Lizzie Borden House, Fall River, MA: History and Ghost Reports

Haunted Houses, Massachusetts
The Lizzie Borden House on Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts, a green two-story house with a sign out front

The house at 230 Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts, was the scene of one of the best-known unsolved crimes in American history. On August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were killed inside it. Andrew’s daughter Lizzie was tried for the murders and acquitted. Today the building is a museum and inn that markets itself as “America’s Most Haunted House.”

That slogan is a business claim. The history of the case is well documented; the ghost reports are thinly documented and come mostly from the people who run tours. This guide keeps the two apart.

The Borden household

Andrew Borden owned the house from 1872 to 1892. It stood at 92 Second Street until the number was changed to 230 in 1896. He was a bank president and one of the wealthiest men in Fall River, but sources describe him as frugal. The house, close to his business on Main Street, had no indoor plumbing even though wealthier neighbors had it, and his family lived in a middle-class home rather than the fashionable Highlands district.

The household in 1892 included Andrew, his second wife Abby, his daughters Lizzie and Emma, and a maid, Bridget Sullivan. Emma was out of town on the day of the murders.

August 4, 1892

The Famous Trials archive records that the maid was resting in her room when the City Hall bell rang eleven. Lizzie called to her from downstairs that her father was dead. Andrew had been struck ten or eleven times with a hatchet-like weapon while on the sitting-room sofa. Abby was found upstairs in a guest room. The Famous Trials account says her body was cold and she had probably been killed at least ninety minutes earlier.

Lizzie was arrested on August 11, 1892. She was indicted on December 2, and her trial began in New Bedford on June 5, 1893. On June 20, 1893, the jury acquitted her. Contemporary newspapers reported a deliberation of about 40 minutes, while some later accounts say an hour and a half. No one else was ever charged, so the case is still described as unsolved. The Fall River Historical Society holds trial exhibits, including a hatchet-head found in the basement that investigators suspected as the weapon.

After the trial

Lizzie and her sister Emma bought a large house in the Highlands, which Lizzie named Maplecroft. Emma left in 1905, according to the Smithsonian, and the sisters became estranged. Lizzie died of pneumonia on June 1, 1927, at age 66. Emma died nine days later, on June 10. Both are buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River. The case stayed in public memory through books, plays, films and a skipping-rope rhyme, and the Fall River Historical Society describes it as one of the most famous unsolved mysteries of all time.

From family home to inn and museum

The house passed through several hands in the 20th century. Wikipedia says a family purchased it on August 4, 1948, and has the bed-and-breakfast starting in 1996. The Smithsonian says the house has been a themed bed and breakfast since 2004. The sources disagree, so no start year is given here. Either way, it has welcomed tours and overnight guests for more than two decades.

The house was sold in May 2021 to the owner of a ghost-tour company, for roughly 2 million dollars. The Smithsonian described the change as a shift toward paranormal programming and raised the question of whether the real history would be overshadowed. It also noted earlier features such as an available Ouija board and a mannequin in the room where Abby was found.

The official site now describes an inn and museum with two suites and four bedrooms, daytime house tours, evening ghost tours, ghost hunts, and a cemetery tour. Third-floor rooms are named for the defense and prosecution lawyers from the 1893 trial. House tours are listed as 90 minutes long.

The ghost reports and who tells them

The official site refers to unexplained haunting activity and a haunted reputation. Wikipedia cites a book by a self-described medium and a self-described paranormal scientist that describes spirit events in the house. A professional skeptic quoted there says such claims rest on unverifiable personal feelings or on the ideomotor effect behind Ouija boards and dowsing rods.

The sources read for this article did not contain dated, independently documented incidents of anything unexplained. The reports usually take familiar forms, such as footsteps, cold spots and a feeling of being watched. They are told by guests, guides and tour operators and are best treated as legend.

Presenting a double murder as an attraction is a tension the Smithsonian also noted, and some visitors treat the house purely as a museum of a historic crime.

Visiting the house

The official site says the inn and museum are open daily and lists tours and overnight stays, with a house tour, a ghost tour and a ghost hunt among them. Opening hours, prices and tour times change, so the official site’s booking pages are the place to confirm them. The Fall River Historical Society holds a major collection of Borden material. Its website currently says its museum and archive are closed for an infrastructure project, so its site should be checked before planning a trip.

Oak Grove Cemetery, where the family is buried, is also in Fall River, and the official site lists a guided cemetery tour.

Lizzie Borden House FAQ

Was Lizzie Borden convicted?

No. She was tried in 1893 and acquitted. The case has never been officially solved.

Is the Lizzie Borden House really haunted?

There is no verified evidence of a haunting. The reputation rests on guest and tour-operator accounts, and skeptical investigators attribute the experiences to suggestion.

Can the house be visited or stayed in?

The official site describes daytime tours and a small inn. Availability and prices should be checked with the house directly.

Was the house always called 230 Second Street?

No. It was 92 Second Street in 1892, and the number was changed to 230 in 1896.

Sources

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Top image: Lizzie Borden House, Fall River, Massachusetts.jpg, Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons