Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts

Visitors and guests who visit the Borden house are intrigued by all of the pears they find inside.  For those in the know about the case, they smile and understand the reference to Lizzie’s alibi about being in the hayloft munching the fruit when her father was murdered, and sometimes humorous testimony about all of the pear-eating by the occupants of #92 on August 4th.  August 4th is also the one day of the year when the house re-enactment troupe, The Pear Essential Players, are in residence recreating the fateful day for visitors.  Did the police check Lizzie’s alibi and look for pear cores in the hayloft? Or would Lizzie smoothly have admitted to eating those pears cores and all?

Christopher Moon and Haunted University will be returning to the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast Museum for this weekend, giving classes in how to set up paranormal-detecting equipment, and monitoring the house for “activity”.  With a full moon on the rise for Saturday night- this should be a good tune-up for Halloween!

Introducing Lorraine Gregoire as Lizzie 2009

One by one, over the years, the homes on Second Street between Spring and Borden streets have been demolished.  Miraculously the Andrew Borden house has survived as well as the neighboring house to the south.  Emma and Lizzie’s good friend Alice Russell had lived in this unpreposing cape-style home and thus became well-acquainted with the Bordens.  Alice was a key witness at Lizzie’s trial, stayed with the family for some days after the murders, and testified about Lizzie burning a dress in the kitchen woodstove the day after the funerals of Abby and Andrew Borden.

On the day of the murders, Mrs. Caroline Kelly, wife of pediatrician Dr. Michael Kelly,(new occupants to the house next door) saw Andrew Borden trying to enter his home around 10:45.  She was on her way to the dentist and was probably the last non-family member to see Andrew Borden alive.  Most Borden historians still refer to the house as the “Kelly House”.

Several decades before the Borden murders, a Mrs. Ladowick Borden, depressed and at wits’ end, threw three children in the old cistern at this house.  The two young boys died, but her daughter survived. Mrs. Ladowick Borden went upstairs and slit her throat with her husband’s straight razor. Who knows why.  This is a house with dark secrets and tragedy to rival that of #92 Second Street.  And today the two houses of death and horror remain-sole survivors of the wrecker’s ball. The Kelly house is for sale-for anyone who wants a house with a history.

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/

Andrew Borden knew a thing or two about home improvements and value.  The cast iron radiators he put in when the family moved into 92 Second Street in 1872 are still going strong today. Here is a photo taken on the day of the crimes in 1892 of the radiator in the front hallway.

Today, the same radiators heat #92 .  The current boiler is also located in the same place in the cellar that was the location in 1892. Oh, to get a metal detector under that boiler!

The bedroom furniture in the guest room today is such a very good replication of what was actually in the room on the day of the murders that guests to the house think it is the actual furniture.  Abby’s head is seen in the old sepia photographs lining up at the middle knob on the dresser as she lay on the floor between the dresser and the bed.  There was a small folding canvas camp chair in front of her head and the sewing machine was in the northwest corner where the large armoire is today.  The green dress in the corner was worn by Elizabeth Montgomery in the 1975 film The Legend of Lizzie Borden and was designed by Guy Verhille for the Paramount Studios production.

The diningroom holds a great fascination as a place where many things transpired during the week leading up to the murder.  After being served seafood in this room on Tuesday evening, August 2nd, the family became violently ill Tuesday night. Abby Borden sought help from the physician across the street on Wednesday morning.  Uncle John arrived later Wednesday afternoon and partook of lunch in this room before leaving for errands in nearby Swansea.  On the day of the murder, this was the site for the ”Last Breakfast of Abby and Andrew Borden” and Uncle John before the threesome would part company forever. The menu is memorable: mutton, mutton broth, over ripe bananas, sugar cookies, jonnycakes and coffee.  The diningroom is also the last place Abby is seen alive by maid, Bridget Sullivan as she discussed the noonday meal with Lizzie before going upstairs to her grisly end.  Later, when Mr. Borden returns home, Bridget, in the diningroom, overhears what will be the last conversation between Lizzie and her father before Bridget goes upstairs to the third floor to lie down.  At some point around eleven o’ clock a killer will pause in the doorway between the diningroom and sittingroom shown in the photo above, before striking down Mr. Borden.  The corpses of the two murder victims lay in the dining room from Thursday through Saturday morning.  Mrs. Borden’s stomach was removed in this room. 

This is today the room where overnight guests share their breakfast.