The Lizzie Borden Society archive

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1. "Lizzie rides in style"
Posted by Harry on Jan-14th-02 at 8:10 PM

When Lizzie was acquitted at the trial she did not return to Fall River from New Bedford by the train.  She went by a carriage called a "landau".

With my interest peaked, I had to know what a "landau" was.

Found the following explanation at:

http://www.likesbooks.com/carriages.html


"Landau: The Lincoln Continental of carriages. It was similar to a barouche in that it held four passengers and was pulled by four horses, but a landau had two folding hoods that could be raised to cover all four passengers or left open to take in the sights. This was the carriage you used when you took an afternoon ride in the park while you showed off your finery - and showed off that you could afford a landau."

They are still being used today in England at weddings and State occasions such as the opening of Parliment. They can also be rented for rides such as the carriages in New York's Central Park.

Spend that money Lizzie!

(Message last edited Jan-14th-02  8:12 PM.)

I just love the stuff that "gets your interest", Harry.  Thanks

(Message last edited Jan-14th-02  10:13 PM.)

Okay-what do you think Lizzie would have for a car today? Lexus? Benz?

What's the money ratio now?
She'd have millions?
Lear Jet with John Travolta as pilot....

Maybe a stretch limo with Morgan Freeman. "Driving Miss Lizzie."

Something big and menacing, like a black Lincoln Navigator with tinted windows.

And she would be a tailgater.

Possible bumper stickers?
My Other Car Is A Broom
MSPCA Member
Goddess Bless
Dont Like My Driving? Call 1800 Kiss My Ass
Hate Is Not A Family Value

Interesting post, Harry.  Enclosed carriage I can see, but there were other less expensive closed carriages around then, weren't there?  Gee, she wasted no time at all.  I think back to the "Legend..." movie where she's in her jail cell and makes Emma memorize the list of finery she will bring for the next day.  (Loved the 'bumper stickers'!)

  Loved the bumper stickers too!  This post made me wonder, later on in life, Lizzie would be seen driving around Fall River in a big black limo, from Lincoln's book.  But, what make and model of car did she own?

And what was our Lizzie's take on the Tin Lizzy(or is it LizzIE)?  Was she amused by the shared name or annoyed to share a name with a rattletrap car as such?

More bumper stickers;

I brake for unicorns(pigeons, cats, dogs, horses, etc.)

My other car is a hearse.

WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) Member

Possible license plate numbers?
     
       AX4TWO

       922NDST

Great license plates!

In Williams CASEBOOK, pg. 262, Mr. Ellis Waring of Swansea, cousin of Dwight who married Jenning's daughter, and who "as a child played in the garden at Maplecroft" claims Lizzie "owned a PACKARD automobile..."

Here is a site to find Packards. Click on LIBRARY/SHOWROOM.  Scroll down past the factories until you find "AUTOMOBILES", and pick a year!

http://www.packardclub.org/

(Message last edited May-26th-02  6:49 PM.)

Thanks for the info and the site, Kat!  There was also a 1910 Limo from Packard, but, I have a feeling that our Lizzie chose the Imperial Limo, its big, black and ostentatious!  Can't you just picture her going by in this car with a big picture hat on with a veil and sitting staring straight forward!  I can!  Neither looking left nor right, how haughty!  How mysterious!


More license plates:

     IHVMNY   (I have money)

     RCHBCH   (rich bitch)

     NTGLTY   (not guilty)

     IDIDIT   (for the rest of us, ha, ha!)     

More license plates:

ORPHAN

WAT AX?

ERND IT

.

(Message last edited May-27th-02  1:01 AM.)

Landau carriages

Pardon me if this doesn't work.
Am trying something here. If I 'attach' a picture it now has a permanent 'address', right?
So can I then cut-n-paste from that address to here as a photo?

TA-DA!!

(Message last edited May-27th-02  2:43 AM.)

  Very good, Kat!  I like them!  I came up with some more:

DDSGRL   (Daddy's girl)

AXULTR

TKANAX   (Took an ax)

BADGRL

FALRVR

MPLCRF

BTW, How do you put attachments on this board, is it very complicated? 

If you have a PC, Harry is REALLY good at explaining how to attach pictures, and post pictures.
In my case it took an amalgan of Stef AND Harry, because I have a MAC.
If anyone with a MAC wants to know, I can tell'em.

Here's a photo of Maplecroft, c.1910. Note the car out front. Anybody know what kind it is?

Nice picture Kat. I have no idea what it is. I'm not much on car types.

Here is a picture of a 1910 Packard. From what I briefly read it was a very expensive car for it's day.

The Packard was always an expensive car for its day!!! Its market was restricted to the social classes (rich and respectable). You would never see a bookie in one. I believe they had a sales contract that said you would sell it back to the dealer.

Al Capone got one by getting a dummy purchaser (a dentist) to buy it for him; then he borrowed it.

How Packard went out of business in the 1950s is another story.

I think Packards came out earlier than that.  I know there was an early dealer in Boston.  I wonder if Lizzie purchased her Packard from them?  Knowing what we do about her, don't you think she'd be one of the first to get one?  I think I read that somewhere, too (Lincoln?).  Lizzie's was black, according to every source I've seen.  And it'd be one of the more expensive ones, I'd think.  Prices varied, depending on how extravagent you wanted to go.  There were some like $10,000 Packards in Lizzie's day.

The car in front of Maplecroft probably isn't Lizzie's.  Hers would be put away.  I don't think she'd be seen walking out to the curb (there are lots of houses close by) to get in it.  Besides, that's what her 'coachman' was paid for - seeing that she rode in style.

I have read that she stared straight ahead when going thru Fall River.

Yikes!  That was one expensive car!!!  Could you imagine what an extravagance that was?  Boy, our Lizzie did really ride in style!  I have to agree with Augusta, that that most probably isn't Lizzie's car.  Wasn't there some sort of hoopla about Lizzie buying some property to build a garage and the land lease clearly stated that she was to build NO structures on it and had to knock down her garage and rebuild behind the house?  Can't recall where I read that, does anyone know? 

I hadn't heard of that, Susan.  It'd be interesting to learn about that.  When I've seen the garage of Maplecroft - and I didn't see much of it, just what I could see from the sidewalk out front - it was neat to imagine what might have been parked inside of it at one time or another.  Hm.  I wonder, then, what year Lizzie did have the garage built?  I thought it had come with the house.  You get me thinking, Susan!

I wish I could remember WHERE I had read that?  If I recall correctly, when she had the garage rebuilt Lizzie also put up a wall between her property and the people who had sold it to her!  I believe it was a stone or rock wall?  I've got myself thinking too, Augusta, I hate when I do this, remember things, but, not where they have come from!  Aggravating! 

Lizzie left two automobiles in her will:

A 1924 Buick Sedan valued at $425 went to Ernest Terry Sr.
A 1923 Lincoln sedan valued at $1000 went to Mr. Cook.

LIZZIEANDREWBORDEN web-site, Spotlight Contributions, "All Things Swift", by Terence Duniho:

"...In 1902...Lizzie bought 11.67 square rods on the east side of Belmont street from Mary D. Swift [Marcus Swift's widow].  It was to be 'kept and continued open and free from any building or buildings.'  At that time Lizzie almost certainly did not yet own a car.  She probably had not thought about the exact use she might make of this lot...Gertrude Stevenson, in an article she wrote for the Boston Post in 1913 , had this to say:

'A few years ago she discarded her carriage and handsome pair [of horses] for the finest limousine that money could buy.'

Thus it was perhaps about 1910 that she decided to build a driveway and/or garage on the lot behind the Swift property.  Ms. Stevenson provides...details...:

'It was a strange circumstance that led this woman to choose a home adjoining that of the man who later became the chief prosecuting officer for the commonwealth, Attny James M. Swift...The Swifts owned a lot of land [parcel] at the rear of their own residence...joining the Borden property at right angles and facing Belmont street, which Miss Borden bought some years later.

The deed of this purchase discloses a clause restricting Miss Borden from ever erecting a structure of any description upon it.  With the acquistion of a new automobile, however, Miss Borden made preparations to build a garage on the land she had purchased from the family of the attorney-general in spite of the clause forbidding any such construction.  Much to her annoyance the Swift's held her to the letter of her deed;  at least, that is the inference generally drawn, as she finally built her garage on the other side of her house on a lot which she had purchased some time before.  Originally there was a house on this lot, but Miss Borden had had it removed and the land converted into very attractive grounds.

The original plan for the garage called for an entrance facing Belmont street and a driveway across the land which the Swifts had formerly owned.  The restriction in the deed, however, prevented the construction of even as much as a concrete path.  Therefore, Miss Borden was obliged to keep that portion of her property devoted to grass lot and have the entrance to her garage from French street and across the lot which she preferred to keep as a smooth lawn.

Her vexation being held to the conditions of the deed was immediately expressed in a 10 foot lattice fence separating her house from the Swift house.  She also had built a low iron fence separating the two lawns and defining her property line.  She declared that the high fence had been built between the houses to save herself from the annoyance of the curious scrutiny of tradespeople delivering goods at the adjoining houses.' "


--Now, come on, let's see Susan post some picture attachments of the vehicles William specified!.....

Kat:

See Rebello, page 285.  This is a picture of the garage, taken by The Boston Herald in 1913.
Bill

Thanks, Kat!  Thats what I had read, but, didn't recall where!  I'm still in the process of learning how to post pictures, so, maybe next time I'll be able to!