HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
An 1884 Richardsonian limestone mansion that spent 93 years as a funeral home and now books ghost hunts in the original embalming room.
2422 Broadway, Fort Wayne, IN 46807
Research updated September 2026
Age
18+
Cost
$$
Ticketed ghost hunt events; see website for current pricing and availability
Access
Limited Access
Multi-story limestone mansion with stairs; basement embalming room accessible via staircase
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1884 · Richardsonian Romanesque Architecture Fort Wayne · Civil War Veteran Residence · Long-Running Funeral Home Heritage
Robert Clark Bell, a Civil War veteran, commissioned the limestone mansion at 2422 Broadway in 1884. The Richardsonian Romanesque design — massive stone blocks, arched entryways, corner tower — was the architectural vocabulary of wealth and permanence in the Gilded Age Midwest. Bell's family occupied the building as a private residence in its early decades.
In 1926, the building passed into use as a funeral home, a function it would serve continuously until 2018. That 93-year span is the defining fact of the building's character: it outlasted multiple operators, multiple generations of funeral practice, and saw more human mortality pass through its rooms than most buildings do in any use. The original embalming room in the basement was retained and the funeral equipment preserved when new owners acquired the property.
A couple purchased the Bell Mansion in 2021 with the intent of reopening it as an event venue with a paranormal twist. WPTA-21 Alive covered the reopening and documented the building's history. Haunt Jaunts, a paranormal travel outlet, covered the Bell Mansion as a new ghost hunting destination, reporting on EVP captures and disembodied voices documented by prior investigators.
Sources
The Bell Mansion's paranormal reputation comes primarily from its documented function: 93 years as a working funeral home with an intact embalming room. Investigators who accessed the building before its reopening as an event venue captured EVP recordings and reported hearing disembodied voices, particularly in the basement spaces.
Haunt Jaunts documented the building's investigation history and described the embalming room as one of the most active areas — a not-uncommon assessment for rooms associated with death preparation. The specific EVP content and voice content have not been published in detail in available sources.
No named historical entity has been confirmed in the Bell Mansion accounts. The paranormal activity, to the extent documented, is ambient rather than tied to an identified individual — a pattern consistent with buildings where many unrelated deaths have passed through rather than a single significant event.
Investigators access the mansion's rooms including the original basement embalming room and preserved funeral equipment from the building's 93-year run as a funeral home. EVP sessions and investigator accounts documented in prior visits.
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