About the Club

Bells Lake is a 33-acre man-made lake and has a very long and interesting history. No one knows exactly when Bell’s Lake was created. The original owners and inhabitants were the Leni Lenape Indian tribe. The Leni Lenape tribe sold the land in the 1600s to the English for household articles and trinkets. The property passed hands many times and was known by different names over the years. The property was usually identified by the current owner’s name and has been known as ‘Arrell Tract,’ ‘Williams Mill Pond,’ ‘Prosser’s Mill,’ and ‘Mill Pond.’

A sawmill was the first business on the property and was run by John Williams, the owner at that time. In the early 1800s a gristmill was built on the property by carpenter John Turner (Turnersville). John Turner is one of the many known owners of the land, which at one time was a 3,000-acre tract of land. In 1880 Thomas Boody and Samuel Sharp bought the land. They were partners with Mr. Boody running the gristmill and Mr. Sharp operating Sharp Farm. Mr. Sharp lived on the property near the gristmill. He built a farm, boathouse, clubhouse and ice house on the property. Mr. Boody and Mr. Sharp went bankrupt while they owned the property and in 1899 sold it to Samuel Bell Jr. of Philadelphia.