House where Lizzie Borden and her family lived and is notable for being the location of the notorious 1892 unsolved double murder of Andrew and Abby Borden

How to Get There

Overview

The Lizzie Borden House is where Lizzie Borden and her family lived. It is notable for being the location of the notorious 1892 unsolved double murder of Andrew and Abby Borden. It is located in Fall River, Massachusetts.

History

From 1874 to 1892, the house was the property of Andrew Borden, Lizzie's father, who was a member of Fall River high society. After Lizzie's trial and acquittal for murdering her father and stepmother in the home, she bought another house located at 7 French Street that she named 'Maplecroft'. Lizzie lived there until her death on June 1, 1927.

Recent history

It has operated as a bed and breakfast since 1996 under the ownership of Martha McGinn who inherited the house. Martha's grandparents purchased the house on August 4, 1948. According to Martha McGinn, the room where Lizzie's stepmother Abby Borden was found murdered is the "most requested room" of the bedrooms at the bed and breakfast. The Fall River Historical Society promotes the Lizzie Borden bed and breakfast as a tourist attraction.

Tours of the house often make reference to the possibility of ghostly activity, and in their book The Ghost Chronicles, self-proclaimed "medium" Maureen Wood and self-proclaimed "paranormal scientist" Ron Kolek describe experiencing ghostly events in the house. However, investigator of claims of the paranormal Joe Nickell reports that these claims are based upon either unverifiable personal feelings of a ghostly presence or the use of well-known and well-understood techniques like table-tipping that, like ouija board and dowsing rod effects, involve the ideomotor effect rather than the presence of a ghostly spirit.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lizzie Borden House", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0