Behind and to the left of the Raynolds home in the photo is the home of Anna and Montegormery Bell. Montgomery Bell was a liberated slave from Missouri. After living in Santa Fe and the Pecos valley, he borrowed money at 18% to open a grocery store on the Las Vegas Plaza in 1884, and temporarily moved in with Margarito and Irenea Romero. He succeeded with his store and investments in real estate and livestock, earning him the reputation as the wealthiest African-American in the Southwest. The Bell's were also well known for their pet parrot.

In the last two decades of the 1800's there was a community of African-Americans in Las Vegas that numbered around 100 people. A church organization belonging to the Colorado Conference established a congregation here in 1887, led by Reverend S. Rice. The congregation built the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a wood frame building, on University Ave. near National Ave.