Lizzie Borden’s Maplecroft is being painted — yellow

It is about time! Lizzie Borden’s home on “the Hill” on French Street, where she and her sister Emma moved to following Lizzie’s acquittal for the murder of their father and stepmother, is getting quite a facelift. The home has been in terrible disrepair (on the outside that we could see–don’t know about the interior) and getting worse by the season.

Current owner, Robert Dube, is finally painting the house, probably in order to make it more salable. Maplecroft has been on the market for years, but always for a you’re-kidding-me price. It used to be $869,000, then it came down to $649,000, and now it it is priced at a more reasonable amount of $499,000.

In Fall River the property values are still on the very low side, so even at this price, there may not be any takers. But the price is moving in the right direction.

Here are some images of the house today. In the past few days Maplecroft was pressure washed, scraped, sanded, and now is being spray painted. Yes, spray painted. Needless to say, spray painting won’t get the new coat of paint in the cracks of the shingles and boards. And the color doesn’t seem to be covering the dirty white underneath in the upper area of the house. It is possible this is just a primer coat or that there are plans to add more coats to make the old house shine. We will keep you updated here.

The porch is still a wicked catastrophe, with mismatched posts, metal stair railings, and a blue floor (ceilings are blue on porches around here, not floors). Maybe he has plans to also rehab the garage, which is in despicable shape (missing eaves, rotted wood, and peeling paint job). That would be a good idea!