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Two for the Book Shelf
The Charlton Story by Earle Perry Charlton II and George Winius is chock full of details and photos about one of the founders of the F.W. Woolworth Co., and his efforts to start a new type of business in the late 1800’s in Fall River. A self-made man, Charlton started his first little store with his savings which would grow into a chain of 53 E.P. Charlton five and ten cent stores which spanned Canada and the west coast from Seattle to San Diego- with the business based in Fall River. Fascinating reading!A trip to Oak Grove will reveal more than a few headstones with the venerable name of CHACE. This memoir by James Chace is not only flavored with the spice of Fall River, it is, as Jane Kramer, author of Europeans states: “A wonderful memoir about a family trying to locate itself in a house, a town, a century, in its own traditions, in the wayward and capricious promise of this country. The Chaces are a remarkably American family, and James Chace brings to them a historian’s eye and novelist’s gift.”
Both volumes are for sale at the Fall River Historical Society gift shop, with the Chace book on sale for $7.95- a GREAT summer read!
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Cornelia Otis Skinner- At Rest in Oak Grove
Chances are slim today that the name of Otis Skinner or his daughter Cornelia would ring any bells except in the minds of students of the theatre. Otis Skinner, who enjoyed a successful career spanning fifty years, worked with the greats of the Charles Frohman stable of stars, the Immortal Madame Modjeska, and Edwin Booth, brother of the infamous John Wilkes Booth.
Begining his work as a clerk, by age 18 he was begging his clergyman father for a theatre career. None other than P.T. Barnum. who knew the Skinners when they lived in Hartford, encouraged and supported Otis’ talent and potential for the stage. He is most remembered as a Shakespearian actor and for his great performance as the beggar in Kismet. He was a genial, gentle, friendly man- and much-loved by adoring fans.Cornelia was born into the business in Chicago in 1899 and debuted in her father’s acting company in 1921. The rest is history. Cornelia inherited her father’s acting and writing genes and made her mark not only on the stage but in films, television, Broadway, and literary circles. She wrote for the New Yorker, and wrote, produced and starred in one-woman monologues based on famous and powerful women in history. Her amusing novel travelogue When We Were Young And Gay was made into a successful Broadway play. The International Movie Data Base includes Cornelia’s filmography as follows by date:
- The Swimmer (1968) [Actress …. Mrs. Hammar]
- The Pleasure of His Company (1961) [Writer] (play)
- “This Is Your Life: Charlie Ruggles” (1959) TV Episode [Actress …. Herself]
- “What’s My Line?: (1959-03-29)” (1959) TV Episode [Actress …. Herself – Mystery Guest]
- “What’s It For: (1957-10-12)” (1957) TV Episode [Self]
- “The Alcoa Hour: Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter (#2.5)” (1956) TV Episode [Actress …. Susan Baxter]
- Max Liebman Presents: Dearest Enemy (1955) (TV) [Actress …. Mrs. Murray]
- The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955) [Actress …. Mrs. Thaw]
- “Person to Person: (#2.40)” (1955) TV Episode [Actress …. Herself]
- “Toast of the Town: (#7.8)” (1953) TV Episode [Actress …. Herself]
- “Toast of the Town: (#5.32)” (1952) TV Episode [Actress …. Herself]
- “General Electric Guest House: (1951-07-01)” (1951) TV Episode [Actress]
- “Toast of the Town: (#4.14)” (1950) TV Episode [Actress …. Herself]
- “Toast of the Town: (#4.7)” (1950) TV Episode [Actress …. Herself]
- “This Is Show Business: (1950-04-30)” (1950) TV Episode [Actress …. Herself]
- “The Girls” (1950) TV Series [Writer] (book “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay”)
… aka Young and Gay (original title (first two episodes title)) - Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944) [Writer] (book)
- The Uninvited (1944) [Actress …. Miss Holloway]
- Stage Door Canteen (1943) [Actress …. Herself]
- Kismet (1920) [Actress …. Miskah]
Cornelia married Manhattan stockbroker Alden Sanford Blodget- many thought an unlikely choice, and together they had one son. Cornelia Otis Skinner died in New York on July 9, 1979 and was buried beside her husband who had predeceased her by fifteen years. The mystery seems to be why Oak Grove- and why Fall River? R.I.P. – an amazing lady-and amazing career.
“Women keep a special corner of their hearts for sins they have never committed.”
“Woman’s virtue is man’s greatest invention.” Cornelia Otis Skinner
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That Thing on the Wall
The guestroom must be the most photographed and well-documented interior of #92. The famous bedstead, dresser and dresser ornaments, photos on the wall, carpet and wall paper pattern are easily seen, but until 2001, the odd little blob to the left of the photo above Abby’s head was undisclosed. Purely by accident, I found this object one day on ebay and learned it is a match safe. One side holds new matches, the other side holds used matches, with the striker in the middle. These items came in all sorts of designs and materials. The one in the 1892 photo appears to be of wood. The match safe is at a fairly low height which may be because Abby was a short woman. Each room in the Borden home would have had one of these handy household conveniences as Andrew Borden used only candle and kerosene to light his house. The little platforms on the sides of the bureau mirror and frequently seen on the ends of the high headboard were to hold a candle or small lamp-which made reading one’s Bible easy in bed! Today there is a brass match safe in place which resembles the one of many years ago.
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If Walls Could Talk- Grisly Deeds in the Ladies Comfort Station
Sometime just before 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, August 11, 1892, the two bodies of Abby and Andrew Borden, deceased for a week, were removed from the hillside holding tomb where they had been shelved since August 6th- the day of their funeral at Oak Grove Cemetery. Holding tombs were required to receive the coffins during the winter months in New England when the ground was too hard to dig a grave. This particular tomb has shelving on both sides and is built into a hill where the cool earth helps to preserve the body. Today this tomb holds only lawnmowers.
Entering through the great arch on Prospect Street, the little building to the left inside the gate is the ladies comfort station, to the right is the office and the gentlemen’s comfort station. Today the office remains but the ladies comfort station is a break room for the cemetery workmen.
The post card from 1907 shows the comfort station on the left. Straight ahead in the center of the arch is the Civil War obelisk given by Col. Richard Borden in memory and honor of the fallen Union soldiers buried all together there.. Today the ivy has been cleaned off the arch which says “The Shadows Have Fallen and They Wait for the Day”.
Shortly before 11:15, Medical Examiner W. A. Dolan, assisted by Boston ‘s Dr. F.W. Draper, Dr. John H. Leary of Fall River, and Dr. Dwight Cone , city physician, entered the ladies comfort station to perform a second autopsy and to remove the heads of Andrew and Abby Borden.
One can only imagine the proceedings within these walls, and the faces of the men as they exited this door, two unseemly bundles in hand. The little building is of granite stone blocks, and is divided into two inner chambers. On the left is the tiled lavatory with conveniences for the ladies and a sink. The tiles are still there, including some ornamental tiles at the top of the wainscotting which feature a Greek key motif. The room on the right still has the dark wood panel wainscotting and wide window and door moldings. The beautiful stained glass windows were vandalized long ago but shards of lavender and nile green glass jut from the lancet frames behind the boarded up openings. This is the room where the grisly deeds were done, and the room from which the sad, headless corpses of Abby and Andrew were taken to be laid forever headless in the damp earth. The heads were eventually buried after the trial, in separate small boxes over the top of the coffins. The workmen today know this story and sometimes look uneasily around their “break room” when the story is mentioned. After all of this, the good doctors washed their hands in the lavatory, and went home to their lunch.
The door from the waiting room into the lavatory featuring wide molding and panelled wainscotting.
*click thumbnails for larger imagesTiled lavatory with Greek key motif band at top
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Lizzie “Inn-spirations”
Over the decade of the 1990’s, several enterprising homeowners and business people entertained the notion of cashing in on the Lizzie name to open businesses around town. The Lizzie Deli on Third Street (which is now the Lizzie Bldg office space) did a rip-roaring business in “Lizzie Burgers”- rare hamburgers served up with a lot of ketchup in the demure, lace-curtained Victoriana-decor eatery.
Just next door to the scene of the crime, a Lizzie B&B sprung up about 5 years before #92 opened its doors for business, and on Third Street, in what would have been 1892’s Crowe’s Yard, another rambling old house hung out their B&B sign. The great thrill was when , in 1996, Ron Evans and Martha McGinn opened Second Street to the wildly curious, and soon after Maplecroft jumped on the booming business to be made on Lizzie.
Maplecroft as a B&B brochure
Second St. 1992
Today the only one still going strong is #92-but someone someday will find another clever idea on the Lizzie theme! -
Lizzie’s Library. The Inner Sanctum
Of all the rooms in Maplecroft, none other captures the intimate and personal insight into the nature of Lizzie than her library. It is found on the east side of the house on the second floor and consists of two modest rooms accessed by passing through one to another by way of a pair of French doors. The first room contains the carved mantelpiece which features deeply–incised Scottish thistles and At Hame In My Ain Countrie in bold script. This is the title of a hymn said to be beloved of Lizzie and which she is supposed to have had sung by local church soprano, Vida Turner at her funeral. This would have been the room where a comfortable settee would have been found, perhaps a footstool, chaise or upholstered chair-and quite likely a lady’s writing desk with exquisite embossed stationery and writing implements in a pen tray. This is also the room where light from the one generous window streamed through in shades of amber -gold, for the pane held a magnificent example of stained glass. Around the top of the wallpapered walls, an embossed cove molding boasts a floral motif which once was gilded but is now painted with the flowers picked out in color. Through the French doors is the book room where a wide variety of titles once lined the floor to ceiling shelves. There was probably once a library ladder so Lizzie could reach the topmost shelves. Her books, lush with rich bindings and gilt titles facing into the room, must have been a sumptuous feast for the eye. In some would be found her little bookplate, in others her LAB inscribed initials. Today the stained glass is missing from the library window, its location unknown.
What a haven of repose this little corner of the world must have been on a snowy day with a roaring fire, hot cider and a faithful canine companion ! It truly must have been a palace within a mansion, and “hame” in her ain countrie.
Library window
(click on photo for large image)Below (left): Two stained glass windows currently viewable on the foyer staircase .
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Sargent’s Yard Goods Sale- “I’m going to have one!”
On the morning of the murders, Lizzie informs the family maid of a cheap sale of yard goods down at Sargent’s on North Main Street. This nugget of information was offered to Bridget Sullivan in the diningroom as she was finishing up the windows and Lizzie was seeing to her ironing of handkerchiefs. Not feeling any too well after her exertions washing windows, Bridget proclaims her wish to have a new frock but turns down the opportunity to run down to buy the fabric and goes to the third floor to her room to rest before the midday meal.
Walking at an average pace, the time needed to reach Sargent’s is about 12-15 minutes, considering a long dress and the heat. Had Bridget gone shopping, she would have required roughly 25 minutes just in coming and going there, plus time to shop. Leaving at approximately 10:55, she well may have not returned until nearly noon.
Sargent’s Dry Goods building still stands on North Main Street, only a short distance south of the public library. One half of the building is gone, now the site of a vacant lot, but half of the familiar facade with its arches still exists and is the address for a surveying company. The advertisement for the famous dress goods sale can be found prominently displayed in the newpaper for August 4, 1892. Was Sargent’s sale planned as an alibi for Lizzie, a convenient lure to get Bridget Sullivan out of the house, or was Lizzie just idly chitchatting with the maid ? We’ll never know.
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Driving Miss Lizzie
Among the dwindling circle of Lizzie’s friends in Fall River, surely her faithful chauffeur and confidante, Mr. Ernest, was golden in her estimation. It is said Mr. Ernest would bring the car around front and take Lizzie on jaunts out to the country on sunny days, her little dog in the backseat wagging his stubby tail and panting with excitement. Lizzie had one of the first automobiles in the city- a black “Tin Lizzy”. Lizzie had a turntable installed in the wide garage which had been her carriage house so Mr. Ernest could drive in, then spin the car around facing out to avoid having to back up.
Lizzie remembered those loyal few handsomely in her will, including longtime friend, Helen Leighton, her household staff, and her kindly chauffeur. Mr. Terry now reposes for eternity in Oak Grove Cemetery, along with so many of those who knew Lizzie.
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Lizzie’s Boston Bulls
Pine Ridge Pet Cemetery has the distinction of being the oldest animal burial ground operated by a humane society in America. Located in Dedham, Massachusetts, the memorial park is the final resting place for countless beloved pets, including three of Lizzie Borden’s black and white Boston Bull terriers. The breed was officially recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1893, the year Miss Lizzie and her sister Emma moved into their swank mansion on French Street following Lizzie’s acquittal. Boston bulls were the lap pet of choice among Boston’s upper crust Back Bay society matrons, so it is no surprise Miss Borden desired the blue blood breed.Lizzie’s dogs were all buried in 1928, the year after her own burial, so were most likely unearthed from the back yard of Maplecroft for a more noble final planting in Dedham. Miss Borden enjoyed country drives with her dog du jour perched on a little shelf beneath the back seat window. Her faithful companion was no doubt, a great solace in her lonely hours.
The barn filled with small pet caskets
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The Swansea Farm
Most business men of the period who could afford it would purchase a small country property to escape the city heat in the summer. This 1790 Cape Cod two-family was bought by Andrew Borden and his business partner, William Almy. Andrew Borden also owned another country property and together they were called the Upper and Lower Farms. This is the remaining property in the beautiful waterfront Gardiner’s Neck area. Recently the old white Cape was painted bright blue and underwent extensive interior renovations. In 1892 a search was made of the premises for a possible murder weapon. 
Two family entry doors
Gardiner’s Neck Road
All photos (c) S. Dziedzic October 2006
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Lizzie’s Little Salamander
The casual visitor to Maplecroft may miss the tiny figure on the firescreen of Lizzie Borden’s back bedroom on the second floor. In the surround of the fireplace opening of the raised-hearth in the corner, sits a cunning metal salamander with a very satisfied little face. Lizzie added this room for herself above the kitchen, along with her famous bathroom with the hand-painted porcelain bathing tub. Although a high school drop-out, Lizzie was very well-read. Did she know the legend of the salamander when she chose her furnishings? The salamander today is the logo mascot for asbestos workers everywhere, and throughout ancient Greek myth , was the only animal which could go through the fire unscathed. This is partly true, as salamanders exude a milky substance when exposed to high temperatures, and are rendered, at least briefly, impervious to flame. This phenomenon was observed over the ages as salamanders like to hide in logs, and when a fire was ignited, they would be seen scampering out of the flames triumphantly.
It’s fun to think maybe Lizzie may have been leaving a message, as she did , in fact, go through the “fire” and did not get burned in her acquittal on all charges. Lucky little salamander. . . .
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Emma’s Ironclad Alibi
More than a few writers over the years have endeavored to concoct a way for Lizzie’s older sister Emma to have managed to commit the grisly double homicides. Some theories have imagined Emma, dressed in men’s clothing, riding through the night from Fairhaven, managing to kill her father on the sofa around 11 a.m. and returning to Fairhaven in time to receive the telegram from Dr. Bowen. Then there would have been the hiring of a carriage, the mad dash over to the train station and the making all of the train connections to arrive in Fall River at the Bowenville Station by 5 p.m. Given the state of the roads at the time, this would have been an impossible feat.
. Emma testified she had been visiting for nearly two weeks at the home of Helen Brownell, a spinster dressmaker, and her widowed mother at #19 Green Street in Fairhaven. So convinced of the truth of this statement, authorities never required either of the Brownells to testify to that fact at any of the legal proceedings. The Brownell house on Green St. is standing still, although the once lovely tree-lined street is much-changed today.
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Maplecroft. Mansion of Mystery
For half of her life, Lizzie A. Borden lived in modest homes in the unfashionable south end of the city. For the other half, she lived a life of quiet luxury on the Hill section in the north end of town in a dream house of her own taste and furnishing. The trip to Maplecroft is the pilgrimage all true Borden scholars must make. Briefly a B&B back in the 1990’s, no house in the city is surrounded by more mystery, because photographs, even in its public days, were forbidden inside. For all who want to understand Lizzie, the desire to see what is left of her gilded cage on French Street is a heart’s burning desire. Perhaps the fact that the house is closed to inquiring eyes makes knowledge of her private palace even more desirable.
As the house was not built for Lizzie and Emma, – they took occupancy in September 1893 – it would be nearly impossible to say with any certainty just how much of the interior furnishings such as woodwork, fireplace mantels, built-ins, etc. are Lizzie’s taste, and how much were the previous owner’s. Some things are known to be Lizzie’s additions, such as the back bedroom over the kitchen, the stone chimney, the back yard granite block wall, – and perhaps the mantel in her library with her favorite hymn and Scottish thistles, At Home in My Ain Countrie. Of course there is always just the chance that the mantel was there first, and inspired her love of the hymn after. We may never know.
(c) S. Dziedzic1992
(c) S. Dziedzic 1992
One mantel in particular has captured the imagination of Bordeniaphiles for years however- the second floor front mantel with this verse:
And old time friends and twilight plays
And starry nights and sunny days.
Come trooping up the misty ways
When my fires burn low.
Whether this room which faces French Street on the front second floor of the house was a bedroom or reception room is unsure, but the verse in the mantel invokes a deep sense of wistfulness as one contemplates how it may have held great significance for Lizzie’s solitary life after Emma departed Maplecroft in 1905. For the loyal handful of friends who braved the criticism of Fall River high society, and called upon Lizzie there, theirs must have been a warm welcome. These were the “old time friends” who drew near when Lizzie’s “fire burned low”. The poem is surrounded by clusters of clover leaves, tokens of good fortune. The message of the mantel is not lost upon those who care to look.The mantel today is no longer in its old familiar place. It has been replaced by one of marble. Eighty years ago a frail woman sat by this mantel perhaps thinking over her life and all the secrets locked away within the walls of Maplecroft. If places retain the resonance of those who have dwelt within them, surely Maplecroft holds dark secrets and mysteries still.
c) S. Dziedzic 2006
Click on photographs for enlarged image
(c) S. Dziedzic 1992
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The House That Started It All
While it scarcely looks like the Amityville Horror House, the little two-family Gray homestead on Fourth Street set off a firestorm of ill will among Emma and Lizzie and their stepmother Abby Durfee Gray Borden. Abby’s half sister Sarah Whitehead and her family (including daughter Little Abbie) lived in one half of the house while Abby Borden’s stepmother, Jane Gray (second wife of Abby’s father Oliver Gray) had the other side. When Jane Gray decided to move out, Andrew Borden bought out the other half of his wife’s family home and put it in her name without telling Emma and Lizzie. When the girls found out, they were none too pleased and made it clear to their father he would have to make things even, which he did by giving them the old Ferry Street house to manage. The girls ended up selling it back to their father, but the seeds of distrust and animosity were sown, and the Whiteheads were none-too-welcome at Second Street. Lizzie began calling Abby “Mrs. Borden” whereas she had been called “Mother” before. Women can be – unforgiving. The Gray Family Plot at Oak Grove: Oliver, Jane, Sarah Gray (first wife) (c)2007
(c)2007
Grave of Sarah Whitehead’s little girl, Abbie Whitehead Potter, who grew up with decided views about Lizzie Borden
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Got Taphophilia?
Sounds like an exotic disease but actually taphophilia is the love of old monuments and cemetery statuary, tombstones, memorials and well, stones! Oak Grove Cemetery, the final resting place for so many players in the Borden saga, is a true mid-nineteenth century garden cemetery inspired by Cambridge’s Mount Auburn, near Boston. The nearly 100 acres of winding pathways is a taphophile’s delight of heavily carved marble and granite, full of Victorian symbolism. Below is a representative of the personification of sorrow clutching a wreath, clinging to the Cross, the holding tomb where the Bordens were held for a week while awaiting a second autopsy which was done on the cemetery grounds, and the marker for Abby Borden’s half-sister, Mrs. Whitehead, whose Fourth Street house caused so much tension between Lizzie and Emma and her father. Click on photos for a larger view. (c) All rights reserved.
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The Truth About Orbs
Some folks get pretty excited about these glowing little balls. Are they dust particles? Moisture droplets? Reflections from flash? Whatever they are, there always seem to be plenty of them floating around the crime scene on Second Street- both inside and outside the house. Here are a few exterior shots of the house at night,, and one photo of the Dr. Kelly house, the yellow house, next door where Lizzie’s friend Alice Russell once lived and where another Borden once threw herself and her children down a well in the back yard.
There’s probably a perfectly good explanation for this phenomenon, but in the meantime, orbs are always good cocktail party conversation! -
The Eyes of Lizzie Borden
If the eyes are the windows of the soul, then much could be said about Lizzie’s. In the eight known photographs of her, there is only one in which she is looking directly at the camera. Other photos show a left or right profile at various angles. According to the arrest book, Lizzie’s eyes are pale- gray. Many have described her eyes as “unsettling”, unnerving, in their steady gaze. This photo was taken of Lizzie in the summer of 1893 on the porch of the Covel house on Farewell Street in Newport, RI, where Lizzie sojourned after her acquittal. Maybe Fall River was a little too hot to hold her that summer.
Still, this is a riveting photo of a content and satisfied woman of 33, posing with a Mona Lisa smile, just a little defiant in stance behind her chair. The house on Farewell St. is there still, at the far west end of Farewell street right next door to the Munson School, and the current owner, although a little weary of being told who slept at her house, is tolerant of Lizziephiles who wish to take a photo. One can only wonder at the thoughts in Lizzie’s head that long ago summer of 1893. . . .
The house on Farewell Street
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On the Old Fall River Line
After the great mills and textile industry, the old Fall River Line’s luxurious Floating Palaces should be the next thing Fall River should be remembered for (although many might say Lizzie Borden). The steamboats plied the south coast of New England from Fall River to New York with connecting rail service to Boston from 1847 to 1937.
The famous upbeat song, On the Old Fall River Line was written by prolific Tin Pan Alley Composer Harry Von Tilzer(1872- 1946) whose most well-know hit is probably She’s Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage, written in 1900.
No trip to Fall River would be complete without a trip to the Marine Museum at Battleship Cove, which houses an incredible display of luxury Fall River Line appointments,- from china to crew uniforms and parlor chairs, carved paneling, to newel posts from the grand staircases. The museum also boasts a 28 foot model of the Titanic from the movie of the same name starring Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck, and a fantastic display of artifacts from the sunken Italian liner, the Andrea Doria. Be sure to plan some time to visit Battleship Cove and see what’s left of the old Fall River Line pier.
