{"town":"Colonial Beach","timezone":"America/New_York","place":{"category":"history_sites","name":"The Bell House","address":"821 Irving Ave, Colonial Beach, VA 22443","hours":"Private residence — exterior viewing only from the street","desc":"A National Register of Historic Places landmark and Virginia Historic Landmark. Built in 1883 for Colonel J.O.P. Burnside (son of Civil War General Ambrose Burnside), the house was purchased by Alexander Melville Bell in 1886 as a summer retreat. His son, Alexander Graham Bell — inventor of the telephone — inherited it in 1907 and used it until 1918. Local legend holds that Bell flew experimental kites and 'flying machines' from the widow's walk balcony. The beautiful Victorian Stick Style structure still stands majestically on Irving Avenue.","id":"history-sites--the-bell-house--1m4mtjx","provenance":{"kind":"live","source_url":null,"updated_at":"2026-10-08T22:52:28.253Z"},"url":"https://colonialbeachapp.com/places/history-sites--the-bell-house--1m4mtjx"},"freshness":{"status":"live","fetched_at":"2026-10-09T02:10:27.445Z","snapshot_built_at":"2026-10-09T01:14:04.548Z","upstream_truncated":false,"note":"Live public records are combined with the app’s published listings. Fetch time is not a verification date."}}