Fall River History Club meeting
Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 6:30 pm
ANOTHER FIELD TRIP!!!
We are all in for another remarkable treat! Our next History Club meeting will be a special tour, suitable for all ages, of the
Luther’s Store Museum, conducted by Curator Carl Becker
Located at the intersection of Old Warren Road, Pearse Road and Maple Avenue, at 8 Pearse Road, in Swansea, Massachusetts
INFORMATION ABOUT LUTHER’S MUSEUM
Email me with questions.
See you there!
Photographer Marc Belanger has captured the essence of change in Fall River with his latest images. He has graciously given me permission to post them here.
The change is startling, don’t you agree?
The Before was not attractive in the slightest. And the After is a crying shame! In the late 1800′s, the Southard Miller house stood on this site. It was a two family house. In one half of the house (could be upstairs and down, or side by side like a duplex) lived Southard Miller, builder and father of Franklin Miller (painter of the Fall River School). In the other half lived Dr. Seabury Bowen and his family. Bowen, as you recall, was the doctor to the Borden family, who lived katy-corner across the street at 92 Second Street.
Bowen was the first doctor on the scene at the Borden house on the day of the murders, August 4th, 1892. Now stands the Fall River Trial Court. Something tells me this property won’t become something else for a long long time.
And here is a link to Marc’s photostream on Flickr. You MUST see his work. Remarkable!
Deb Allard of the Fall River Herald News has published a handy guide for the Lizzie Borden goings on for August. The highlights include tours, exhibits, theatre, and lectures.
By Deborah Allard
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Aug 11, 2010 @ 02:45 PM
FALL RIVER —
Anyone who loves the mystery of the Borden murders invariably loves the month of August. This year’s 118th anniversary was no different. It brought Lizzie revelers from all over to see the annual reenactment at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast and the new Bordenabilia exhibit at the Fall River Historical Society.Anyone who missed out on those great Borden bites, needn’t fear — Lizzie doesn’t sleep (her fans won’t let her).
FALL RIVER
The Fall River Historical Society, 451 Rock St., will continue its Bordenabilia exhibit until Oct. 15.On exhibit is the blood-stained bedspread and pillow shams from the Borden guest bedroom displayed unfolded and on a bed for the first time since the Aug. 4, 1892 murders of Lizzie Borden’s father and step-mother Andrew and Abby Borden. Also displayed are Abby’s braid, Abby’s dusting cap, a cape owned either by Lizzie or her sister Emma, a cape owned by Lizzie and Emma’s birth mother in the 1850s, original trial exhibit photographs, a scrapbook kept by Lizzie’s attorney, selections from The Knowlton Papers, other evidence in the hip-bath collection, selections from the unpublished Rufus Hilliard papers, personal letters, photographs, books, case evidence, correspondence and other possessions of the Borden family, including silver goblets emblazoned with a “B” that belonged to Abby and Andrew Borden.
Hours are Tuesday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is $8 which includes a tour of the Victorian granite mansion. Photos are not allowed. For information call 508-679-1071 or visit www.lizzieborden.org.
The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast, 92 Second St., the site of the actual Borden murders, is open for tours throughout the year. Visitors can view where Andrew and Abby were murdered, and step inside Lizzie Borden’s bedroom.
Tours are offered daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the hour. Tour prices are $12.50 for adults, $10 for seniors and college students with ID, and $5 for children ages 15 and under. Children under 6 are admitted free.
Photos are allowed in the house. For information, call 508-675-7333 or visit www.lizzie-borden.com.
MARION
“Lizzie Borden: The Mystery Continues” will be offered at the Sippican Historical Society on Thursday, Aug. 19 at 7 p.m. at Marion’s Music Hall.The event will feature a one-hour retelling of the infamous Borden murders by Christopher Daley, a Kingston history teacher who has researched the Borden case extensively.
Lizzie Borden had ties to the town of Marion and was planning to go fishing there the week after the murders at a friend’s home. On the day of the murder of her father and step-mother, she told police she was in the barn looking for lead to make her own fishing sinkers.
The event is free. Donations are welcome and refreshments will be served. For more information, contact the Sippican Historical Society at 508-748-1116 or visit www.sippicanhistoricalsociety.org.
NEW YORK
The Blue Coyote Theater Group will present the world premiere of David Foley’s Nance O’Neil, directed by Gary Shrader.Nance O’Neil was an actress friend of Lizzie Borden. David Foley’s Nance O’Neil, imaginatively elaborated from a historical footnote, examines the fascinating relationship between these two women. Were they in love? Or were there other motivations at play?
The relationship between Nance O’Neil and Lizzie Borden has been rife with speculation. As a spinster, Lizzie’s sexuality has always been in question. With rumors of Nance’s numerous affairs with other women, some high profile, several historians and researchers have speculated that Nance and Lizzie were indeed lovers. However, historically this remains as elusive as Mr. and Mrs. Borden’s killer.
Nance O’Neil begins Wed. Sept. 8 for a limited engagement through Sat. Oct., 9. Opening Night is Wed. Sept. 15 at 8 p.m.
The performance schedule is Wednesday to Saturday at 8 p.m. Performances are at the Access Theater, 380 Broadway, just north of White Street. Tickets are $25 ($15 during previews) and are available by calling SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.smarttix.com.
This has to be a record for invoking the name and story of Lizzie Borden, on her 150th birthday no less, in describing current affairs. It is quite the tour de force!
Way to go Bernie!
From The Daily Caller:
Axing economic growth
2:19 PM 07/19/2010Today marks the 150th birthday of Lizzie Borden, the Massachusetts spinster who was accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet on August 4, 1892. Lizzie’s fame soared during the nationally publicized courtroom drama, the O.J. Simpson trial of its day. Despite incriminating circumstances and inconsistent testimony from the accused, the prosecutors were hampered by their failure to incontrovertibly produce a murder weapon or blood evidence tying Lizzie to the crime, and she was acquitted after only an hour and a half of jury deliberations. Amid widespread public belief in her guilt, Lizzie went on to become an American Folklore legend, her notoriety sealed by the children’s rhyme coined by an anonymous newspaper reporter:
Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.The stock market got whacked last Friday, primarily due to fears of the impact of financial regulatory reform on bank profits. This week, despite the prospect of strong corporate earnings, the indexes remain trapped in a trading range, partially due to investor concerns that pending government actions are going to take a blunt axe to global economic growth. EU countries appear determined to chop spending while simultaneously taking a bigger slice of taxpayer paychecks, and the American political climate has shifted markedly in favor of the deficit hawks. If governments on either side of the Atlantic go through with their stated intention to reduce deficit spending, (and it must be admitted that it’s far from certain that they will) the drag on economic growth is likely to be considerable. Fears of economic contraction continue to grow, and after two years of pundit histrionics over the inevitable return of severe inflationary pressures, public gaze has begun to shift towards the truly frightening prospect of deflation. Macroeconomic headwinds are clearly eroding investor confidence.
That confidence was in recovery mode as the Eurozone debt crisis receded from front pages worldwide, but the European bank stress tests are creating anxiety for some investors. The jury is still out on the results, which are expected at the end of the week, and while observers will be watching closely to see what kind of haircuts are taken for holdings of sovereign debt, it seems highly unlikely that any major banks will be wind up on the chopping block. The muted reaction of European markets in recent sessions is evidence that the whisper numbers are benign and unfortunately, that leaves the potential for downside pressure should those tests unexpectedly reveal serious problems.
In light of those worries, this week’s earnings reports will have to be spectacular to move the market significantly higher. Investors are aware that corporate managers have cut expenses to the bone, and they remain haunted by a lack of topline revenue growth. With trillions in cash still on the sidelines, it is clear that corporate managers and individual investors generally lack faith that the hoped-for recovery will materialize in the near future. Potential rallies will require a significant infusion of those hoarded piles of cash if they are to stand a ghost of a chance at success.
It is said that ghosts inhabit the site of the Borden murders in Fall River, Massachusetts, named by the Travel Channel as the scariest place on earth. In recent years, the Borden home has been turned into a bed and breakfast, allowing those with a taste for the macabre to spend a night communing with the spirits of those involved in the terrible events of that long ago day. Fascination with the Borden murders remains high and Lizzie herself still looms large in American popular culture. Her notoriety has spawned dozens of books, dramas, television shows, and even a musical engagingly entitled “Lizzie Borden: A Musical Tragedy in Two Axe”. Rather than fading into the mists of history, that steady stream of media attention has ensured that more than a century after their bloody occurrence, the murders themselves remain America’s most famous hatchet job.
Bernie McSherry is senior vice president for strategic initiatives at Cuttone & Company.
Happy Birthday Lizzie Borden! Born on July 19th in 1860, you would have been 150 years old today.
“The Bank” purchased the old Abbey Grill last year and has now put the structure up for sale. You can purchase it for almost $300,000 less than Maplecroft!
Click on the image to see a larger version of it.
I think, along with former City Counselor Steve Camara, that this would make a great disco! Someone with vision and money, please purchase this great building before it gets demolished for a darned parking lot!
It is on the National Register of Historic Buildings, so there might be federal money in this for you to rehab!
Today’s Fall River Herald News features an interesting piece about graphologist Janice Warren and her interpretation of Lizzie Borden’s character from analyzing her writing.
In summarizing Borden, Warren said she was highly emotional, which could be masked by her staunch pride and perfectionism. Her lofty goals to live among the city’s high society on the hill, combined with her weak self-direction and plight as a woman in a male dominated society set the stage for acute frustration. Her philosophy also appeared to deviate from the accepted norm. “Couple all this with her extreme contentiousness and temper and add her fear of losing her inheritance and ending up in a poor house and the stage is set,” she said.
To see how your handwriting stacks up against the rich and famous, join Warren on Friday, June 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Christ Church, 57 Main St., in Swansea. The event, a fundraiser for the church’s outreach projects, costs $5. Tickets are available at the door or in advance by calling 508-678-6486.
I, too, analyze handwriting and know that you can only tell the personality of the person at the time of writing, and should not make judgments about the long-term behavior of anyone with graphology. It is best to analyze people you do not know, as the history of a person can play into the reading without one even being aware of it. My most accurate analysis was always done on handwriting where the person was either an acquaintance or a stranger.
I realize that Ms. Warren is an expert and master, so my little talent from years of self-study probably would not come close to her abilities. I am eager to see what she has to say, and look forward to meeting her in person during her talk Friday night. I have much to learn and am particularly fascinated by handwriting analysis as a tool for not only character study, but self-investigation.
The great American opera composer Jack Beeson has died at the age of 88.
This from the Eugene Opera Company blog:
Beeson’s next opera, Lizzie Borden, again based on an American subject, was commissioned by the Ford Foundation for the New York City Opera. Lizzie Borden tells the familiar story with less emphasis on the ax murders than on “the psychological climate that made them inevitable”, according to critic Robert Sherman. In American Opera Librettos, Andrew H. Drummond writes, “This opera has an obvious dramatic effectiveness in which a clear and direct development with tightly drawn characterization leads to a powerful climax.” New York City Opera premiered Lizzie Borden in 1965, and it was produced for television by the National Educational Television Network in 1967 using the original cast. A new NYCO production opened in March 1999 and was telecast by PBS.
A detailed biography can be found at Boosey & Hawkes.
I just heard from John Quatrale, curator at the Brighton-Allston Heritage Museum, where the Lizzie Borden letter is located.
He researched the history of how the Historical Society came to possess the letter. It is a fascinating story!
The letter has been on exhibit at the Brighton-Allston Heritage Museum since 2007, when the museum opened. The letter was part of a larger collection owned by Brighton historian J.P.C. Winship (jpeg attached). He wrote the first history of Brighton called “Historical Brighton” in 1899. His collection of documents included the signatures of prominent figures of the day, including Revolutionary War officers, Presidents of the United States, Congressmen, Governors, and other famous people like Lizzie Borden.
J.P.C. Winship was the son of Captain Jonathan Winship III , a pioneer explorer of the Pacific, and the great grandson of Jonathan Winship I, who supplied meat to the General Washington’s Continental Army.
Monday’s Fall River Herald News will feature an article by Deborah Allard about the new Lizzie Borden letter I found locally and its possible significance.
I told the curator to expect some visitors!
It is fanciful, to be sure, with factual inaccuracies, but I really enjoyed the narration and the visuals, which are superior. I love the stamp idea. So all in all, an excellent video. And it just gets better and better as you watch it. Highly recommended.
It is titled “Tragedy in Fall River,” by Stephen Rumbaugh, Narration by Gillian Marsham Hill.
Juan Jose Campanella will be directing a film adaptation of the hit children’s fantasy series Heck, by Dale E. Basye, in which Lizzie Borden appears as a teacher. The plot of the book is thus:
The story follows a boy named Milton Fauster who, with his shoplifting sister, dies in a freak accident and ends up in an unearthly reform school called Heck, where Lizzie Borden teaches home economics and Richard Nixon is the ethics teacher. And this is a children’s book? Read on!
Whilst stuck in the boarding school, Milton meets Virgil, a boy who has a map of the Nine Circles of Heck, and the two escape the netherworld and its leader, the principal of darkness Bea “Elsa” Bubb.
This description comes from Random House: “When Milton and Marlo Fauster die in a marshmallow-bear explosion, they get sent straight to Heck, an otherworldly reform school. Milton can understand why his kleptomaniac sister is here, but Milton is—or was—a model citizen. Has a mistake been made? Not according to Bea “Elsa” Bubb, the Principal of Darkness. She doesn’t make mistakes. She personally sees to it that Heck—whether it be home ec class with Lizzie Borden, ethics with Richard Nixon, or gym with Blackbeard the pirate—is especially, well, heckish for the Fausters. Will Milton and Marlo find a way to escape? Or are they stuck here for all eternity, or until they turn eighteen, whichever comes first?”
Hot off the PearTree Press!
Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective by Richard Behrens
Introducing Miss Lizzie Borden of Fall River, Massachusetts, a most excellent girl detective and the most remarkable young woman ever to take on the criminal underworld in late 19th century New England.
Many years before her infamous arrest and trial for the murders of her father and stepmother, Lizzie Borden pursued a career as a private consulting detective and wrestled unflinchingly with a crooked spiritualist, a corrupt and murderous textile tycoon, a secret society of conspiratorial anarchists, lustful and psychotic sporting boys, a crazed and vengeful mutineer, an industrial saboteur, and a dangerously map cap mathematics professor—none of whom are ever exactly what they seem to be.
In these five early tales of mystery and adventure, Lizzie Borden is joined by her stubborn and stingy father Andrew; her jealous and weak-chinned sister Emma; her trusted companion Homer Thesinger the Boy Inventor; and the melancholy French scion Andre De Camp. Together, they explore Fall River’s dark side through a landscape that is industrial, Victorian, and distinctly American.
You have met Lizzie Borden before! But never like this!
About the author:
Richard Behrens is a contributor to The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian Studies and a founding editor of The Trenton Review. His writings on literature and science fiction have been published in The Journal of Advancing Technology and on TheModernWord.com. A native New Yorker, now living in New England, Richard is working on several more Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective mysteries.
Only $14.95! Order yours today here.
From SouthCoastToday.com:
Mitchell remembered as ‘Renaissance man,’ good friend
April 08, 2010 12:00 AMBy BRIAN J. LOWNEY
Fall River Spirit Correspondent
When Walter Mitchell died on March 21, the city of Fall River lost a true Renaissance man whose memory will be forever etched upon the hearts of all those who were blessed with his friendship.
This Bunyanesque 66-year-old man, known for his trademark plaid shirts and wild mane of hair, looked more like an eccentric professor than an elementary school librarian, but once you got to know him, it was apparent that he was indeed a gentle giant with a heart of gold and a wonderful sense of humor.
Mitchell, like his Irish forebears, was a consummate raconteur. He regaled listeners with tales of the strict Holy Union sisters, who with his parents Walter Sr. and Margaret, planted the seeds of a strong Catholic faith that remained steadfast until the end. In recent years, he often attended Mass celebrated in the traditional Latin rite that was customary in his youth.
While Mitchell was an expert on Fall River’s rich and colorful history, whether the topic was Lizzie Borden, the city’s once bustling downtown, church architecture or the Old Fall River Line, his heart was always in the scenic White Mountains of New Hampshire, where he worked summers and many weekends during the school year at the Mount Washington Cog Railway, where he served as clerk-in-charge at the post office on top of the lofty peak.
Upon hearing of Mitchell’s untimely passing, many of his longtime colleagues from “the Cog” wrote in the funeral home online guest book about the wonderful exchanges they had enjoyed during the past 40 years and how they treasured Mitchell’s warm friendship and the wisdom that he shared so generously.
“I’ll miss Walter and the many conversations we had about the Cog Railway,” wrote Paul Forbes. “Walter truly loved the Cog and those steam engines. We both often talked about how amazing it was that the Cog was still running after all these decades. Walter was a wealth of knowledge and I’m glad he shared some of it with me. Godspeed, Walter.”
For retired Fall River educator Dr. Jean Botelho Parenteau, Walter was a trusted colleague and good friend for almost 40 years.
“He loved all the mountains of New Hampshire,” Parenteau said, adding that Walter often enjoyed hiking throughout the Granite State before suffering heart problems several years ago.
Parenteau mentioned that her late friend also found pleasure in organ recitals, and learned to play the instrument as an adult.
“He went to every organ recital that he could,” Parenteau recalled, noting that the last time she saw Walter alive was at a recent performance held at St. Anthony of Padua Church in New Bedford.
It was the bibliophile’s love of the written word, however, that impressed his good friend.
“He loved the library, he loved books,” Parenteau said. “He was always with books and he liked to see the kids reading.”
Parenteau added that Mitchell was much like a hermit, and enjoyed simple pleasures and the comforts of home.
“He liked his own company,” she reflected, adding that Mitchell also knew his way around the kitchen and despite being a bachelor, loved to cook and would prepare hearty meals from traditional recipes that reflected his great love of New England.
One of my fondest recollections of Mitchell is of the time when he had finally settled into his own home on Anthony Street and sought a dog for companionship. Another friend, who ran a boarding kennel, informed me that a family had relinquished a beautiful Australian shepherd named Molly that needed a new home.
Mitchell agreed to meet the large dog, and the pair immediately bonded. They enjoyed many wonderful years of companionship and countless drives together.
“You’re such a good dog,” Mitchell often told the beautiful canine, who eagerly showered her owner with unconditional love.
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