Dog3 wrote:
I swiped this from another ng I read. I think this would make a
fantastic B&B. Thanks Mike, if you're reading.

Michael
*******

OOOH yeah!

Jill

Begin article:

In case you missed it,

asking price of $699,920. Real estate taxes are $7,649

House of the week: 'Lizzie Borden' B&B on market in Fall River

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, January 17, 2004

BY AVIS GUNTHER-ROSENBERG
Journal Staff Writer

FALL RIVER, MASS. -- On the morning of Aug. 4, 1892, Andrew J.
Borden, 70, and
his second wife, Abby Durfee Borden, 65, were brutally murdered --
struck repeatedly in the head, neck and shoulders with a hatchet. You
can own the murder site, complete with ghostly apparitions and
mysterious cat meowings, unexplained door closings and startling
visions, loud rappings and the echoes of
children's laughter.

Or, if you don't believe in ghosts, you can buy a beautifully kept
3,146-square-foot Greek-revival residence complete with period
furnishings and
historical treasures to be run as a profitable bed and breakfast or
converted
back to a stately private home.

Of course, you could go in thinking the latter, and circumstances
could change
your mind . . .

The house, at 92 Second St., was built in 1845 by a carpenter whom
Andrew Borden
worked for. Borden -- who held several jobs including banker and
coffin maker --
bought the house for himself, Abby, and his two daughters from his
first marriage -- Lizzie and Emma.

One of the major family conflicts involved the house, which Abby and
Andrew wanted to stay in and Lizzie wanted to leave for a more
elegant house overlooking the city in the Highlands. In fact, after
Lizzie was tried and acquitted of the murder charges, she moved to a
Highlands house she called Maplecroft. A caretaker remained here for
25 years. Ultimately, she and Emma
sold it to him for "a dollar plus considerations."

The house was in several different hands, until Josephine and John
McGinn bought
it in 1948. Their granddaughter, Martha McGinn, lived here during her
teen years, in Emma's former bedroom.

After their deaths, McGinn -- along with business partner Simone J.
Evans converted the house to a bed-and-breakfast. Using historical
documents and police photos from the murder scene, McGinn and Evans
restored and furnished the
house as closely as possible to the way it was in 1892, complete with
reproductions of the floral wall coverings and carpeting, and the
distinctive
Victorian furnishings. Over time, they also acquired several items
that belonged
to Lizzie, including one of her dresses, her sewing machine, and
several of her
books. They even have a costume Elizabeth Montgomery wore in the
made-for-television movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden.

"One of the books we got a kick out of was named, With Edged Tools,"
McGinn says.

McGinn and Evans opened the bed and breakfast on Aug. 4, 1996, the
104th anniversary of the murders.

The house has the original windows, woodwork, ornate radiators and
doorknobs,
and all two original interior doors. The central air conditioning is a
modern
addition, as are electricity and bathrooms. (The Bordens had kerosene
lamps and
an indoor privy in the basement with "slop pails" in the bedrooms.)

And while there are things from the house that Lizzie owned at
Maplecroft - -
like her sewing machine -- most of the furnishings of this house were
lost when
the waterfront storage building they were housed in was destroyed in a
hurricane.

The dining room table, sideboard and hutch came from Maplecroft, and
are of the
era Lizzie lived there, but McGinn says she can't document that they
were owned
by Borden. A silver tea set on the sideboard was donated by a Borden
descendant,
but was not Borden's.

In the entry foyer -- the entrance that Andrew Borden had some
difficulty getting in on the day of the murder -- a mannequin is
attired in Lizzie's own
dress. A piano has been placed in the front parlor where Lizzie would
have taken
lessons.

Lizzie's bedroom has both a bed and a fainting couch, as documented in
stories
about the house at the time the Bordens lived there.

"She had to have one in case she got the vapors," McGinn says.

But the most amazing restorations are at the two murder scenes, where
police
photographers provided stunning documentation of what the house looked
like.
McGinn and Evans were able to find duplicates of the sitting room sofa
where
Andrew was killed while he lay resting from the midday heat, and the
bed and
bureau of the guest room where Abby was hacked to death while
changing the covers on the bed pillows. Copies of the photos of the
bodies hang in frames on
the walls above the spots they were found.

Other bizarre features include the heavy wooden door -- reportedly a
coffin cover made by Borden into a hatch -- that closes off the
upstairs rooms, and a
trap door in the floor of one of the third-floor bedrooms -- the one
that belonged to the Bordens' maid Bridget, who was supposedly in the
yard washing
windows at the time of the murders. McGinn says that one of the owners
after the
Bordens was a bookie, and that the trap door led down to a dry well
in the basement.

"The story is that when Sharky got word the cops were coming to raid
them, he
threw the betting slips down through the trap door to a fire he kept
burning in
the basement."

With all the eerie and ghoulish happenings in the past, is the Borden
house really haunted?

"We hear footsteps all the time," McGinn says. "I have all my life.
Or a door
will open or shut or lock by itself. But they aren't nasty. They are
not malicious."

Once, during a snowstorm, a caretaker once heard pounding on the front
door, but
there was no one there when he went to answer it, she says. Then he
heard pounding on the back door, but there was no one there either.
He thought at first someone was playing a trick on him, but there
wasn't a single footprint in
the freshly fallen snow.

Some guests have reported hearing a woman crying. Others swear they
hear children playing marbles. For the longest time, McGinn couldn't
understand that.
Then she found out about another murder next door.

"We found out there were two kids next door, and their mother drowned
them in
the well," McGinn says.

Several people have reported hearing a cat meowing, but only the house
manager
reports actually seeing the ghostly figure of a cat.

"People say Lizzie killed one of Abby's cats, but I have serious
doubts about
it," McGinn says. "When she died, she left a lot of money to the
Animal Rescue
League, and she bought her pets headstones when then died."

Another frightening tale involves two maids who went up to make the
bed in the
guest room that Abby was murdered in.

"One went downstairs, and the other went back to put towels in,"
McGinn says.
"All of a sudden, there was an imprint on the bed like someone was
lying there."
When the other maid returned to the room at her insistence, she saw
it, too.
"The maid wouldn't even go back in the house to get her paycheck after
that."

Has McGinn ever actually seen a ghost? Once, as a teenager, she says:
"I was
coming downstairs to the basement to do laundry, and I saw what
looked like a
silhouette of a woman in Victorian clothes floating 3 or 4 inches off
the floor."

What did McGinn do? "I ran upstairs and did my laundry later. The
laundry still
needed to be done."

Then there is the strange matter of the murder date -- Aug. 4, 1892.
McGinn's
grandparents, who had no idea they would buy the crime scene more
than two decades later, were married on Aug. 4, 1925. They signed the
purchase-and- sales
agreement on Aug. 4, 1947 or '48. McGinn was born on Aug. 4, 1954.

McGinn and Evans have enjoyed owning this home of mysteries, but have
decided to
place the building on the market in order to spend more time with
their families, McGinn says. All of the furnishings and some of
Lizzie's clothes and
personal items are included in the asking price of $699,920. Real
estate taxes
are $7,649.

The sale price also includes the businesses. Bed and breakfast room
rates are
$150 to $200 a night and up, depending on occupancy. Emma and Lizzie's
bedrooms
and Andrew and Abby's bedrooms form two two-bedroom guest suites.
There are four
additional guest rooms -- one on the second floor and three on the
third, including maid Bridget's room.

In addition, the house connects to 5,945 square feet of commercial
space that
houses Leary Press. The business and the house sit on an
8,162-square-foot lot
across from the bus station, in the heart of downtown Fall River.

Paula Drake of Riverside Realty, Somerset, Mass. has the listing. For
more information on the house, you can visit the bed-and-breakfast
Web site at Lizzie-Borden.com or the Fall River Historical Society
Web Site at LizzieBorden.org.

http://www.projo.com/realestate/cont...en.1d686e.html

Fall River PD transcripts of questioning of Lizzie

http://www.frpd.org/lizzie/part1.htm

Dog3 wrote:
I swiped this from another ng I read. I think this would make a
fantastic B&B. Thanks Mike, if you're reading.

Michael
*******
Micheal, you and I just *have* to go in on this place. Together we can cook
up a mean "forty whacks" breakfast and a "forty-one brunch" heheh

Jill
Begin article:

In case you missed it,

asking price of $699,920. Real estate taxes are $7,649

House of the week: 'Lizzie Borden' B&B on market in Fall River

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, January 17, 2004

BY AVIS GUNTHER-ROSENBERG
Journal Staff Writer

FALL RIVER, MASS. -- On the morning of Aug. 4, 1892, Andrew J.
Borden, 70, and
his second wife, Abby Durfee Borden, 65, were brutally murdered --
struck repeatedly in the head, neck and shoulders with a hatchet. You
can own the murder site, complete with ghostly apparitions and
mysterious cat meowings, unexplained door closings and startling
visions, loud rappings and the echoes of
children's laughter.

Or, if you don't believe in ghosts, you can buy a beautifully kept
3,146-square-foot Greek-revival residence complete with period
furnishings and
historical treasures to be run as a profitable bed and breakfast or
converted
back to a stately private home.

Of course, you could go in thinking the latter, and circumstances
could change
your mind . . .

The house, at 92 Second St., was built in 1845 by a carpenter whom
Andrew Borden
worked for. Borden -- who held several jobs including banker and
coffin maker --
bought the house for himself, Abby, and his two daughters from his
first marriage -- Lizzie and Emma.

One of the major family conflicts involved the house, which Abby and
Andrew wanted to stay in and Lizzie wanted to leave for a more
elegant house overlooking the city in the Highlands. In fact, after
Lizzie was tried and acquitted of the murder charges, she moved to a
Highlands house she called Maplecroft. A caretaker remained here for
25 years. Ultimately, she and Emma
sold it to him for "a dollar plus considerations."

The house was in several different hands, until Josephine and John
McGinn bought
it in 1948. Their granddaughter, Martha McGinn, lived here during her
teen years, in Emma's former bedroom.

After their deaths, McGinn -- along with business partner Simone J.
Evans converted the house to a bed-and-breakfast. Using historical
documents and police photos from the murder scene, McGinn and Evans
restored and furnished the
house as closely as possible to the way it was in 1892, complete with
reproductions of the floral wall coverings and carpeting, and the
distinctive
Victorian furnishings. Over time, they also acquired several items
that belonged
to Lizzie, including one of her dresses, her sewing machine, and
several of her
books. They even have a costume Elizabeth Montgomery wore in the
made-for-television movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden.

"One of the books we got a kick out of was named, With Edged Tools,"
McGinn says.

McGinn and Evans opened the bed and breakfast on Aug. 4, 1996, the
104th anniversary of the murders.

The house has the original windows, woodwork, ornate radiators and
doorknobs,
and all two original interior doors. The central air conditioning is a
modern
addition, as are electricity and bathrooms. (The Bordens had kerosene
lamps and
an indoor privy in the basement with "slop pails" in the bedrooms.)

And while there are things from the house that Lizzie owned at
Maplecroft - -
like her sewing machine -- most of the furnishings of this house were
lost when
the waterfront storage building they were housed in was destroyed in a
hurricane.

The dining room table, sideboard and hutch came from Maplecroft, and
are of the
era Lizzie lived there, but McGinn says she can't document that they
were owned
by Borden. A silver tea set on the sideboard was donated by a Borden
descendant,
but was not Borden's.

In the entry foyer -- the entrance that Andrew Borden had some
difficulty getting in on the day of the murder -- a mannequin is
attired in Lizzie's own
dress. A piano has been placed in the front parlor where Lizzie would
have taken
lessons.

Lizzie's bedroom has both a bed and a fainting couch, as documented in
stories
about the house at the time the Bordens lived there.

"She had to have one in case she got the vapors," McGinn says.

But the most amazing restorations are at the two murder scenes, where
police
photographers provided stunning documentation of what the house looked
like.
McGinn and Evans were able to find duplicates of the sitting room sofa
where
Andrew was killed while he lay resting from the midday heat, and the
bed and
bureau of the guest room where Abby was hacked to death while
changing the covers on the bed pillows. Copies of the photos of the
bodies hang in frames on
the walls above the spots they were found.

Other bizarre features include the heavy wooden door -- reportedly a
coffin cover made by Borden into a hatch -- that closes off the
upstairs rooms, and a
trap door in the floor of one of the third-floor bedrooms -- the one
that belonged to the Bordens' maid Bridget, who was supposedly in the
yard washing
windows at the time of the murders. McGinn says that one of the owners
after the
Bordens was a bookie, and that the trap door led down to a dry well
in the basement.

"The story is that when Sharky got word the cops were coming to raid
them, he
threw the betting slips down through the trap door to a fire he kept
burning in
the basement."

With all the eerie and ghoulish happenings in the past, is the Borden
house really haunted?

"We hear footsteps all the time," McGinn says. "I have all my life.
Or a door
will open or shut or lock by itself. But they aren't nasty. They are
not malicious."

Once, during a snowstorm, a caretaker once heard pounding on the front
door, but
there was no one there when he went to answer it, she says. Then he
heard pounding on the back door, but there was no one there either.
He thought at first someone was playing a trick on him, but there
wasn't a single footprint in
the freshly fallen snow.

Some guests have reported hearing a woman crying. Others swear they
hear children playing marbles. For the longest time, McGinn couldn't
understand that.
Then she found out about another murder next door.

"We found out there were two kids next door, and their mother drowned
them in
the well," McGinn says.

Several people have reported hearing a cat meowing, but only the house
manager
reports actually seeing the ghostly figure of a cat.

"People say Lizzie killed one of Abby's cats, but I have serious
doubts about
it," McGinn says. "When she died, she left a lot of money to the
Animal Rescue
League, and she bought her pets headstones when then died."

Another frightening tale involves two maids who went up to make the
bed in the
guest room that Abby was murdered in.

"One went downstairs, and the other went back to put towels in,"
McGinn says.
"All of a sudden, there was an imprint on the bed like someone was
lying there."
When the other maid returned to the room at her insistence, she saw
it, too.
"The maid wouldn't even go back in the house to get her paycheck after
that."

Has McGinn ever actually seen a ghost? Once, as a teenager, she says:
"I was
coming downstairs to the basement to do laundry, and I saw what
looked like a
silhouette of a woman in Victorian clothes floating 3 or 4 inches off
the floor."

What did McGinn do? "I ran upstairs and did my laundry later. The
laundry still
needed to be done."

Then there is the strange matter of the murder date -- Aug. 4, 1892.
McGinn's
grandparents, who had no idea they would buy the crime scene more
than two decades later, were married on Aug. 4, 1925. They signed the
purchase-and- sales
agreement on Aug. 4, 1947 or '48. McGinn was born on Aug. 4, 1954.

McGinn and Evans have enjoyed owning this home of mysteries, but have
decided to
place the building on the market in order to spend more time with
their families, McGinn says. All of the furnishings and some of
Lizzie's clothes and
personal items are included in the asking price of $699,920. Real
estate taxes
are $7,649.

The sale price also includes the businesses. Bed and breakfast room
rates are
$150 to $200 a night and up, depending on occupancy. Emma and Lizzie's
bedrooms
and Andrew and Abby's bedrooms form two two-bedroom guest suites.
There are four
additional guest rooms -- one on the second floor and three on the
third, including maid Bridget's room.

In addition, the house connects to 5,945 square feet of commercial
space that
houses Leary Press. The business and the house sit on an
8,162-square-foot lot
across from the bus station, in the heart of downtown Fall River.

Paula Drake of Riverside Realty, Somerset, Mass. has the listing. For
more information on the house, you can visit the bed-and-breakfast
Web site at Lizzie-Borden.com or the Fall River Historical Society
Web Site at LizzieBorden.org.

http://www.projo.com/realestate/cont...en.1d686e.html

Fall River PD transcripts of questioning of Lizzie

http://www.frpd.org/lizzie/part1.htm

jmcquown wrote:

Dog3 wrote:
I swiped this from another ng I read. I think this would make a
fantastic B&B. Thanks Mike, if you're reading.

Michael
*******
Micheal, you and I just *have* to go in on this place. Together we can cook
up a mean "forty whacks" breakfast and a "forty-one brunch" heheh

Jill
Begin article:

In case you missed it,

asking price of $699,920. Real estate taxes are $7,649

House of the week: 'Lizzie Borden' B&B on market in Fall River

Okay, but it would have to be heavy on the BAM!!!!!!! Kick it up
a notch! as Emeril is from Fall River.

nancy

Nancy Young wrote:
jmcquown wrote:

Dog3 wrote:
I swiped this from another ng I read. I think this would make a
fantastic B&B. Thanks Mike, if you're reading.

Michael
*******
Micheal, you and I just *have* to go in on this place. Together we
can cook up a mean "forty whacks" breakfast and a "forty-one brunch"
heheh

Jill
Begin article:

In case you missed it,

asking price of $699,920. Real estate taxes are $7,649

House of the week: 'Lizzie Borden' B&B on market in Fall River

Okay, but it would have to be heavy on the BAM!!!!!!! Kick it up
a notch! as Emeril is from Fall River.

nancy

Gawd, did he kill his parents?! And why does he keep pretending he's Cajun?

Jill

Dog3 wrote:
"jmcquown" deliciously posted in
:

Dog3 wrote:
I swiped this from another ng I read. I think this would make a
fantastic B&B. Thanks Mike, if you're reading.

Michael
*******
Micheal, you and I just *have* to go in on this place. Together we
can cook up a mean "forty whacks" breakfast and a "forty-one brunch"
heheh

Jill

Don't you just know it. Now, for a cocktail menu. Hmmm... bucket of
blood..y... marys... stop me now

Michael

That 'cocktail' has to include chunks of lobster and crab meat, sliced green
onion, spicy chilled V-8. Welcome to our Haunted House :-)

Jill

Dog3 wrote:

I swiped this from another ng I read. I think this would make a fantastic
B&B. Thanks Mike, if you're reading.

Michael
*******

Begin article:

In case you missed it,

asking price of $699,920. Real estate taxes are $7,649

House of the week: 'Lizzie Borden' B&B on market in Fall River

I wanted to stay there a couple of years ago when I made my
first trip to New England. Unfortunately it was way too
expensive. I drove by it when I was in Fall River visiting
Lizzie's grave. The house didn't even look occupied from
the street in front. I imagine there must be a back entrance
that people use since there's no parking on the street in
front. Anyone else know the Chad Mitchell Trio's version
of the Lizzie Borden song?

Yesterday in old Fall River, Mr. Andrew Borden died.
And they got his daughter Lizzie on a charge of homicide.
Some folks says she didn't do it and others say of course she did.
But they all agreed Miss Lizzie, she was a problem kind a kid.
Cause you can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts.
Not even if it's planned as a surprise, a surprise!
No you can't chop your Papa up in Massachusetts.
You know how neighbors love to criticize.

Lizzie is one of my heros! ;-) She sure knew how to
deal with an evil step-parent.

Kate, who has had more than her share of evil step-relatives.

P.S. Actually, though, I'm not convinced she did it.

--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?