This bar's history in Camden covered almost 100 years, beginning in the mid 1880s. August Hettmannsperger appears in the Camden City Directories in the years covering 1887 through 1891 as the proprietor. He called his establishment the Columbia Hotel. Hettmansperger had come to Camden from Baden, Germany in the 1870s, and appears in the 1880 Census, when he was working as a locksmith and living with wife Mary and children Emma and August Jr. at 18 South 4th Street. The Columbia Hotel was still run by August Hettmansperger as late as 1901.

By 1918 the Hettmanspergers were gone, and the bar was run by John Reilly in the years 1918 through 1921 according to Camden City Directories. 

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, a liquor license was obtained for the premises, and by 1936 the bar was known as the Hi Hattter's Clu. Owners Tom Mayer and Herb Marker actively promoted their establishment. They employed John "Jack" Miko as a bartender, who was quite popular.

The bar is listed as the Hi Hattter's Club in the 1940 and 1943 Camden City Directories. There is no listing in the 1947 Camden City Directory, but 224 Market Street appears in the 1956 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory as the High Hat Club. By 1959 the bar had changed hands and changed names, and was known as the Bell Bar. The Bell Bar remained open through at least 1984.

The 200 block of Market Street was razed and redeveloped in the late 1980s or early 1990s.