Lizzie Borden Society Forum

What happened to Andrews couch ? Was it saved as edivence for the court?
If Lizzie was under house arrest I am guessing she would not want the couch in the house with her with all the blood on it.

Hi affie!
We've got a lot in past posts about this.
I think there's even a topic named the same- or similar.
If you can't find anything here, ask again- I know someone better at searching this site (than I) can point you in the right direction.
It's a good question.

This is always a neat subject. The following comes from Rebello's "Lizzie Borden Past & Present", pages 111, 112:

The Sofa

"At 5:35 [p.m.] the crowd outside was treated to a sensational repast, when the front door was opened and Undertaker Winward and an assistant bore out the sofa upon which Andrew J. Borden was lying when killed, to his wagon. It is an old-fashioned, low, hair-upholstered affair, with a pine frame recently varnished.

Evidence of the crime was plainly seen in a large blotch of blood near the head, which was discolored clear down to the cloth under the springs. ... The undertaker stored it in a rear room of his building, where it will stay as long as it is required as evidence."

"The sofa on which he [Andrew J. Borden] reclined was mahogany, with hair cloth covering such as was commonly manufactured for high class parlor furniture forty years ago. It was removed from the Borden home on Saturday and taken to Winward's wareroom.

Winward, the undertaker, drove into court square this forenoon with the sofa upon which Andrew J. Borden was murdered. It had been reupholstered, and Mr. Winward wanted to know what to do with it. After consulting with Assistant Marshal Fleet, it was taken to the Borden homestead on Second Street. It was covered with coarse matting and none of the upholstery was visible."

The sofa was later taken to Central Police Station and to the court house in New Bedford for the trial. It was returned to the guard room at the police station after the trial. The sofa was delivered to the Borden home on Thursday, June 22, 1893.

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I have heard that 'the girls' stored their furniture in some warehouse and it burned down, destroying any 2nd Street furniture they had stored in it.

Here is a link for a past thread (5 years old)---

http://www.lizzieandrewborden.com/Archi ... odsofa.htm

Our Susan sez:

Kat! I have found the correct link on the links pages! Its on page 3 and is titled: B&B Opening 1986. Heres what is reported on that site:

None of the original furnishings is in the house; after the murders, Lizzie(who was ultimately acquitted in a jury trial) put the family possesions in storage in a waterfront warehouse, where all were destroyed when a hurricane tidal wave flooded the building. She had taken with her only her sewing machine and her writing desk and chair. The fate of those items is a mystery.

Great link, Tina-Kate! Thanks for finding and posting it!

Jeesh! We sure stayed on topic! (Or at least stayed in the sitting room! ) Thanks for the link! Good for you TK!

I couldn't read it all.
BUT: 2 remarkable finds back then that I will always remember: Stef saying that was Andrew's boot on the sitting room floor by the sofa after autopsy and Susan showing us a new look at an old passage about Lizzie saying she pushed-the-door-open-it-was-not-latched.

Those things have stuck in my mind for 5 years now. In fact, this last trip, I actually asked at the FRHS about that photo and got a determination that Stef was probably correct about the shoe artifact.

Yes all the furniture was lost in that hurricane. Lizzie's sewing machine is in the house, but that one was from Maplecroft.

Wasn't her ironing board somewhere a few years ago? I took that to be from the Second Street house. I didn't think she'd be doing any ironing at Maplecroft, since she had the servants to do it.

Maybe this was from the Big House, too. Wasn't Ernest Terry's name connected with it?

Thank you for ansering my question and for the link to the other thread on the sofa.

Thanks for finding that link, Tina-Kate, it was fun reading all those old posts again. At the time, I recall we could only come up with the hurricane of 1938 as being the culprit. But, after a search, I see there were lesser hurricanes that have hit Massachusetts.

From the Hartford Courant Sept. 27, 1894 there was a warning of a hurricane coming up the coast from Georgia to Massachusetts that was due to hit the next day.

From the Washington Post Sept. 10, 1896 tells of a west india storm off the southeast coast of Massachusetts that morning which slowly advanced northward with a wind velocity of 76 miles per hour.

The Hartford Courant Oct. 12, 1896 tells of a tropical storm that hit the New England coast. There was a rescue of a crew at Nantucket from a schooner that 3 had died on due to the storm.

The Washington Post Oct. 25, 1897 tells of a northwest hurricane which swept over Massachusetts Bay.

The Washington Post April 28, 1898 reports of a hurricane that was near Cape Henry at midnight. Winds 60 miles per hour, tide is high, lower sections of city are flooded.

There may be quite a few others. But, as we now can see, the story of Lizzie's furniture being destroyed by a hurricane could have well happened during her lifetime.

Boy that's a lot of storms! Nice research Susan! Thanks!

Kat - I thought during one of my earlier tours at the FRHS, they said fire took the warehouse. Do we know where the warehouse was supposed to be?

Kat - Can you please post a picture of Andrew's autopsy and show us where Stef thought she saw one of his boots?

We've heard about the 'bloody clothing', and how it was buried and dug up again. But I don't think we specifically heard of their "shoes". I assumed that was part of the clothing.

Well, had they kept their shoes, that'd be an interesting exhibit!