 Melville House at the Bell Homestead National Historic Site, Alexander Graham Bell's first home in North America | |
  Location in southern Ontario | |
| Established | 1910 |
|---|---|
| Location | 94 Tutela Heights Road Brantford, Ontario |
| Coordinates | 43°06′27″N 80°16′13.5″W / 43.10750°N 80.270417°W |
| Owner | Parks & Recreation Department, City of Brantford |
| Website | www |
| Official name | Bell Homestead National Historic Site |
| Designated | 1996 |
The Bell Homestead National Historic Site, located in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, also known by the name of its principal structure, Melville House, was the first North American home of Professor Alexander Melville Bell and his family, including his last surviving son, scientist Alexander Graham Bell. The younger Bell conducted his earliest experiments in North America there, and later invented the telephone at the Homestead in July 1874. In a 1906 speech to the Brantford Board of Trade, Bell commented on the telephone's invention: "the telephone problem was solved, and it was solved at my father's home".[1]
The approximately 4-hectare (101⁄2 acre) site has been largely restored to its appearance when the Bells lived there in the 1870s, and Melville House now serves as a museum to the family and to the invention of the telephone. A large visitor reception centre has also been added adjacent to Melville House.
The Henderson Home building was later added to the Homestead in 1969, being moved there from its original location in downtown Brantford. It was Canada's first telephone company business office, opened in 1877 as a predecessor of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada. After being moved to the Bell Homestead it was converted into an adjunct museum on the development of telephone technology. The Homestead is operated by the Bell Homestead Committee of the City of Brantford.[2]
The Homestead was named a National Historic Site on June 1, 1996, and was listed on the national Register of Historic Places on June 22, 2009. The replacement for a federal commemorative plaque was unveiled the following year by Queen Elizabeth II during the 150th anniversary year celebrations for the birth of Alexander Graham Bell. Melville House has been described as "... this shrine, where lingers the spirit of the great inventor".[3]
- ^ Reville, F. Douglas (1920). History of the County of Brant (PDF). Brantford, Ontario: Hurley. p. 315.
- ^ "Bell Homestead". 14 October 2020.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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