Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts

You can’t miss the changes over the past 3 weeks on Second Street.  All the windows of #92 have been draped with heavy plastic, making the view from inside the house through the windows very eerie.  Much scraping and peeling have left the yard deep in paint flakes as Rhino Shield Paint Co. have stripped the clapboards down to the wood, patched and primed the surface for the final coat which has a lifetime guarantee.  The house will be promoted by the company as an example of their workmanship.

After the scorching temps of Wednesday, the house got a final touch-up yesterday when any crackling in the primer was scraped away and re-primed.  Color coming soon!  The front door will finally receive its original two-toned scheme which will be fun to see.  Two windows (kitchen and bath on the first floor) have been completely replaced and beautifully framed in wood surrounds.  Getting ready for the busy summer season!

(front door, 1892 with two shades)

Hard to believe that May will top the month of April as a busy month at #92.  On May 4th the Travel Channel will be returning for the third time since April to film footage for another program which will feature haunted hotels and B&B’s.  The same cast from April will be portraying Lizzie, Abby, and Andrew Borden (LeeAnn Wilber, Shelley Dziedzic, & Dan LeLievre).  The exterior of the house is undergoing extensive scraping and repainting so the cameras will roll on the inside.

The Discovery Channel will be shooting at the house in two weeks, and will be bringing a full cast of actors to play the key parts in the story. This upcoming Fall season promises to be full of Lizzie Borden and the Fall River Tragedy.

The pansies are in bloom, the pear tree is laden with blossoms which will yield plenty of pears in August, and a few new touches have been added around the house, bringing a feeling of 1892. An 1880′s silver caster set now has pride of place in the diningroom, there’s a new globe lamp on the piano, a beautiful oil painting of roses by a local artist, painted in 1897 hanging in the parlor, and Mr. Borden has a walnut Eastlake mirror in his bedroom.   Over the parlor sofa, a display of Victorian memorials adds decades to the room decor and features a shadowbox of handmade flowers and a framed memorial of a cross and flowers composed entirely of hair, a popular activity from 1860s-1880s.

Across the street, the new court house is preparing to open.  All along the west side of Second Street, parking places have been defined.  Lots of changes are afoot for the busy season at #92.

Lots of excitement at #92 this week as the house is stripped back to the raw wood on the clapboards.  For the first time we see the original color of the house which was called “drab”, a grey-olive color.  Since 1996 the house has been tan under McGinn ownership during the opening years of the B&B , and a strong green which was applied in 2004 under new ownership.  The new treatment, called “rhino paint” comes with a lifetime guarantee and is advertised as the toughest paint around. The crew is doing a great job of prep work and the glimpse of the raw wood while the paint is completely removed offers some detail as to the way things are put together.  The side entry porch overhang was not original to the house and was added after the 1892 murders. The new paint color will more accurately match the drab paint color of 1892.  The darker trim paint currently on the house was a very close match to the 1892 color.

Lizzie’s has another brand new sign created by Ray who now works in the gift shop. The hatchet is made of a waterproof foam material.

A new green velvet diamond-tufted Victorian settee has pride of place on the third floor.  Bridget would have loved it.

Lizzie’s piano gets a new globe lamp.

The old tan sandwich board sign which first appeared in 1996 at the house opening has had a sprucing up recently. The letters are now woodburned and Lizzie sports a perky pink bow, thanks to Ray!

Emma and Lizzie have a stocking at the mantel in the sitting room for Christmas.  #92 Second Street was a popular stop on last weekend’s Victorian home tour sponsored by the Preservation Society of Fall River. 

It would be interesting to know just how elaborate the Borden Christmases were and whether or not any of the fireplaces were ever used since Mr. Borden had installed radiators. 

It’s been a rough winter in Fall River with plenty of ice and snow as the familiar name in the photo below will testify.

But work on the new court house continues slowly.  The building looms over South Main Street and the back of the building dominates Second Street just across from the Borden house.  At one time the twin spires of St. Anne’s and the single steeple of St. Mary’s were the landmarks easily spotted from the Braga Bridge top-now the court house steals all the thunder.

Rick Geary has spent a good many years as illustrator and cartoonist, capturing on paper  some pretty grisly tales from the corridors of dark history.  The Borden case caught his fancy and was immortalized as a graphic book, some years ago.  It is a must-have for fans of the case and is available on Amazon for as little as five dollars. 

Mr. Geary also produced a charming paper cutout sheet of the house on Second Street, which was, for a time available for sale at #92. It is not now so readily available.  Once selling for $1.95, the cardstock cutout, which when colored and assembled is a strikingly good facsimile of the house, is now sought after by Bordenites.  If readers know where it might be purchased- send us a comment!

Visit Rick Geary’s website at http://www.rickgeary.com/

A steel worker peers over the edge in the morning light as work continues on the Second Street courthouse,  Crews are working on Saturdays. 

Summer arrives in a hurry with a flurry of pink june roses in full bloom.

 August must be coming soon- the pear trees have set fruit !

Plans are being made to install a 24 hour webcam at the scenes of the crimes in the sitting room and guest bedroom at the Borden house on Second Street.  Interested viewers at home could then check in at leisure to see what was transpiring at any time of day or night in the sitting room, and the guest bedroom when not occupied by overnight guests.  Followers of the paranormal are particularly excited by this prospect.  The date when this experiment goes into effect has not yet been announced.

It is wonderful to revisit the first days of the the Lizzie Borden B&B via Youtube, only weeks after it opened on August 4, 1995. All of the original staff are there including George Quigley, brother of present cook, Dave Quigley, owners Ron Evans and Martha McGinn, and day manager Rochelle Pettenuti who painted the portraits of the Borden clan which still hang in the rooms on the second and third floor. It was Ron Evans who had the vision and passion to open the house to the public as a museum and bed and breakfast. Sadly, he lived only a very short time afterward and would not know how very successful his dream would become. The house had just been repainted in a tan and brown color scheme, and furnished as closely as possible to the house as it was in 1892.