Secrets in stone: 200-year-old Bell Inn's mysterious origins remain elusive

The Bell Inn in Dorchester is one of the oldest buildings in New Brunswick. It might even date back to Acadian settlement, but the specific details are lost in time.

One of the remarkable things about this "very beautiful old stone building" is that it wasn't turned into a museum but remains in use today, says Roadside History host James Upham.

Upham is a historian and educator who enjoys exploring the countryside of rural New Brunswick, travelling its rivers and backroads and occasionally stumbling upon "bits of clay pots" that predate the city of Rome.

Bell Inn is a small, stone building with the appearance of an old cottage, located at the corner of Cape Road and Main Street. It is owned and maintained by the Westmorland Historical Society.

Upham said that even if the precise date of the Bell Inn's construction isn't known, it is "certainly one of the oldest buildings in the province" and "definitely the oldest stone building that's still in use."

A History of the Bell Inn by Eugene Goodrich, accessible on the Westmorland Historical Society's website, says the inn was likely built between 1811 and 1821, based on the first record of its existence. 

Goodrich writes that there was once a Dorchester legend that Bell Inn predates the British conquest of Acadia. In this legend, he writes, the building's core was built in the 1690s and served as a fort, which illicitly traded with Mi'kmaq and Acadians.

Yet, he also writes that "there is no documentary evidence whatsoever for a structure of this date, and considerable evidence that it was, in fact, built later."

Upham, however, believes that some parts of the building may actually date to the time of Acadian settlement. But even if it doesn't, he said "for us here in New Brunswick, a 200-year-old building is really old."

The Bell Inn is currently being used as an apartment building. At different times, it's had different uses, including as a bakery and even as the home base of "a literal shipping empire" run by a prominent local family. 

According to Goodrich's document, it has also been used as a cobbler stall, a confectionery and the privately owned home of the Hickman family. 

The Bell Inn is a place that has stood so long and played host to so many different uses that it has engrained itself in the history of Dorchester, according to Upham.

Once the shiretown of Westmorland County, Dorchester has undergone a lot of changes over the years, shifting size a number of times throughout its history based on its significance at the time. 

Upham said that even "an old citizen of Dorchester, a fella by the name of Percy Palmer, who passed away in 1878," is recorded as trying to figure out who actually built the Bell Inn and where it came from. 

The fact that the Bell Inn, a building with such a rich history, has not been turned into a museum but is still in use is "one of the fascinating things about it," Upham said. 

The inn has been witness, and participant, to all of the changes that Dorchester has gone through over the years. Yet, it remains subtle, said Upham.

 While "the hoity-toities were hoitying their toities" and building houses to live in "made of big fancy rocks," the Bell Inn took a more subtle approach, he said.

"It is a shelter. It is a place for people to go when they need to go someplace."