-
Obscure facts about Lizzie’s home state
Did you know . . . . ?Massachusetts has several State ANIMALS. The State Cat is the Tabby Cat. The State Dog is the Boston Terrier. The Morgan Horse is the State Horse. Lizzie had three Boston Bull terriers and would approve!
. Baked Navy Bean is the State Bean and Cranberry is the State Berry. Cranberry Juice is the State Beverage, and there is a Cranberry Festival at Plymouth. Chocolate Chip Cookies were invented in Massachusetts and it is the State Cookie. Boston Cream Pie is the State Dessert. The State Muffin is Corn Muffin. The Fig Newton was named after Newton, Massachusetts. Naturally the COD is the state fish.
What does Massachusetts mean? In a local Native American dialect- “a large or great hill place”
Well, Lizzie would get the importance of “The Hill” part of it!
Click here to hear the state song, Ode to Massachusetts http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cissng/sngidx.htm
For more trivia about the great old Commonwealth visit http://www.geocities.com/statesaz2/Massachusetts.html and dazzle your guests at the next dinner party!
-
Rooms With a Boo
Endless Vacation travel magazine has just issued their Sept-Oct. edition with a great feature showcasing scary destinations. The Lizzie Borden B&B made the top half-dozen along with the Menger Hotel, San Antonio, Groveland Hotel, Groveland, California, Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, CO., Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and Thornewood Castle, Lakewood, Washington. The article is written with great good humor by Jaime Gross and magnificently illustrated by Claire Louise Mallison.
( Please click on image to view article) -
That Crazy Moon, Lunatics & The Criminal Mind
Much has been made over the years about the effects of the full moon on crime rates and odd behavior in the animal world. Below are the moon phases (courtesy of NASA archives) for the time before , during and after August 4th, 1892. On August 3rd, coming home after 9 p.m. from Alice Russell’s house on Borden Street, Lizzie would have been returning under a waxing moon, nearly full. Some may make a case for the effects of the moon on the criminal mind!New Moon First Quarter Full Moon Last Quarter
Jul 23 23:31 Jul 31 19:45 Aug 8 11:57 Aug 15 06:37
-
Haunted Happenings- ‘Tis the Season
Autumn comes early to New England. Already the sugar maples are beginning to show fiery-orange tips, the corn is mile-high, candy corn is filling the shelves- and #92 is booked for Halloween night. Haunted University will be returning to the Borden House on September 28 and 29 and was a soldout event in days. The urns and barn buckets at #92 are overflowing with colorful chrysanthemums as the old house gets in gear for a busy season second only to August.1892 was a year for for murderous happenings. On the other coast of the United States, at the Hotel Del Coronado, a lady using the name of Kate Morgan checked into the famous Victorian wooden hotel resort. She and her husband were professional card sharps with a scam that paid off. “Kate” now found herself expecting a child, and was worried about how her husband and lifestyle would accommodate motherhood. She purchased a gun and ammunition as she waited for her husband to arrive at the hotel, but was found brutally shot in the head a day later under mysterious circumstances. It wasn’t long before the tales of a pale woman “haunting” the premises sprang up and continue to this day.
Kate Morgan in the 1880’s Murder or Suicide?The Del Coronado is most remembered for the Marilyn Monroe film, Some Like it Hot with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. It is still a magnificent structure, and those who visit a certain room, swear the bizarre phenomena is generated by the ghost of the 1892 Kate Morgan. Several books have been written about the case, which remained unsolved and was thought to be a suicide. The books are available on Amazon.com and make fascinating Halloween reading. For more on the story and the historic hotel visit http://www.hoteldel.com/ and one ghosthunter’s experience in room 3312 http://www.eeeek.com/coronadoghost.html
-
Postcards- Affordable Collectibles
If vintage or antiquarian books about Fall River, or volumes from Lizzie’s Maplecroft library are out of reach for most wallets, there’s always great views of the city on stereopticon or post cards. The golden age of the postcard must surely be 1900-1915, and there are numerous comic, seasonal, historic, and everyday street views of Fall River flooding ebay and flea markets. Civic buildings, parks, landmarks, municipal events, are recorded for posterity on these highly-collectible scraps of heavy card stock. Glitter cards and very early photographic cards are especially collectible. Here is a sample of a comic Fall River card which sold recently for 6.00. The happy couple is peering through a long scope lens at the city below. Can you place just where in the city they are gazing down with such rapture?
-
Lizzie Borden: What’s in a Name?
Much has been made of Lizzie’s name change to Lizbeth. Whether she just liked the sound of it, or whether she was heartily sick of that dreadful ditty about herself and the Forty Whacks, she might have chosen one of many other derivatives for Elizabeth and Lizzie:Elisheba, Elisheva, Elizabeth, Elisabeth, Elzbietka, Alcippe, Alzbeta, Elisabet, Elisabeta, Elisabetta, Elizabeta, Elsabeth, Elspet, Elspeth, Elzbieta, Eliza, Elisa, Elise, Elsa, Elsie, Beth, Bethie, Bethy, Bet, Bette, Bettie, Betty, Bess, Bessie, Bessy, Betsy, Lisa, Liza, Liz, Lizza, Lizzie, Lizzi, Lizzy, Lisbeth, Lizbeth, Lilybet (nickname for the current Queen Elizabeth II)- are there any more?
Lizzie is a diminuative form of Elizabeth. From Ελισαβετ (Elisabet), the Greek form of the Hebrew name אֱלִישֶׁבַע (‘Elisheva’) meaning “my God is an oath” or perhaps “my God is abundance”. The Hebrew form appears in the Old Testament where Elisheba is the wife of Aaron, while the Greek form appears in the New Testament where Elizabeth is the mother of John the Baptist. Well, Lizzie would sure like the “abundance” part!
The Borden surname is not quite as charming. Ancestry.com has this to say :
English: habitational name from a place in Kent named Borden, perhaps from Old English bar ‘boar’ or bor ‘hill’ + denu ‘valley’ or denn ‘(swine) pasture’. Swine pasture would not please Lizzie one little bit.
-
Introducing the Demure Mrs. Daphne Dare, Domestic Doyenne
It is hard to know if such a paragon of wisdom, style and taste ever did exist, but a certain Mrs. Dare, in 1892, published several works outlining all manner of directions and advice for living a proper and gracious life. From cradle to grave Mrs. Dare deigns to declare her decided designs and directions on how to move in “polite society”. The divine Daphne will be making regular visits to Warps and Wefts to enlighten the Gentle Readers here, and to offer advice on those pressing matters and anxious questions which plague the thoughts of all those who wish to step out on the right foot in finer circles. Tonight, the use of umbrellas is given thoughtful attention:” If a gentleman is walking with two ladies in a rainstorm, and there is but one umbrella, he must yield it to his fair companion and walk outside. To do otherwise is absurd, for if he should walk between the two ladies he would be perfectly protected himself, but the ladies would get the benefit of the innumerable little streams running off the sides of the umbrella. A gentleman never stops a lady on the street to converse with her, but will turn and walk by her side. If she should be accompanied by a male companion, it is well to be sure that your presence will not be an interference before venturing to join them in their promenade.”
-
Here Comes the Judge- Lizzie on trial again
In a novel twist on the old tale, audience members at the production of Lizzie Borden and the 40 Whacks will be active participants in a mock trial this Thursday, August 23rd at the Lynn, Massachusetts Historical Society. The drama will unfold at 7 p.m. and admisssion is free. For more information visit this link.http://www.bostonnow.com/entertainment/theater/2007/08/21/free_lizzie_in_lynn/
August began and is ending up with Lizzie! The calendar year goes April, May, June, July, Lizzie, September. . . . . . . .
-
A Walk on Second Street
(Point mouse cursor over the bottom of each frame to see what was there in 1892)
The slides show a view of Second Street, east and west sides between Spring and Rodman streets going south, and Spring and Borden streets going north. as they look today with the names of the businesses which were there in 1892. The bus station across from the Borden house is now, however torn down and a gravel pit is in its place. The new courthouse will be going up on the spot where Hall’s Livery used to be and where the bus station was recently located.
In 1892, Spring St. stopped at the corner of Second and did not go east any farther. (source: Lizzie Borden Past & Present, Leonard Rebello)
-
There’s something about that cellar
Who cannot recall the feeling of dread as a child of being sent into the dark cellar alone? Basements and cellars are by nature, dim, cobwebby, secretive sorts of spaces. Many visitors to the house on Second Street are reluctant to venture alone late at night into the clammy cellar where once Bridget Sullivan led police to find hatchets and axes. Lizzie herself made two trips down to the cellar on the night of the murders- once with friend Alice Russell who tagged along with a lamp, and once again fifteen minutes later while Alice was occupied with her door closed. With the bloodied clothing of the Bordens in a pile on the floor in front of the chimney, bits of brain and skull in the reeking folds, it must have been a grisly sight and smell. The floor in the old laundry room was brick, but the rest of the cellar was packed earth. The walls of the old water closet can still be made out on the ceiling where broken board and large nails mark out the dimensions.
Beneath the head of the sofa upstairs, Luminol still brings up latent bloodstains in the floorboards in the cellar. An eerie face resembling Andrew Borden glares mysteriously through the whitewashed walls over the wash cauldron in the chimney in the old washroom. But most intriguing of all is a false brick wall in the southwestern most corner of the cellar, where a gap of six inches is formed between the brick and the outer granite block foundation- a convenient place to drop or conceal something with the easy removal of a loose brick. These are the walls which if they could only talk- could reveal a great deal about this dark mystery.
-
Nance O’Neil- Secrets to the Grave
Lizzie’s reputed close relationship with actress Nance O’Neil caused nearly as much scandal and speculation as the murder trial itself. Meeting in 1904, the actress, who was always short of funds, recognized in Lizzie a wealthy patron and benefactress.The late-night cavorting at Maplecroft, alcohol and merrymaking with the theatre folks proved too much for Lizzie’s prim older sister Emma who left French Street suddenly in 1905. Nance played the Fall River Academy Theatre which is still standing today as a luxury apartment complex, and the Providence Opera House which has felt the wrath of the wrecker’s ball.
By 1906 the brief and intense friendship had waned and Nance went on to a moderately successful career in Hollywood, never receiving the acclaim there she had enjoyed on the stage. She died in Engelwood , New Jersey in 1965 in a home for ageing screen divas-taking her secrets of life with Lizzie to the grave.
-
Mr. Knowlton – Resting in Peace
The documentation regarding the final disposal of Hosea Knowlton’s ashes after they left Forest Hills in Boston, to the scattering over the fishing pond in Marion has arrived from the town hall office of records. The first document is a file card from The Rural Cemetery of New Bedford.
The second and third photos below are copies from the original record, detailing the death on Decemeber 18, 1902.
The death certificate copy
(click on all photos for printable, full-sized images)
-
Lizzie wins- hands down!
The Fall River Herald News ran a poll during the August 4th weekend as to whodunnit. Candidates for who it was in the sitting room with a hatchet included: Lizzie, Emma, both sisters, Bridget or Alice Russell. Over 62% of the vote went to Lizzie, along with some interesting comments sent in by the locals. The results and more can be found at this link http://nupolls.com/result/35285/ -
Celebs Love Lizzie Borden
Ever since Josephine McGinn allowed Agnes de Mille to tour Second Street as inspiration for her famous Lizzie-themed ballet, a few big -name entertainers and celebrities have stopped in to call on Miss Lizzie. Actress Patricia Neal, Mickey Rooney (who would not enter the house), Heather Locklear, Motley Crue’s Rick Zambora and the heavy metal guitarist from the band Lizzy Borden to name a few. The Borden case has found interest on the part of many in tinsel town, and rumors of a big screen production are always making the rounds.Last evening, celebrated film critic, Rex Reed spent the night at #92 and enjoyed plenty of animated conversation with guests and host about the case. After touring the house, cemetery and Lizzie sites around town, naturally the question was asked about casting for a Borden case feature film. The veteran entertainment columnist and critic thought a few moments and decided Sam Waterston would be his pick for Andrew Borden.
Kathy Bates as Abby met with approval, and although Kate Winslet as Lizzie “could get the job done”, maybe a total unknown would be a better way to go and “easier on the budget”!Visitors to the old house enjoyed watching the Elizabeth Montgomery Lizzie movie with Mr. Reed in the parlor, and all were loathe to finally go to bed at 3 a.m.
Asked about Lizzie’s guilt or innocence, the critic with the rapier-sharp writing style, and who has a fascination with the psychology of true crime figures, wholeheartedly pronounced her “Guilty!” Good thing he was not on the jury!
Alan Donnes, Rex Reed and Shelley Dziedzic “On that sofa”
-
Lizzie Borden autograph on ebay
Perhaps all Borden ephemera is not so inexpensive after all. Currently this autograph, which is torn from an autograph album, is up for sale on ebay- buy it now price?- $4,495! The item is in Webster, Massachusetts. Happy bidding! http://cgi.ebay.com/Lizzie-Borden-Autograph-Signature-Signed-Auto-Poem_W0QQitemZ190024498638QQihZ009QQcategoryZ44837QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
-
Collecting Lizzie
With the high prices realized this past year for some of Lizzie’s Maplecroft library books, what’s left to the average collector which is affordable? Ephemera, or collectibles made of paper, can often be the answer to owning a bit of Bordenia. The cardboard fan with tassel has become a popular ebay item in recent years and is still affordable. This was a dainty souvenir produced for the world premiere of Slaughter on Second Street at the Bristol Community College Conference in 1992. When in doubt – keep everything!
The playbill for the evening (click on images for larger size)
-
She’s a doll, that Lizzie Borden.!
One guest on August 4th is a real collector of Lizziana- from old newspapers to a unique item he won on ebay- a character doll of Lizzie Borden with pear and hatchet. The small cottage industry business specializes in one of a kind specialty dolls of famous people. Lizzie’s base is a textile spindle (fitting for Fall River) and her miniature leg- o’muttons and gown are quite accurate right down to the tiny buttons. But it is her buldging fiber-fill stuffed pale eyes which grab the attention- and the miniature hatchet with broken handle. Her wooly hair drawn back in a bun is carefully copied from photos of Lizzie’s own frizzed, center-parted coiffure. She made quite a hit at the house on Second Street on August 4th.
-
The Borden Alphabet
A was the August the murders took place,
B Bordens murdered by blows to head and face.
C was the Crime in all its detail,
D was the Daughter at once put in jail.
E was the Evidence not in her favor,
F was the Few little facts that might save her.
G was the Gown all covered with paint,
H doubtless the Hatchet, tho’some said “it ain’t”.
I was the Inquest they held all in vain,
J was the Jury who ‘most went insane.
K was the Kind of a woman she was,
L was the Lawyer, who pleaded her cause.
M for Money the motive was plain,
N surely the Note they searched for in vain.
O was the Officers of the police,
P was the Pardon and speedy release.
Q were the Queries and Questions each day,
R was Alice Russell who gave her away.
S was the Sentence, oh how did she fear it!
T was the Ten months she waited to hear it.
U is the Unfinished story it makes,
V is the Villainous interest one takes.
W for WHO it is nothing explains,
X the Unknown who forever remains.
Y would still bother us if we would let it,
Z is our Zeal as we try to forget it.
