Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts

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.

 During the month of December #92 has been closed down for renovations. All three floors have enjoyed repairs to wallpaper, moldings, woodwork and trim and a fresh coat of ivory paint.  When the paintwork was scraped down to the wood, the color proved to be a warm ivory-not white.  Another great improvement is the new shade of cream in the bathroom of the Abby and Andrew suite on the second floor- replacing what could only be remembered as a bileous Pepto Bismol Pink!

Some may miss the oozing red stain on the third floor chimney in the Knowlton room- but most will get a better night’s sleep for its absence which was reminiscent of dripping blood and very unsettling. The painting crew from Newport, experienced in refreshing historic homes has done a great job and the old house never looked better!

When it came time to choose the color to paint the Borden house after the sale to the current owners, there was much discussion as to what shade to select.  Newspaper descriptions and other sources cite the house color as “drab”- a popular Victorian catch-all term for a gray-brown-olive nondescript color.  Army khaki fatigue uniforms may come close to the color.  The current shade of green on the house is very snappy, but a little greener than was probably found in 1892.  However, if you have a good look at the underside of the floorboards in the cellar of the house, a very convincing drab shade can still be seen which is probably the right shade.  The trim was said to be painted a darker shade of the same color.

Yesterday The digging began in earnest for the new courthouse on Second Street on Halloween.  The steam shovel at times seemed to be halfway to China, buried in the deep trench. 

In other local news, the Fall River Herald and the Fall River Historical Society have pooled efforts to create a Remembering Fall River blog for natives to share photos and memories of the fine old city over the years.  Best wishes on this effort-it’s time Fall Riverites sang their own praises when others of us “aliens” have enjoyed blogging about the Spindle City for a long time!!

http://www.heraldnews.com/homepage/x1633051993