James Richard Bell was a prominent dentist in Cleveland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1900, he commissioned noted local architect George J. Hardway to design a large residence[2] on E. 89th Street in the southeast quadrant of the Hough neighborhood, one of the city's oldest settled areas and which at that time was inhabited largely by white, middle-class and upper-middle-class residents.

The increasingly elaborate embellishments of Victorian architecture had fallen out of favor with homeowners and architects in northeast Ohio by the late 1890s, and Bell and Hardway agreed on a home that was simple to the point of being severe.

However, it deviates from this style by featuring a contemporary massing and relying on plain exterior walls.

[4] The front of the house is roughly square, with an east-facing gable, a single dormer on the south side, and steep roof pitch.

[2] The narrow-depth center section of the house features projecting polygonal bay windows on all three floors on the south side.

The rear of the building, which is about as large as the front section, returns to the square plan, although it features two dormers on the north side and none on the south.