Alphonzo Bell

Alphonzo Edward Bell Sr. (September 29, 1875 – December 27, 1947) was an American oil multi-millionaire, real estate developer, philanthropist, and champion tennis player. The westside Los Angeles residential community of Bel Air is named after him, as well as the Southern California communities of Bell and Bell Gardens. Family and background Bell was a native and lifelong resident of Los Angeles, whose family had deep financial and historical ties to the area, and played a key role in the history and development of Southern California. He was the son of James George Bell, who established Bell Station Ranch (now the site of the City of Bell), in the Santa Fe Springs area in 1875, and of Susan Albiah Hollenbeck. His uncle, Ed Hollenbeck, who arrived in California in the 1850s, founded the First National Bank, created Los Angeles's public transportation trolley system, and developed eastern portions of Los Angeles County. After attending Occidental College, which had been founded by his father in 1887, and graduating at the top of his class as valedictorian in 1895, Bell enrolled at San Anselmo Presbyterian College for two years (he did not return for 3rd year). In 1902 he married Minnewa Shoemaker Bell, a native of Kansas. Bell's son, Alphonzo E. Bell, Jr., later served eight terms as a California Congressman. Bell's daughter, Minnewa Bell Gray Burnside Ross, married Elliott Roosevelt, son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1951.