Is the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Haunted?
October 24, 2009
The explosion of interest in the paranormal in today’s society has resulted in several “ghost hunting” investigative t.v. shows, cottage industry “entertainment mediums” who proliferate the ‘net with their blogs and websites, bona fide mediums and psychics whose best-sellers help launch their own talk shows, increase manufacture and sales of evp recording devices, increase demand for Ghost Hunter University applicants, and hundreds of bookings at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast. Why is this? Why now at this time, post 9-11 in this new millenium? What is it in our culture, our society, that draws people from all professions, and all religious and educational backgrounds? I don’t know, but I do know that it’s a phenomena which continues to grow as well as those who would capitalize from it. It’s the American way.
The Lizzie Borden house from the north looking south from the space the Churchill house used to occupy. The “side door” is on the lower left.
People like to visit and occupy the same space in a different time where notable historical or notorious solved or unsolved crimes took place. Thus, the Borden house is a magnet to those seeking that experience. They come in droves for the day time tours to hear the tale and see the spots and take pictures and relish in the “I was there” experience.
Lizzie Borden, as I’ve often said, is a one dimensional persona, encapsulated in a inaccurate quatrain forever doomed to be perpetually marketed as wielding a bloody axe upon the noggins of her stepmother and father one sticky-sweaty day in early August 1892. But she is so much more than that and the story of Lizzie Andrew Borden and Fall River are so much more than that. 92 Second Street draws scholars to the case – flocking as if to Mecca to soak up the richness of the environment, impervious to the tales of the premises being haunted. They register disdain about ghostly apparitions and things that go bump in the night. “Bah! Humbug!” they say and they say it with every confidence that they shall enjoy another quiet, undisturbed slumber through the night. And they do. Repeatedly. Every visit. No paranormal activity whatsoever. For years.
So then, if we look for it will it be there? Or is it there to be felt, seen and heard by some but not by others? Well, I can tell you my experiences as one who was first inside 92 Second Street in 1977 and spoke with then owner, John McGinn, nothing was said about any paranormal activity. And I’ve stayed overnight at the B&B since 1998, often having the entire house all to myself – no one – no one but me inside. In all those years, in all those stays, I’ve only had 3 experiences, and one doesn’t really count. I’ll tell you briefly about them:
#1. November 3, 1999 – Martha McGinn gave me a key to come and go as I was the only guest and would be the only one inside the house that night. I went down to the cellar with a few clothes to wash and suddenly I saw it! Holy Pshaw!! ANDREW BORDEN LAID OUT IN HIS COFFIN AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS!!! My heart leaped. For a nano second. It was only Martha’s prop from her Halloween party a few nights previous. But damn, did that look real.
#2. August 4, 2006. The B&B was filled with paranormal investigators, psychics, mediums, ghost-writing authors, etc., all talking about this new entity in the house. I listened with the ear and mind of a skeptic. “If you want it, it will come.” Exhausted from the day and night’s activities, I went to lay on a cot down in the cellar, away from it all. Everyone was upstairs. I was alone. I lay on my side and in a few moments felt 3 fingers slide down my back. Distinctively 3 fingers. 
Medium Liz Nowicki – Boston Herald photo
Not a spider, not cobwebs, but fingers. I leaped up and yelled: “Who’s there?”. For the first time EVER, I was scared and I bolted upstairs and outside to smoke a cigarette with a shaking hand. Relating what I had just experienced, I was told that it was a new, hostile entity that came thru a portal from all the seances conducted in the house. Oh fine, thought I….after all these years now I gotta think twice about this house being active. Me. Senior Skeptic #1. (For more about this experience click this link to the podcast. It was like I was paranormically divirginized. I could never view or feel the same about 92 Second Street again. I was deflowered. And I didn’t like it.
#3. September 29, 2007. Ghost Hunter’s University booked the whole house. In addition, a number of psychics and mediums were in attendance. Donald Woods and I sat in on a seance conducted by local medium “Liz”. Liz is a very sweet and attractive lady who can “read” people and sense “things”. She regularly conducts seances for guests who want them at the B&B. Never having sat in on any seance and quite frankly believed them to be faked, I thought I would check this out. Read about her HERE.
About 16-20 people in the room – 6 seated at a round table. Liz’s back was to the sealed up fireplace. My back was towards the parlor door. I had a clear unobstructed view of all at the table. Without detailing all the questions asked by Liz and the other guests, I’ll just state what happened. The table moved. The table not only moved, it lifted from the carpet, it turned several times 360 degrees, it tilted about 80 degrees, it rocked and rolled. Trickery? Knee-cap momentum? Finger grips? Wires? Well, I’ll tell you this. I bent down several times and looked underneath the table. I walked right up *to* the table and crouched down and observed everyone’s legs, feet, knees, arms and hands. I did this several times. I moved in closer and eye-balled all hands and fingers watching for pressure, grips, slides, whatever. That table moved even when everybody’s hands were completely off the table and their feet were flat on the floor and no body parts came in contact with the table! Conclusion: THE LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE IS ACTIVE. Does that mean it’s haunted? Well, for some, things do go Boo! and Bump in the night, but no one’s ever been hurt or morphed into some axe-wielding creature creating bloody bedlam.
Lee-ann Wilber, co-owner, swears there are children in the Knowlton Room on the third floor. She kindly leaves them toys in the trunk. But I highly doubt they are the legendary drowned children of Andrew’s uncle, Ladowick Borden and his deranged wife because those kids were one and two years old and would not have the dexterity to play with the marbles so often heard. But there’s something. There’s definitely something. And prior to two months ago I would have still been saying “Bah! Humbug!”
So as we approach another Halloween – an almost sacred night for those entrenched in the occult, and for those psychics, mediums, and ghost-chasers whose antennae are at peak performance every October 31st, let all who read here that I, Faye Musselman, being of sound and skeptic mind, do hereby testify that 92 Second Street is “active” with unknown spirits and paranormal activity.
But is it haunted per se? That doorway to my mind is yet to be opened.
Lizzie Borden B&B Secures Trademark!
August 23, 2009
Here’s an excellent post with very accurate content regarding the Lizzie Borden Trademark. Click HERE.
UPDATE: Click HERE re Stefani Koorey’s B.S.
Rats! I’ve been busted again on the LB Forum (aka “smitty”) as I just tried to log in. Oh well. That makes about 20 different user names I’ve joined with. Fun and games in Lizziedom. But I am not the “smitty” who posts on the FRHN online edition. Really. I’m not. 
YESTERDAY’S BOSTON GLOBE CARRIED THIS STORY AS WELL. - CLICK HERE
There was quite a response from Fall River locals to FRHN (online edition) yesterday. Here is a cut & paste sampling of what they think. Note that there’s a general animosity to the whole Lizzie Borden thing by these posters. I also contributed as “phaye”. But I am NOT “smitty”. LOL:
This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard come out of the patent office in a long time. How do you copyright someone’s name, that you had nothing to do with owning, ever. Just because you own the house where the murders took place, to me, doesn’t seem like a legitimate reason to block everyone else from using it. The name should be, and is as far as I am concerned, in the public domain.
The patent office lately continues to confound me.
Herald News how could tonight’s mayoral debate not be front page news? Don’t you think you have a responsibility to your readers to keep them aware of public interest issues and events? Someone dropped the ball! I hope there will be a recap in tomorrows edition.
It’s the merchandising rights associated with the name – not the name itself.
They shouldnt be able to do this. This is some one protecting a monopoly. They just got broadwalk and park place and have a hotel on each one. So if my last name is borden and I want to name my kid Elizabeth , would that be a problem? Better yet how about if I mispell the name lizzy or use a relative name of lizzy bordens? Would I be breaking any laws.
BTW, what gives someone the right to proclaim ‘copyright infringement’ to a another person’s WORD transcription of their own hard copy of the Borden Preliminary Hearing just because they did it too (in expanded form, I might add)? An yet, that person did just that. Thinking they have a copyright against any all past and future transcriptions. B.S. They ‘own’ what they did and another person owns the work ‘they’ did. In short, it’s not the exact same coffee mug. 
Phaye, The USPTO can give out a trademark for whatever it wishes. They just care if someone else has trademarked it. But, if they go after the wrong person, i.e. someone who has been making Lizzie Borden Mugs for years, they will lose the case for sure. I would wager one further, that you cannot copyright something that has been in the public domain for so long. Certainly not unilaterally.
As to your BTW question. If two people were to transcribe the same public document, you cannot copyright that. You cannot copyright facts period. However, if that said person were to have stolen the copy from another person, and started selling it as their own copywritten work. Then you have a different issue. You would be violating the copyright of the person who owns the copyright to the transcription.
Yes, you CAN copyright your own transcription of a first, second, third, whatever copy of an original historic legal document (public domain), package it and sell it. I’ve done it. And I have the official copyright document from the US Copyright office (I can email you an image if you like). What you can NOT do it take the transcription work of another from the same or subsequent generation of the original, package it and claim it as your own work. i could transcribe the Declaration of Independence from a copy on the internet, embellish it with graphic design, put it on a CD and sell it on eBay. I could copyright that CD. But if I did a literal cut and paste of that Declaration of Independence from the internet, that would be another story. The difference would be I created my OWN WORK…and that work is not exclusively confined to the text of the original document itself. It’s the package and the content therein. That’s what constitutes the intellectual property.
So what have you copied and embellished on and copywritten? What particular additions did you make that made it ‘yours?’
It’s all right here Lefty. And Look!! I don’t even charge for it anymore. It’s free. Read this blog post and get the full story.
FRONT PAGE FALL RIVER HERALD NEWS: CLICK HERE.
Donald Woods & Lee-ann Wilber chat with “in character” visitor in the B&B gift shop on August 4, 2008.
Yipee!! It’s been done. Donald Woods, co-owner of the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast told me a couple months ago this was coming and I’m thrilled to have just learned it’s official in the Fall River Herald News which can be read HERE.
Just as Lizzie herself knew the importance and social cache of the Borden name in Fall River, Donald Woods and Lee-ann Wilber know the importance and “cash” of the “Lizzie Borden” name when it comes to merchandising. If you own and run a business you protect your interests and maximize on opportunities to increase revenue. It’s the American Business Way.
New strategies often require attention and action in this internet age of eBay and other auction sites, Cafe Press, Itsy, etc. etc. where clever - if not always high quality - Lizzie related items are created, it’s a wise move to trademark the name as it relates to merchandising. As Mr. Woods indicated, merchandisers could still have the option to sell through the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum.
Donald Woods is a man of his word. Every thing he has said in the public media that he intended to do with the property he has done. The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum continues to be a first rate operation under the daily care of GM Lee-ann Wilber, gift shop manager Dee Moniz, and all the rest of her staff. And with the “Lizzie Borden” merchandising name trademark held by the owners we will most likely be seeing even more interesting souveniers and collectibles in the gift shop.
Way to go, Donald!
The Amish Lizzie film – “Bordenia”
January 28, 2009
Look! There goes Dr. Bowen rushing down Second Street in front of the Borden house!
A more contemporary (2004) photo of 92 Second Street shows the now demolished Leary Press attached.
This photograph, used as evidence in the 1893 Borden trial, shows the House as it appeared at the time of the murders. (Note no “Leary Press”)
So what’s the point of this you may ask? Well, Cameron Munson is filming his Bordenia and this is the house he selected in Amish Country to depict the Borden homestead. Carson Grant, who wrote the “Bordenia” article, studied under Lee Strasberg (but then, hasn’t everybody?) and stars as Andrew Borden. He writes:
“The house we are shooting the murder scenes has a similar design to the original Borden’s home.”
Wrong. See above. Gadzookskies. There’s a million Greek-Rivival homes still standing all across the country and this is as close as they could get? I have more to say on this score but first in the “here we go again” department, Grant writes:
“The clopping of the horse hooves on the cold winter pavement outside my Rt. 340 Bed and Breakfast room this 5 am morning, offers a gentle awaking to a full day of shooting on “Bordenia” directed and written by Cameron Munson. A retelling of an American legend, the Fall River story of the Borden family, and Lizzie Borden’s part she played in the ax murders of her father and stepmother.”
There it is. The perennially inaccurate reference to the murder weapon being an axe. Arrrggghhhh. May I say it again? Thank you. Arrrrgggghhhh.
So back to the filming location – and this one deserves a smirky chuckle:
“Our film location, Intercourse, Pennsylvania offers a quiet Lancaster township, off-season to the warm weather tourists who flock here to enjoy the pastoral surrounding of Amish farming, dining, crafts and culture. Quilting, needlepoint, wood furniture making, tin, metal and pottery wares are some of the handwork one will find on a stroll along the main street markets and restaurants.”
Intercourse, Pennsylvania. A wonderful B&B in Intercourse. Hello. Fall River has a wonderful little B&B. It’s called THE LIZZIE BORDEN BED & BREAKFAST. Again. See above.
I’m sure they contacted the owners, Donald Woods & Lee-ann Wilber who actually welcome documentary and theatrical filming in and on the premises. But for whatever reasons – and whether they contacted the owners or not - they chose to film the ” Borden House” in Intercourse, Pennsylvania.
Intercourse. That’s phucked up, dude. Then again, maybe Amish is to Quakers as Pennsylvania is to Massachusetts. Hmmm. Don’t think so.
Well, let’s keep our eyes and ears open to the film festival circuit and maybe we’ll see Dr. Bowen racing down “second street” after all. (nyuck, nyuck).
“The True Story of Lizzie Borden” – or Maybe Not
August 21, 2008
EXPANDED UPDATE – SEE BELOW
UPDATE: According to this USA Today’s AP report, Mr. Pickel is planning to open up his alleged “True Story” of Lizzie Borden this weekend. CLICK HERE
Mr. Pickel continues to be under the erroneous assumption that most people don’t know what state, let alone what city, in which the Borden case took place. To that I say: “Mr. Pickel – just ask the Fall River Historical Society how many decades people have flocked there ONLY to see the Borden case exhibits. Inquire at Oak Grove cemetery how many people traversed their grounds solely to find Lizzie Borden’s grave until they finally painted footprints on the pavement guiding folks to the Andrew J. Borden family plot. Ask Robert Dube and the Silvia’s how many people have come on to their property or stopped to photograph “Maplecroft” for the past 40 years.
Most importantly, people have been flocking to 92 Second Street since Day One. Indeed, within days of the murders wagon and carriage drivers would transport disembarking passengers from steamers of the Fall River Line coming from New York and Boston requesting to be taken to the “Lizzie Borden house.” This was reported in the local papers shortly after the crime and continued when Lizzie moved to French Street. Visitors to Fall River for the past 116 years have continued to drive by 92 Second Street just to get a gander of the famous structure.
For 116 years local, regional and national papers have continued to write articles about the case. Dozens of books have been published, several documentaries have been made on “Fall River’s” Lizzie Borden. The #1 best selling book on the case, Victoria Lincoln’s A Private Disgrace, has had over a dozen printings and is still in print. Royalties continue to be paid out to her daughters, Priscilla Williams and Louise Lowe Kittredge. This book, written by native of Fall River who emphasized “Fall River’s” close-knit families, left no doubt in the reader’s minds WHERE this crime took place. People who have read only one book on the case, most always have read this one.
And when 92 Second Street was opened up to the public for the first time as the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast/Museum in 1996, it put Fall River on the map as a tourist destination for all those interested in unsolved murders and the Lizzie Borden case.
The Lizzie Borden case is as iconic to Fall River as the JFK assassination is to Dallas.
If you can’t even quote the truth about the general public’s awareness of where these crimes took place, what confidence can one have in your ability to present the “true story” of Lizzie Borden at your Salem “exhibit”?
Get a clue, Lenny. Get a grip on the “true” story.
UPDATE:
“The True Story of Lizzie Borden” is what Leonard Pickel proposes to reveal to $10 ticket holders ($8 if you use his online $2 discount coupon) at his EXHIBIT, EXHIBIT, EXHIBIT (get it?) in Salem, MA. The “True” story??? Just how does he know what is true?
First and foremost: Lizzie Borden was acquitted on June 20, 1893 in that sensational Trial held at the New Bedford Superior Court. No one else was ever brought to Trial. The Who, How and Why continues to be a major mystery in this most compelling unsolved classic crime. Indeed, from books, blogs and bumper stickers we repeatedly see the phrase: “Lizzie Borden – Did she or didn’t she?” It is absolutely presumptuous of anyone to state – be it in a book, blog, bumper sticker, lecture, Youtube video, or anything else – that they can reveal or know the “true” story. Nobody does.
2005 photo of Leonard Pickel from his Haunted Times magazine website
The person with the most means, motive and opportunity certainly was Lizzie, but it was never conclusively proven and no one knows for certain if she did it. The good money says of course she did, but no one can prove or show that is true.
So I have to wonder just what TRUTH to the Lizzie Borden story Mr. Pickel will impart to his visitors? Is the “true” story going to reveal that Lizzie alone committed the murders? Even the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum and the Fall River Historical Society do not and never have been so presumptuous as to state whether or not Lizzie did it. Nor have they ever claimed to know the truth about Lizzie. Too many questions remain. Far too many.
Lee-ann Wilber, General Manager & co-owner of Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum
Since the opening of the B&B in 1996, the tour scripts have been written for the tour guides to give facts of the case without asserting that Lizzie or anyone else in particular did the deed. They do not purport that Lizzie did it or didn’t do it, or that Uncle John or Bridget or William Borden committed the murders, or that Lizzie had a boyfriend named David Anthony who did it, or that her sister Emma did it, or that even Phoebe Bowen did it. Nor do they state that it is true that Lizzie was a lesbian, actually strangled or cut off the head of Abby’s cat, or that she was actually a shoplifter. None of this is known to be the truth.
But Leonard Pickel, by virtue of the name of his proposed EXHIBIT and from what he’s stated in newspapers, has the audacity to assert he will exhibit The True Story of Lizzie Borden. What yellow brick road is *he* on? The true story of Lizzie Borden will never be known. Whatever it was, Lizzie took it to her grave. Maybe Mr. Pickel has visited “the other side” and knows something we don’t.
Mr. Pickel is also repeatedly quoted in interviews that Fall River has never “embraced” Lizzie nor had the support of the city. Not true. There was a Lizzie Borden symposium in 1986 of which the city and community organizations supported. But it wasn’t until the highly successful 4-day 1992 Lizzie Borden Centennial that Fall River realized money could be made and that Lizzie was a source of new revenue for tourism dollars that they fully embraced her. She’s in both Chamber and City promotional brochures, city department websites, and the “LIZZIE BORDEN MUSEUM” is a prominently displayed huge BLUE I-95 highway sign on the approach to the Braga Bridge just entering Fall River.
Here’s the August 9th Boston Herald’s report of the current litigation wherein Pickel demonstrates his lack of knowledge regarding the relationship between the City of Fall River and Lizzie Borden.
In my opinion, Mr. Pickel not only does not have his thumb on the pulse of what Lizzie means to Fall River, he doesn’t have his hand on the hatchet to exhibit the True Story of Lizzie Borden.
Fall River Visit – Sept 27-Oct 1st
October 13, 2007
On September 27th, arriving for my 4th visit this year to the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, MA, I let myself in the side door and hollared out: “Anybody home?”. The owners, Lee-ann Wilber and Donald Woods, hollared back from the parlor, “Hey, Faye, come here and look at this new painting.” My very first impression was that she looked more Hindu than Congregationalist 
and felt the artist’s representation lacked something….”Aha!”, I said aloud. “She needs a velcro dot in the middle of her forehead.” Perhaps it really wasn’t meant to be Lizzie but the second child of Andrew and his first wife, Sarah, the daughter Alice, who died March 10, 1858 of hydrocephalus. But what if Alice didn’t really die? What if she had been diagnosed as “weak minded” and sent away….only to grow up and live in Nepal, and later having this painting made? But nahhh, couldn’t be. Because the painting shows “Lizzie” sitting on the sofa in the sitting room.
The colors in the painting are beautiful and that’s what I loved the most about this controversial painting. And her earring is lovely. However, the configuration of the right hand is not technically correct, unless the subject was having a carpal spasm from the long period of posing. And just try to put your left arm like that with your right arm placed as shown. Physically impossible. Well, artistic license considered, its a very nice painting and looks very nice in the parlor. I still am anxious to see Michael Lukowiak’s interpretation of Lizzie. I met Mike at the GhostHunter’s Unversity meeting that Saturday night. He is an exceptional artist. To see his work, go to www.luckyillustrator.com.
I mentioned in an earlier blog of visiting the William A. Dolan family plot at St. Patrick’s cemetery. Dolan was the medical examiner in the Borden case. There were 25 plots purchased originally, and 2 empty spaces remain. When visiting, be sure to ask the friendly ladies in the office for the free printout pages detailing all buried there. Here’s some images:
During that weekend the Heritage Harvest Festival was held down at the waterfront at Heritage State Park. Nice family event. I especially liked the Fall River Fire Department’s photo display of all the major fires in Fall River’s history. Sadly, far too many of them. As to the “history” display at Heritage State Park, two words: Sadly pitiful. Here’s some pics:
Also on the wall is this picture of Gifford’s Jewelry Store where Lizzie shoplifted, which is a documented fact by Mrs. Gifford, former curator of the Fall River Historical Society.
And lastly, here’s a pic of Lee-ann – your incomparable Innkeeper cooking up those johnny cakes! 
I’ll be posting more on this particular visit once I get the additional permissions to use certain images.
AUGUST 5, 1892 – VICTORIAN MOURNING FOR ABBY & ANDREW BORDEN AT THE LIZZIE BORDEN BED & BREAKFAST
August 7, 2007
Good print coverage of this successful turnabout from the usual “re-enactments”. (Right click”View image” for bigger picture.) 
Lizzie’s antics breaks up a guest (he and his wife spent the night as did the couple shown below).
The parlor, sitting room, front entry and dining room were decorated with victorian mourning consisting of covering mirrors,
personal funereal cards, exquisite floral arrangements, floral offerings from close friends and family, prayer cards, printed hymms and prayers. These elaborate additions to the rooms contributed to the deportment of the guests who came…somber, respectful, quiet, almost sullen….But the best was that the “actors” never broke character and did some wonderful ad-libs playing off the individuals from the more than 300 guests. Great stuff!
Donald Woods escorts Lizzie and Bridget into the “barn”.
Barbara and JoAnne (Emma and Mrs. Churchill) covering mirrors.
A floral offering from Alice Russell.
A distraught Emma contemplates funeral arrangements, her sister’s state of mind, and the bloody wash basin near her used by so many doctors.
The crowds lined up from around the house, down the driveway and almost to the gift shop. Groups of 25 went in at a time. To make their wait entertaining instead of tedious, I stood on the front steps and used blown up official photographs mounted on poster board to illustrate what the house and both sides of the street – looking north and south – actually looked like in 1892.
Alice Russell tells the guests of her ministrations to Lizzie the day before and how she is spending nights – but not in the guest room – to help the grieving sisters.
Taking a break on the cellar stairs.
This gentleman came dressed to the gills, could have played Undertaker Winward. But actually he was there to present Donald & Lee-ann with an 1892 full edition of August 5, 1892 Fall River Globe newspaper. He represented the Southeastern Mass. Convention & Tourism Bureau of Bristol County. I escorted him into the kitchen and “Emma” and “Mrs. Churchill” immediately played off his amusing intro as “Mr. Swift from the Wasamutta Mill coming to pay respects to Andrew on behalf of the Board of Directors” of which AJB was a member. Hilarious.
In my 5 days in Fall River I spent part of two days with the owner of Maplecroft. We had a matter of mutual interest to discuss so I was lucky enough to be invited into his home for several hours. On Sunday, after chatting on the porch (great swing) he invited me to brunch at Abby Grille, the old Central Congregational Church on Rock Street, now a culinary institute. While I had been inside many times, including the church structure, I had never eaten there. Back at French Street, Robert D., the owner of Maplecroft (and there’s only been 4, not counting Charles Allen) showed and explained to me the changes Lizzie made. This was my fourth visit inside but this time I was able to see parts of the house I never had before, such as using the first floor bathroom with the original gas lighting scounce still in place – a different commode and sink of course, but this little bathroom was original to when the house was built.) It is a beautiful home, immaculately kept, and Robert is a gracious host, a true gentleman.
In New Bedford, I met up with my friends Carl and Linda who are staying in Swansea for 6 months while engaged in a grant program at the UMass-Dartmouth Marine campus. We had lunch at Davey’s Locker just around the bend from Fort Taber. It was so hot that day that I just jumped into the Achusnet River, clothes and all! Great to watch the little sailboats, jet skiis, etc. in the water….Loved the feel of the salt water – something we don’t have here in the high desert of Arizona!
Carl Becker, President of the Swansea Historical Society, opened up Luther’s Museum on a day and time it was normally closed and spent over an hour with another new friend, Kristen P. (yes, the Wheaton discoverer) giving us the history of the strucure, the four corners, the artifacts inside. I was more impressed with the big black chair George Washington sat on during the time of the Battle of Monmourth (sp) than I was the aledged chairs of Lizzie Borden. There’s a lot more history to Swansea than that farm house, that’s for sure!!
I’ll be relating more of my Fall River trip later but it was great to see old friends again and, as is usually the case, make some new ones.
