Fall River Herald News article

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:09 am

Today's Herald News has an article on the 112 year anniversary of the B&B.

http://www.heraldnews.com/site/news.cfm ... 9784&rfi=6

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:42 am

Thanks, Harry. As per usual, did they read anything about the case before writing? A portion of the original barn is still intact, but, hidden inside the walls of the Leary Press?

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:58 pm

This reporter, so far, has brought us about 6 or 7 pertinent stories of what's going on in Fall River.

However, this is the second reference to a part of the barn being intact, since the new owner took over.
I phoned Len Rebello because this is something we want to know.
He is signing his book out there tomorrow and is going to find out. He doesn't know anything about it at this point.

I called Bill Pavao, but didn't reach him.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:01 pm

Thanks, Kat. I'm thinking though that if part of the barn is still intact, wouldn't it be where the current garage now stands to the rear of the house?

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 10:45 pm

Len has sold and signed some books today!

Anyway, he talked to Mr. Woods, the new owner, and checked the building inside and out and found no evidence of any foundation that even looked like what was there in 1892.
"The current foundation is right on the property line. The barn story is not correct." "There is no barn imbedded in the Leary Press."
He said that bit in the paper, which I called him about, was the first he had ever heard of it.

Susan, that whole structure wrapping around the B&B is the Leary Press. I don't know about any garage.

In Len's book there is a picture of the dismantling of the barn. If you get The Hatchet, this issue has a wider view and there is The rear view of Mrs. Churchill's House!

please click on the picture to enlarge:

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 2:25 am

Thanks, Kat. At the B&B there is a building in the back where the barn used to stand that I assume is an approximation of the barn, but, I guess is used as a garage, thats what I meant. Thats why I couldn't understand how that story got started with them about a portion of the original barn still standing in the Leary Press, wrong side of the Borden house for that to have happened. I was thinking that maybe the story was going to be like lumber from the old barn was used in the construction of the Leary Press. Do we know when the Leary Press was added onto the Borden home?

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 2:46 am

I'm sorry, but I still don't know about a garage.
Does anyone know about this?
I've always been under the impression that the whole building wrapping around the house was The Leary Press and I was told it covered from property line along the Mrs. Churchill side, to the rear of the property to within 6" of the boundry.

I understand what you are saying but I have not heard of that.

The floor of the building is a cement foundation and I wondered about the re-use of materials but apparently not. That was all checked for as it was discussed as something Len might look for.
I think the building was added in 1929. (that's from memory- maybe someone knows better?)

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 8:44 am

I remember reading they used to make Kewpie Dolls in the Leary Press building, years ago. It's pretty old. I think those were popular in the 1930's?

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:06 am

Oh, okay, so it might be part of the Leary Press. I don't know which pictures are most current of the B&B on the LBVM&L site. The building at the end of the driveway looks like it is attached to the house in some pics, this is the one that I was refering to, you can just see part of a garage door:

Unless that was just a loading bay of sorts for the press? I don't know what the back of the house is like, haven't seen any pics of it at all. This add-on wraps around the whole house? I was always under the impression that it went along the south side of the house and part of the east side so that the basement door could be used to enter the Press. It would be nice if they tore part of that thing down and had a garden or small yard again.

Nancie · Post by **Nancie** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:27 pm

Re: Kewpie Dolls: when Edisto, a doll collector, was on this forum
she said the dolls were made in the old barn.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:26 pm

I'm sorry Susan. I've been a bit dense. While I can't assume that is a garage, I now realize what you are referring to!
And when I was there I had absolutely no eyes for the parasitic building attached and never even saw it! I was concentrating.

As far as I know, the building goes all the way around the Borden house. I'm not sure how much area it takes up in the back, tho.

The barn was dismantled in 1929.
I think this builing was built around that time as well.
I don't know if parts were added later as expansion.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 2:32 am

No, not dense at all, no need for an apology. I thought it would be easier to show with a picture than trying to describe it with words. Thanks for that pic, I agree, that building is just hideous!!! It would be nice to see the new owners put up a replica of the barn to add to the whole Lizzie tour, you could go up in the loft and see if you believe Lizzie with her trip up there or not.

I can't help but wonder what Andrew's take would have been, he did want stores and shops along 2nd Street, but, would he have wanted one wrapped around his old homestead?

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 6:22 am

Where would Andrew have thrown his slops? But then again an extra buck or two a month . . .

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 10:59 am

I guess there always would have been Mrs. Churchill's side yard for that, "Addie......Look out!" You know, come to think of it, since that barn really wasn't being used, I'm surprised Andrew didn't rent out the loft to some college student or someone. A building he owned that was not producing money for him, hmmm.

Doug · Post by **Doug** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 3:42 pm

In Edmund Pearson's book Studies in Murder (1924), the first chapter of which is "The Borden Case," there is a 1920s vintage photograph (before page 79) of 92 Second St. It is taken from across the street, probably from in front of the old Miller/Bowen residence, and the photo shows the Borden house in the center, the driveway and barn, a portion of the front of what we now call the Leary Press building, and to one side the corner of the porch, front fence, and a bit of the roof of Mrs. Churchill's house. The roof of the Kelly house is visible over the Press building and the top of another building, appearing to be a house standing in the lot behind the Borden house (identified in an 1893 representation of the neighborhood as the Chapman lot), can also be seen. In the foreground of the photo, which is a clear and sharp representation, is the back of an automobile with a Massachusetts license plate dated 1923. The letters are small but readable.

The front and north side of the Borden barn are visible and interestingly there is a sliver of daylight showing between the southwest corner of the barn (closest to the back of the house) and northeast corner of the Borden house (closest to the barn), as viewed through the back (side) porch. This would indicate that the Press building did not wrap all the way around the rear of the Borden house at the time this photo was taken, probably in 1922, 1923, or 1924. In Lizzie Borden Past & Present on page 43 there is a photo of 92 Second St. identified as taken in 1913. A bit of the Kelly house is visible in this photo but definitely no Leary Press building.

This all leads to a conclusion that the Press building in the south yard of the Borden house was constructed sometime between 1913 and the early 1920s. At least one addition or additional building associated with the Press building was apparently put up in the back yard after this; perhaps sometime after the Borden barn was taken down in 1929. That this later construction may have incorporated a portion of the old barn is intriguing and perhaps this question can be answered if and when the Press building is demolished.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 5:37 pm

"Mr. and Mrs. McGinn's Second Street Home

'Lizzie'd Find Old Home Familiar,' New Bedford Standard-Times, January 31, 1961: 10.

A tour of Second Street was given by the mother of Mr. and Mrs. John McGinn, owners of the home. Her son and daughter-in-law were vacationing in the south. 'Cement and tar replace the old lawn, and a printing shop clicks, clanks and whirs where a pear tree once bore fruit. ... If you stand in front of the old house you will see the holes in the low granite wall where the iron fence was once secured.' The house was a boarding house. The adjoining shop was once a button factory. Kewpie dolls were reportedly made or manufactured in the barn."

--Rebello, Page 38

Here are the pictures Doug refers to from Pearson's Studies In Murder
please click on picture

In the second picture depicting #92 in 1892, the road looks dirt rather than macadam.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 6:44 pm

Thanks Doug and Kat, thats really helpful. So, if that portion of the building is considered part of the Leary Press, it may be built on the old barn foundation. I guess it might even have parts of a wall or two from the barn, unless they completely razed the building? It would be great if they tore the whole thing down, but, I assume it wouldn't be feasible.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 2:19 am

In Gerald Gross' book of Peason's writings, Masterpieces of Murder, Pearson mentions the barn being pulled down, in "Legends of Lizzie" written c. 1935 (246):

"As for the history of the murders, what discoveries may not occur when the genial family now occupying the old 'murder house' decide to pull it down, as, a few years ago, they pulled down the barn! At that time, some reporters happened along, and out of the crumbling rafters dragged a sort of hammer. By their literary skill, the reporters converted this into 'the missing hatchet,' and entertained their readers for weeks. The treasury of Bristol County was actually wheedled out of two hundred dollars to have this impossible weapon examined for bloodstains."

[The barn was pulled down in 1929, and I believe a new building was built attached to the house at lot #94, Kelly side. I have been told that the Leary Press has it's own cement foundation which does not include any part of the barn]

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 3:53 am

Thanks, Kat. Which sounds like it lays their story to rest about part of the barn still being in the Leary Press. Good sleuthing!

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 12:30 am

More info on the barn raising:

The New York Times, Sunday, April 7, 1929 – Page 13

"FIND AXE IN RAZING
OLD BORDEN BARN

Some Fall River Residents Conjecture It
May Have Been Used in Famous Murders.

Special to The New York Times.

Fall River, Mass., April 6. – An old-fashioned axe, rusty and stained, which some persons conjecture may have been the weapon used in the famous Borden murder, came to light today after thirty-seven years, when workmen razed the old Borden barn.
Lying on a beam in the loft in which Lizzie Borden, accused of the murders, maintained she was hunting for a fish line sinker while her father and stepmother were being slain, the ancient axe clattered down into the debris as the timbers were torn apart.
The implement was turned over to Dr. William F. Boos of Boston, a Harvard pathologist, for tests to determine if possible, whether the stains were caused by human blood.
Because of the important part played by the barn in the trial and acquittal of Lizzie Borden in 1893 and the belief that its destruction might reveal the weapon used in the murder of the couple, local interest in the razing was intense.
Dr. William Dolan, Medical examiner at the time, reported that the Bordens were slain by some sharp instrument, which he always contended was an axe or hatchet.
Four hatchets were found in the cellar of the Borden home and a fifth, bloodstained, later was turned up one hundred yards from the house."

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 3:10 am

Was that actually an axe? I recall reading that what they really had found was an old claw-headed hammer. If the story I read was wrong, what ever happened to this mysterious old axe? Could you imagine if that was actually the murder weapon and Lizzie had run out to the barn to put it up on one of the cross beams over the loft? Obviously no one ever thought to look up there!

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 10:34 pm

One source says Hammer, another, an ax. So I don't really know.

But I thought Morse said he recalled Second Street was paved (or macadamed) but the picture shows not- or does it?
Is this another Morse-ism? (One of those wildly unobservant statements of his?)

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 10:30 pm

So, the jury is still out on that one. It would be nice to find out what happened with this tool that was found, what the test results were, etc. When I think of macadam, I think of tar, but, just on the off chance I checked my dictionary, this is their definition of macadam:

A roadway or pavement constructed of small closely packed broken stone usually cemented with stone dust or bituminous material.

Its so hard to see in those photos, it looks like dirt, but, could it have been crushed stone with stone dust?