hotel, since renamed the Bellevue House. The Odd Fellows, who were planning a large brick building of their own on the same site, made a deal with Bell to swap their property with the lot directly to the south, where their new lodge, now known as the Barnes Building would eventually rise. On April 23, 1889, Bell took his nephew, William M. Coffman, on a buggy ride to share his plans for the first time. The next morning, his demeanor had changed and he claimed to be suffering from indigestion. He went to his realty office in Frye's Opera House as he usually did, locked the door behind him and shot himself in the head. A neighboring merchant heard the shot and rushed across the street to tell a pharmacist that a murder must have occurred. After summoning a doctor, several men broke down Bell's door to find him dead by his own hand. He was 35. A suicide note to Eva was discovered stating that he did not consider life with poor health worth living and expressed sorrow that he must take this way out. The Bell Building Eva carried out her husband's plans, drawn by local architect Elmer Fisher, and dedicated the building in her husband's name. Completed in 1890, the building adorned in stone, pressed red brick shipped in from San Francisco and red Terra cotta cost $50,000 ($ in dollars) and was hailed as one of the showiest buildings in the city. The building contained two store rooms on the first floor and 65 apartments above, first known as the Bell Apartments then later The Belle Apartments; the owners having parlayed Bell's name into the French word for "fine" or "pretty". The first commercial tenants included the Woodhouse – Longuet & Co. Hardware store and Rafael Sartori's liquor store. Newspapers later noted the building as having the "dour, brooding aspect of the unhappy man that built it." During the Alaska Gold Rush of 1897, the Bell served as a hotel and dance hall. Pool tables were manufactured in the building in the early 1900s. In the early morning of May 12, 1913, a fire from a nearby building destroyed the roof and upper floor of the Bell Building, leading to the loss of most of the architectural elements above the roof line. At the time of the fire the top floor held a fully occupied boarding