, created the Bell Memorial Chapel. Known for his work at Columbia and Yale Universities and for many Gothic Revival churches, Haight brought gravitas to the design. Local carpenter Charles McElroy and mason John Magee—a skilled Irish immigrant who had worked on Carnegie Steel and bridges in Panama—led construction.
Located on the north side of the property, the 20-by-40-foot chapel featured Indiana limestone walls, Gothic doors, and cathedral windows. A 30-foot tower anchored the building. Inside, exposed pine beams, walnut-stained woodwork, and blue-painted walls created a solemn, elegant space. A large pipe organ, likely built by the Tallman piano and organ factory in Nyack, filled the chapel with music.
A small 16-by-10-foot side structure with Gothic windows served as a porch and led into a raised, blue-painted chancel. Behind it, the altar stood one foot higher than the chancel itself.
Legacy Additions Including Bells and a Clock
After Adelaide Bell’s death in 1901, a stained-glass window imported from Germany was installed above the altar in her memory. Workers also installed a set of Westminster bells and an elaborate kerosene-powered clock—one of only two of its kind ever manufactured.
Opening Day at the Chapel
On November 11, 1899, the Bishop of Delaware consecrated the chapel on behalf of the Bishop of New York. About 40 guests traveled from the city in a special train car for the 11:30 a.m. ceremony. A choir from St. Ignatius performed, and Victor Baier from Trinity Church played the organ. Pink roses and candles decorated the altar. After the service, guests toured the cottage and enjoyed lunch before returning to the city that afternoon.
Demolished to Make Room for the Thruway
The Bell Memorial Tower stood directly in the path of the New York State Thruway. Demolishing the solid stone structure in 1953 proved difficult. Photos show the slow dismantling of its thick stone walls.
Carillon expert George Bachofen of Tenafly removed the bells and the clock. The Clark organ factory in Nyack took the hand-pumped organ for renovation and added a motor. James Jackson salvaged the stained-glass windows and sold them to local churches. Grace Episcopal Church received the chapel clock, chimes, and bell and installed them in 1958.
The Thruway contractor searched for a buyer for the cottage, but none stepped forward. Despite the odds, the cottage may have survived. Local reports suggest it was one of several buildings moved elsewhere in South Nyack during Thruway construction.
Views of the demolition of the Bell Chapel Memorial tower, nearby house destruction, and a demolished neighborhood along South Broadway. Curtesy of the Nyack Library
Epilogue
The loss of the Bell Memorial Chapel—its bells silenced in the name of progress—remains a poignant chapter in Nyack’s history. So too fades the memory of the philanthropic Bell family, whose vision of beauty and refuge now echoes only in history.
Mike Hays lived in the Nyacks for 38-years. He worked for McGraw-Hill Education in New York City for many years. Hays serves as President of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, Vice-President of the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, and Upper Nyack Historian. Married to Bernie Richey, he enjoys cycling and winters in Florida. You can follow him on Instagram as UpperNyackMike.
Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Sun River Health and Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty. Sun River Health is a network of 43 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) providing primary, dental, pediatric, OB-GYN, and behavioral health care to over 245,000 patients annually. Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty is the lower Hudson Valley’s Leader in Luxury. Located in the charming Hudson River village of Nyack, approximately 22 miles from New York City. Our agents are passionate about listing and selling extraordinary properties in the Lower Hudson Valley, including Rockland and Orange Counties, New York.
