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.
“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 their website.
I saw Chris do his talk two years ago in Tiverton. He gets his facts right and is very informative. I recommend the lecture!
From Southern Points
Route 95 thru Connecticut to Providence, RI.
In Providence, Route 195 East toward Cape Cod.
Exit 20 off 195 onto Route 105 (Front Street) into Marion.
From Western Points
Route 495 South to Exit 1, Route 195 West.
Exit 20 off 195 onto Route 105 (Front Street) into Marion.
From Northern Points
Route 24 South to 495 South to Exit 1, Route 195 West.
Exit 20 off 195 onto Route 105 (Front Street) into Marion.
Bast, William. The Legend of Lizzie Borden. Television movie starring Elizabeth Montgomery. Directed by Paul Wendhos, produced by George La Maire. ABC/Paramount TV. First broadcase on 10 Feb. 1975.
The entire film is online for your viewing pleasure. Best viewed full screen.
Saturday Morning, August 28, 2010 from 10AM to 12 Noon
Featuring Ada Jill Schneider, Jon Gagne, and Rosanne Litchman
Somerset Public Library 1464 County St. Somerset, MA (508) 646-2829
Ada Jill Schneider is the winner of the National Galway Kinnell Poetry Prize, and began writing at the age of fifty-three. Her lyrical poems about growing older, the rewards of long love, and family relationships combine attributes of wisdom and wit to strike a universal chord. She reviews poetry books for Midstream magazine and directs “The Pleasure of Poetry,” a program she founded, at the Somerset Public Library in Massachusetts. She received her MFA in Writing from Vermont College.
Ada is a frequent contributor to The Literary Hatchet, a free online literary journal.
The Fall River Historical Society is presenting a new exhibit of Lizzie Borden and Borden Murder material, titled “Bordenabilia.”
Never-before displayed and newly acquired material,
including:
• The Borden Guest Room blood-stained bedspread and pillow shams, displayed unfolded for the first time since the murders on a replica bed
• Abby Borden’s dusting cap
• Original trial exhibit photographs
• Scrapbook kept by Lizzie Borden’s attorney, Andrew Jennings
• Selections from The Knowlton Papers
• Selections from the “Hip-Bath” Collection
• Selections from the unpublished Rufus Hilliard Papers
• Personal letters, photographs, books, case evidence, correspondence, clothing, and possessions of the Borden family
A representative exhibit of the Fall River Historical Society’s vast Borden holdings, recognized as the central repository of items related to Lizzie Borden and the Borden Murder Case
Wednesday, August 4 through Friday, October 15, 2010
Special Tour Guide August 4th: Borden expert Dr. Stefani Koorey
Tuesday through Friday, 9 AM until 4 PM
Saturday and Sunday, 1 PM until 5 PM
tours conducted on the hour
No cameras or cell phones will be allowed in the exhibit.
On Tuesday, August 3rd, at 6:30-7:30 pm, at the Fall River Public Library (basement meeting room), author Richard Behrens will be doing a book reading of his latest work, Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective.
The event is Free and open to the public. The reading is appropriate for all ages.
Light refreshments will be served.
The Pear Essential Players will also be present to introduce their characters for the reenactment scheduled at the Lizzie Borden B&B on the anniversary of the murders, August 4th.
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 07/19/2010
Today 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.
In this issue, we offer you wonderful pieces by David Marshall James, Eugene Hosey, Elaine Barnard, Brenda Kern, Mark Sashine, Denise Noe, and Kathleen Carbone. We have poetry by Ada Jill Schneider, Aurora Lewis, Michael Brimbau, Fran O’Donnell, Denise Noe, Lee Glantz, grim k. de evil, and Kat Koorey. Quite a collection, if I do say so myself! Enjoy!
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.
On Saturday, June 5, 2010, Richard Behrens did a book signing and reading of his new book, Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective. It was well attending and book sales were brisk!
If you couldn’t be there, you can now, courtesy of the internet. I have posted the entire reading on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
This Saturday, June 5, 2010, the Fall River Historical Society is hosting a book signing and reading of Richard Behrens’ new book, Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective.
From noon until 2:30. 451 Rock Street, Fall River, MA. Fall River Historical Society. Reading will take place in the garden at 1:00.
A healthy and whimsical mix of pop culture, news, gossip, opinion, and advice---one way or another related to the topic of Lizzie Borden. We search the web so you don't have to!
