1. "hawaiian connection"
Posted by diana on Aug-1st-02 at 7:21 PM

Here's an article I by a recent visitor to the B&B.  I found it when I was trying to find the answer to rays question about the writing on the Borden Building.

http://starbulletin.com/2002/07/28/travel/story1.html

This is my first time trying to post a link -- so hope it works!

That was a cool link. Hawaii? That is a far piece for somebody to come to visit the murder site! Wasn't there an anonymous letter writer to the LBQ a while back from Hawaii? Maybe this is that person? They had some startling new infomation as I recall and I wondered at the time how somebody so far away could dig up good new facts. Unless the facts were not actually facts but made up to stir it up.

Thanks for the link, Diana.  Great little story there, and all the way from Hawaii! 

Thanks for the Link!
You read our mind, Diana, with that title.  That same phrase was batted around here a couple of times lately...

I've been wondering about the bedroom situation.
If this is O/T send me elsewhere...

That Abby saved the guest room, the second best room, for VISITORS, NOT the daughters of the House.
If you think about it, that room SHOULD have been Lizzie's room, with the other room being Emma's originally so they would also have the use of the LITTLE ROOM as their SITTING ROOM.

I doubt Abby had enough company to warrant a best room being SAVED from use by the family members that needed their privacy & space.

The attic area could have been re-designed or decorated nicely enough for the few guests?  (As it is now?)

I wonder why she apportioned the rooms this way?
It's almost as if the *comfort* of occaisional guests was higher priority than the use of a daughter...

This woman did a really great job of describing the house.  She apparently felt much the same as I did about it.  I like her little soap-bottle thingy too.  With regard to Kat's post, I didn't have the feeling Lizzie was cheated on space.  Her room looks to be about the same size as the guest room, but when I went into her room, it somehow seemed more spacious than the other.  I certainly think Emma got the short end of the stick, though.  There seems to have been an assumption that Emma had no social life and would always be going to bed before Lizzie did!

But Emma, as the eldest sister had the status, and she DID have the larger room until c.1890.
That means Lizzie was in that little room for what, 18 out of 20 years?  When she could have had a nice room like Emma's from the beginning?

I realize that some guests come from very far away, and therefore stay a Very long time (Life With Father, with Elizabeth Taylor).  But who?  And we should know about them.

If a person stayed in the attic room, was it nice enough to stay in for a prolonged visit?  In your experience?
Also, if Abby had put HER guests in the attic area, they would be using the back stairs and the back door and have closer access to the water closet.  They could schmooze all evening in the sitting room with Andrew & Abby and then retire at the same time, all going up stairs together...leaving the girls their space.

This brought a thought to mind, the attic space was more or less, servant space, Bridget's bedroom was up there.  I would think that the Borden's would have some sort of social status conscience, an important guest wouldn't sleep in the servant's quarters.  We know Lizzie was very aware of her social status, I wonder if the elder Bordens had this sort of thought in mind.  I recall reading Uncle John stayed up there, but, I think it was only when the guest room was already in use.  I'm not disagreeing with you, Kat!  I think your solution is very, very practical, I just wonder how Andrew and Abby would have viewed it. 

Uncle John LIVED in the attic for an entire year. It is in the Prelim, page 235. The year was 1875.

I remember the attic as a nice place. Cozy. It has/had its own sitting room space at the top of the stairs. A small open area. Then the hall with the rooms off to each side. Or was it one side. I can't remember now. Bridget's was the first room on the left.

That's just it, Susan.
I can't think of an important guest...
Only family, but HER family was local or not too far away.
I don't think his family came and stayed either.
When Morse came infrequently, I think he was put in the attic because the women were doing SEWING in the guest room, not that it already had a guest in it. (?)
I suppose the girls could have had guests...maybe more likely than the elder Borden's...in THAt case, I suppose Lizzie would CHOOSE to have the better room reserved for their use...but wouldn't it have to be pretty frequently, to deny ONESELF the use of the room?
I didn't think Lizzie had all that many friends when she was younger.
I agree about "status"...and the "servant's quarters" but who do we know would rate STATUS that would stay?

This is true!  Didn't the dressmaker stay in the guest room when she came to make the new dresses or did she just do the work in there?  I would think that when she was there that room was just filled with fabrics and trimmings and such.  I can't think of any such guest that any of the Bordens would have that would merit such importance.  But, the guest room may have been designated as such early on when they moved into the house, and the guest room it stayed, despite evidence of little to no use by guests.  Perhaps Lizzie did ask Andrew for that room?  Maybe he said no?  I was thinking it would make more sense to use Lizzie's room and the guest room as bedrooms, Emma's room as their dress closet, and the dress closet, if big enough, as a smaller guest room.  I think it was in Lincoln's book that said at one point in time, the dress closet was used as a baby's room.