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Post by Graveyardbride on Jan 15, 2021 12:44:08 GMT -5
The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Lizzie Borden took an axe,
Gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
Or did she? Lizzie, after all, was acquitted by a jury of 12 honest, upstanding gentlemen. But even if she did take an axe to her father and stepmother, she didn’t give them anywhere close to 40 whacks: Abby Borden received 19 whacks and Andrew got 10 or 11, delivered with such ferocity that one of his eyeballs was sliced in half.
Thursday, August 4, 1892, the day Lizzie – or someone – took an axe to Mr. and Mrs. Borden, was warm, but not oppressively hot as some authors claim – The Fall River Daily Herald reported a high of 78°. Nevertheless, the odors emanating from two bloody bodies in a relatively small residence would certainly have been disagreeable to say the least. Additionally, while murder victims are removed from a premises as quickly as possible today, the same wasn’t true in 1892. By the time the police had finished processing the scene, it was too late to perform autopsies, so the stiffening, mutilated corpses of Abby and Andrew were laid out on the dining room table until the following morning. People back then were made of much sterner stuff than squeamish, fragile 21st century snowflakes, who require “counseling” when a pet dies. From all accounts, members of the household and visitors went about their business, totally ignoring the horror that lay beyond the closed dining room doors.
No one can say the old home at 230 2nd Avenue doesn’t have an interesting, albeit gruesome, history. Built around 1845, Andrew Borden purchased the property – which was a two-residence domicile – in 1874 (when Lizzie was 14) renovated it for his family and lived there until his untimely demise.
The old Borden House, as everyone knows, now operates as a bed and breakfast and museum dedicated to the memory of Miss Lizzie Borden and the horrendous crime she may or may not have committed. Now, for a mere $2 million, the place where these grisly murders and the family drama preceding them occurred can be yours. Picture yourself serving hatchet-shaped cookies while regaling thrill-seeking guests with the ghastly details of the murders and the ghosts that some believe stalk the old home at night.
Suzanne St. John, a realtor, expert on the Lizzie Borden murders and part-time guide, emphasized the property is a “turnkey” opportunity. “It includes all inventory, intellectual property, trademarking and website,” she said. “We are hoping that someone will come in and buy it and keep it as a bed and breakfast and for tours. It’s one of the most visited tourist attractions in New England. It’s well-known all over the world, and on a normal year you have people that come in from all over.”
The current owners, Donald Woods and Lee-Ann Wilber, bought the property for $200,000 in 2004 and now that Woods is in his 70s, he wants to retire.
According to Wilber, receipts for the bed and breakfast and souvenir shop are “down approximately 70 percent because of the China virus pandemic,” which necessitated closing the establishment in March for close to three months. Prior to the pandemic, however, she said the business “was generating a gross annual income of approximately $750,000.”
Maplecroft, the Folk Victorian home Lizzie purchased at 306 French Street, is also for sale.Sources: Charles Winokoor, The Fall River Herald-News, January 13, 2021; WBTS, January 11, 2021; Old House Dreams; Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, "10 Historic Homes You Can Visit in Massachusetts," History of Massachusetts, August 22, 2020; Elizabeth Yuko, Rolling Stone, August 4, 2016; Sam Frizell, Time, January 25, 2014; and RealLiving.
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Post by kitty on Jan 15, 2021 15:20:33 GMT -5
Almost everything you see online about Lizzie Borden assumes that she's guilty, but she was acquitted.
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Post by jason on Jan 15, 2021 23:32:54 GMT -5
Great article! I don't think the place is haunted, although the owners really play up the haunted angle. There was a printing company in the building for many years before it was turned into a B&B and no one ever saw any ghosts.
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Post by julia on Jan 15, 2021 23:52:02 GMT -5
Lol! A little comedic relief is always welcome! But seriously, it seems it's becoming more difficult for people today to deal with the realities of life. Those who came of age in the past 40 years probably won't understand this, but there was a time when people, out of necessity, took things in stride, even death. In old cemeteries, there are numerous graves of children who died in infancy or as toddlers, and many women died in childbirth in their 20s or even earlier, but this was something parents, husbands, and children who lost a parent learned to deal with. I've known people who go to pieces over a dead pet and wondered what will happen to them when they have to face the death of a parent, child, or some other family member.
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Post by Kate on Jan 16, 2021 0:41:09 GMT -5
Lol! A little comedic relief is always welcome! But seriously, it seems it's becoming more difficult for people today to deal with the realities of life. Those who came of age in the past 40 years probably won't understand this, but there was a time when people, out of necessity, took things in stride, even death. In old cemeteries, there are numerous graves of children who died in infancy or as toddlers, and many women died in childbirth in their 20s or even earlier, but this was something parents, husbands, and children who lost a parent learned to deal with. I've known people who go to pieces over a dead pet and wondered what will happen to them when they have to face the death of a parent, child, or some other family member. |
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Post by jane on Jan 17, 2021 6:18:08 GMT -5
Great article! I don't think the place is haunted, although the owners really play up the haunted angle. There was a printing company in the building for many years before it was turned into a B&B and no one ever saw any ghosts. |
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Post by catherine on Jan 17, 2021 14:23:45 GMT -5
We went to the B&B a few years ago and I stayed in Lizzie's room. Some of the tour guides aren't as knowledgable as they pretend to be or the one we had was just adding information she knew was incorrect to make people think Lizzie had been sexually abused by Andrew. There's a door between Lizzie's room and the back room where Abby and Andrew slept and the guide wanted everyone to believe it would have been easy for Andrew to get up after Abby was asleep and slip into Lizzie's room. When I reminded her that the larger room wasn't Lizzie's until after she came back from her European tour in 1890 and she and Emma exchanged rooms, she turned red as a beet and after that, she was very frosty toward me -- not that I cared.
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Post by madeline on Jan 17, 2021 15:29:03 GMT -5
Since no one seems to think the B&B is haunted, shouldn't this article be in Murders & Mayhem instead of Haunted News?
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Post by JoannaL on Jan 17, 2021 16:12:48 GMT -5
Since no one seems to think the B&B is haunted, shouldn't this article be in Murders & Mayhem instead of Haunted News? |
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Post by Graveyardbride on Apr 6, 2021 12:39:32 GMT -5
US Ghost Adventures Purchases Lizzie Borden B&BThe house where Lizzie Borden took an axe to her father and stepmother is now the property of spook-chaser Lance Zaal, founder of US Ghost Adventures, which, according to its website, “offers entertaining, historic and authentic ghost tours” in 33 locations across the country.
In January, when the sale of the old Borden home, which had operated as a B&B since the 1990s, some feared the new owners might turn it into a private residence or some other concern, but Zaal insists he is dedicated to keeping the business up and running. “We’ll be adding several different events for both visitors and locals,” he told Realtor.com. “We want this to be a place where people can kind of come in just to have a good time as well. We really want to give more people a reason to go there – so more activities and more events.” Additional themes such as Victorian-style and murder mystery dinners, nightly tours, escape rooms, ghost hunts and possibly some sort of axe-throwing activity are under consideration. Zaal also is thinking about producing an official “Lizzie Borden Axe” as a souvenir of the Lizzie Borden experience.
In spite of what many dismiss as cheap sensationalism, Zaal claims when it comes to the Lizzie Borden story itself, US Ghost Adventures intends to stick to the facts. “We don’t sensationalize anything, we just tell the story,” he explained. “We talk about the history and the things that happened there, and then we talk about the hauntings and the things that people experience.”
Those into modern-day spook-chasing will likely recognize Zaal as the creator of “Lily” (pictured above), a cheesy “supernatural doll” that “wards off ghosts and ghouls around Halloween,” which he sells for $29.99.
Sources: Kelly Corbett, House Beautiful, April 5, 2021; The Boston Globe, March 27, 2021; WBZ, March 26, 2021; Realtor.com; and US Ghost Adventures.
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Post by Kate on Apr 6, 2021 13:20:17 GMT -5
If he doesn't sensationalize things, why would he pose that tacky doll on the shelf beside a photo of Lizzie Borden?
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Post by LostLenore on Apr 9, 2021 6:29:13 GMT -5
The B&B is too commercialized and like others, I doubt that it's haunted. There was too much dissension in the house for Lizzie or any other family member to want to return after death. If Lizzie is still around, she's at Maplecroft, which I would love to visit.
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Post by Kate on Aug 4, 2023 0:31:38 GMT -5
Today is the 131st anniversary of the Borden murders. Does anyone know if there have been any changes at the B&B since Ghost Adventures bought it?
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Post by JoannaL on Aug 5, 2023 17:03:38 GMT -5
Today is the 131st anniversary of the Borden murders. Does anyone know if there have been any changes at the B&B since Ghost Adventures bought it? |
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Post by catherine on Aug 4, 2024 7:46:17 GMT -5
This is the 132nd anniversary of the Borden murders: has anyone been to the B&B since Ghost Adventures took over?
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