Solomon Bell House

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One of the most recognizable houses of old Walpack fame is the old Solomon Bell house. The home was once situated on Mountain Road just outside Walpack Center. The land on which the house was built was owned by John and Anna Symmes, parents to the bride of former president Willaim Henry Harrison. Anna Symmes is interred at Walpack cemetary, near where the home used to stand.

Solomon Bell built the home around 1820. The Bell family was well known in Walpack, having been there since around 1700. The Gordon family also occupied the house at some point in its history. The patriarch of the Gordon family was one of the men who founded the Walpack fire department.

The entire town of Walpack and several other towns were left vacant after the Army Corp of Engineers proposed a new dam be built along the Delaware River. A similar project created the Round Valley Reservoir, which readers of this blog may recognize from my write up on the Long Pond Ironworks. The Tocks Island Dam Project never came to fruition, leaving dozens and dozens of historic buildings vacant. Unfortunately with nobody left to care for the home it fell into severe disrepair. Several small fires occurred over the years, and vandals smashed out all the windows and punched holes in the walls. I only had a chance to visit the home once around 2009. Eventually the building was declared a nuisance, and was demolished in 2011.

Since the home was demolished many others in town have fallen victim to arson and other forms of vandalism. The National Park Service has no funds to maintain the structures, and very few if any attempts have been made to secure any of the buildings over the years. Only time will tell what will happen to the rest of the historic Walpack structures.