It’s not often you get to spend the night in a crime scene — but that’s what guests can expect at Fall River’s Lizzie Borden House, named one of USA Today’s 10 Best Haunted Hotels in America.
Judged by a panel of experts, USA Today’s 10Best scoured the country this Halloween season looking for the scariest, most spine-tingling places to spend the night.
Making the list was Fall River’s own Lizzie Borden House at 230 Second St., scene of the still-unsolved August 1892 hatchet murders of Andrew and Abby Borden — and home to what some claim are their ghosts.
The Lizzie Borden House is in excellent company. Other hotspots on USA Today’s 10Best list include the Queen Mary, the former ocean liner berthed in Long Beach, California, reputed to be haunted by a number of murder victims, and the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, inspiration for Stephen King’s horror novel “The Shining” — and, eerily enough, home to a mountain resort known as Fall River.
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The Lizzie Borden House Bed and Breakfast in Fall River has done some upgrades and renovations.
What is the history of the Lizzie Borden House?
The Borden family owned the house in the late 19th century — the well-to-do businessman Andrew Borden, his second wife, Abby, Andrew’s daughters Emma and Lizzie, and live-in maid Bridget Sullivan. Staying with them at the time of the murders was Andrew’s brother-in-law, John V. Morse.
On the morning of Aug. 4, 1892, someone butchered Andrew and Abby in the home with what’s believed to have been a hatchet, striking Andrew about 11 times in the head while Abby’s head received about 19 whacks. Lizzie, the only suspect in the crime, was indicted for murder but acquitted in a sensational and controversial trial.
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Abby was found face-down in an upstairs bedroom while Andrew was discovered slain on the living room couch. Later their bodies would be examined in the dining room, their funerals held in the front parlor.
Lizzie and Emma moved out in 1893, and the house changed owners several times before becoming a tourist attraction late in the 20th century, hosting tours and re-enactments. None of the furniture is original to the house, but fairly accurate to the period in which the murders occurred.
It has operated as a bed and breakfast since 1995.
The Lizzie Borden House on Second Street in Fall River operates as a bed and breakfast, with house tours and ghost tours.
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Is the Lizzie Borden House haunted?
Over the years, visitors who believe in the paranormal have reported strange noises and visions, including the ghostly appearance of a face on a wall in the basement. Some claim in the attic they’ve heard the laughter of children and have seen dolls move from one place to another. They claim they’re the spirits of the children of Eliza Darling Borden, a Borden relative by marriage who lived next door and in 1848 drowned two of her three children in the basement then cut her own throat with a straight razor.
The house has been visited by TV paranormal investigators including “Ghost Hunters” on SyFy, “Kindred Spirits” on The Travel Channel, and even WWE wrestlers Schotzi and Scarlett for the YouTube show “Chamber of Horrors.”
How to stay at the Lizzie Borden House
Rates vary for stays at the Lizzie Borden House, with prices for the Lizzie and Emma suite beginning at about $290 per night. The most popular dates are the murder anniversary and Halloween.
The murder anniversary is already booked for 2025.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: USA Today 10 Best Haunted Hotels: Lizzie Borden House in Fall River
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Publish date : 2024-10-28 06:15:00
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