About a year and a half ago, at the end of October 2018 I stopped in Fall River, Massachusetts on my New England road trip to check out everything Lizzie Borden, including staying the night at Lizzie's house. Lizzie Borden was accused of killing her father and step-mother with a hatchet on August 4th, 1892. You may have hard the nursery rhyme "Lizzie Borden had an axe, gave her mother forty wacks..." or seen the numerous movies and T.V. shows based on Lizzie. Ultimately she was acquitted, but there are many people who still believe she did it. What better way to spend the Halloween season then to stay in the house where the Borden's were murdered?
I started at the Oak Grove Cemetery where Lizzie and her family are buried. The cemetery has made it as easy as possible to find the grave sites by painting white arrows on the ground to mark the way. You'll notice that Lizzie's head-marker says "Lizbeth" which is Lizzie started using after the murder trial.
After visiting the cemetery I drove over to the Maplecroft house (pictured on the right). This is the house that Lizzie and her sister Emma lived in after the murder trial was over. It isn't open for public tours but you are able to rent the house for an overnight stay and there are occasional events hosted there.
My last stop was the infamous house itself. There is a small parking lot in the back with enough room for about 10 cars, most rooms share a bathroom, and dinner is not included. A tour of the house and breakfast the next morning are included however. After the tour the guide goes home for the night and you are left alone in the house with the other guests until the next morning. You are free to explore and there are some paranormal tools available like a Ouija board and dowsing rods if you dare to tempt fate before trying to go to sleep. I did, but I'm not going to tell you what happened, you have to go visit and see for yourself! Unfortunately this house is not wheelchair accessible at either entrance, or to get to the second floor.
One thing that caught my eye were crates full of binders with copies of original trial articles from 1893 which were fascinating (and amusing) to look at. Something else worth noting, after the trial Lizzie and Emma moved the furniture from this house into storage until they purchased Maplecroft, and during that time the storage facility burned down. As a result the owners have replicated the decor as closely as possible to match what the house looked like at the time that the murders occurred.
The house is really cool whether you believe Lizzie was the killer or not, and if you're into this sort of thing it is 100% worth visiting and staying the night. I enjoyed every single minute of my stay and would highly recommend it!
The three pictures below are of the parlor, the infamous couch where Mr. Borden was killed, and the bedroom where Mrs. Borden was killed (the John V. Morse room).
If you want to read about how I started my New England road trip with Steven King check it out here!