In November of 2015, we traveled to Fall River, Massachusetts and spent the night at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast after taking a tour of the entire building and learning more details about the events that took place on August 4, 1892.
This location has been on our bucket list for years. Marianne has done so much research and studied the case of Lizzie Borden in so much depth, she actually has a few lessons that she teaches at school about the case. If you read or research a location enough, you develop a deep desire that you want to go there and experience it for yourself.
Believe it or not, since we started working our YouTube channel in 2017, there have been many that admitted to us that they did not know who Lizzie Borden was and why Marianne is so obsessed with the case. I am going to take just a moment here to address both of those.
Who was Lizzie Borden?
In short, Lizzie Borden was the younger of two sisters who lived at home with their wealthy miser father and step mother. Although the Borden's had money, their father would scrimp on things such as electric and indoor plumbing. On August 4, 1892 Andrew and Abby Borden where found murdered by the means of an axe in this house and Lizzie was eventually charged with the murder. She was later acquitted, and the case remains unsolved to this day. Lizzie and her sister Emma eventually inherited their father's wealth and business and they purchased a new home in a wealthy neighborhood that they named Maplecroft. This building eventually became rental property and was later sold. You can find out more about the case in our "Behind the Haunting" video.
Marianne uses this case in her forensics class in school as great example as to not how to handle a crime scene. She uses the case records, trial transcripts, and autopsy reports to point out to the kids in the class how far forensic investigations has come since this crime was committed in 1892 and how those who were investigating the events contaminated the crime scene and evidence.
Now a Bed and Breakfast
Over the years, this building has been many things from rental property to a print shop. It has operated as a bed and breakfast since 1996 under the ownership of Martha McGinn who inherited the house. Martha's grandparents purchased the house on August 4, 1948. According to Martha McGinn, the room where Lizzie's stepmother Abby Borden was found murdered is the "most requested room" of the bedrooms at the bed and breakfast. The Fall River Historical Society promotes the Lizzie Borden bed and breakfast as a tourist attraction. It just so happens, we requested and spent the night in room where Abby Border was found.
About the Tour
You can tour the building without spending the night. Tours of the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast / Museum are every hour on the hour from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., 7 days a week, 363 days a year. The only days there are no tours are Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. You can find out more about the tours and pricing on their website. The house is located at 230 2nd St, Fall River, MA 02721.
The tour itself was wonderful. We went through the entire building and over the timeline of the crimes. From the basement to the attic there were no locations throughout the house that were not covered within the 50 minute tour, and by the way, photography is allowed. We highly recommend this tour for anyone who is into the Lizzie Borden case..
After the Lizzie Borden House Tour
We took the last tour for the day and were spending the night at the house. After the tour was over and everyone had left to go have dinner, we had some time in the house alone by ourselves. So, what do two people who are into the paranormal and forensic investigations do under these circumstances? Well a few things. First, we posed in the positions where they found the bodies. Make sure you cycle through the photos below in the slideshow so you can see the locations with the murder photographs.
Marianne at the location Abbey Borden was found.
Shawn at the location where Andrew Borden was found.
We also took some time in the parlor and did an EVP session. We had a recorder and a KII meter sitting over on the couch where Andrew Borden was found as we sat across from it in the rocking chair by the window.
In the following video we share the results of that EVP session, and what we believe to be a response from a spirit who is probably fed up with paranormal investigators making stupid comments and trying to teach them how to communicate.
Spending the Night with Abby???
When we were finished for the evening we decided to retire and head up to our room. There is something a little creepy about spending the night in the room where a woman was found murdered by being hacked to death with an axe. The crime scene photos and the picture of Uncle Morse hanging on the wall staring at your doesn't help matters.
Well, I was a little bit exhausted, but I think Marianne was running on adrenaline. What I didn't mention was that morning we got up in Providence, Rhode Island and secured a rental car to drive over to Fall River, Massachusetts. It wasn't a long drive, about 30 minutes, but the hustle and bustle of getting the rental car and making sure we made it over for our reservation is a little bit of a drain. I was ready to take a nap, but Marianne wanted to do some more investigating. She turned on her recorder as we were trying to fall asleep in the room. In the following video, you can check out what she caught on that recording. I'm glad I didn't hear it at the time to be honest.
Breakfast in the Dining Room...
As I have mentioned, the building is now a Bed and Breakfast, so of course in the morning, we went downstairs to have some breakfast before check out.
Simple enough, but this is not your "normal" dining room. Just the fact that they have cooling racks hanging on the wall should tip it off, but this room was used to store the bodies the night of the murders and there is much more as well. In fact, we made a video talking about all of the different things that took place in this room. You might be surprised.
After breakfast was over, we loaded up and walked around taking some more photos. Please be sure to check out the photo button below to see some more of the pictures that we took at the house. We waited around a little while for the gift shop to open before we headed out to go over and check out Maplecroft and the Borden Family Grave site. If you would like to know more details about the history of the house, we covered it pretty heavy in the following video.
Now of course, there are several paranormal claims within the building and on the grounds. Many investigators have spent some time here investigating over the years. If you would like to know more about the paranormal activity, check out our ghost stories and folklore video.
Of course we had a wonderful time staying here and have made plans to return again in the future. Please let us know down in the comments below if you have been to the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, or if you would like to visit this place yourself sometime in the future.
