Fall River House Has Been a Tourist Attraction for 132 Years

The Historic Lizzie Borden House is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Massachusetts. People from all over the world are still interested in the murder mystery that played out there 132 years ago.

The house in Fall River has been a tourist attraction for just as long.

The hatchet killings of Andrew and Abby Borden in August 1892 immediately made international headlines for their shocking brutality. The crimes were cemented in minds everywhere by the subsequent trial and acquittal of the victims' daughter, Lizzie Borden.

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If 32-year-old Lizzie didn't finish off her folks, who did? What exactly happened inside 92 Second St. that stifling summer day? Are there clues hidden in plain sight? Are there ghosts?

The same questions that bring people to the home today for tours, overnight stays and breakfast in the dining room (once a morgue for the victims) brought people to the home back in the 19th century.

Lizzie Borden Warms & Wefts, a website that goes into thorough detail about All Things Borden, recently shared a newspaper article from 1893 that describes a couple of curious people who traveled 2,000 miles to see the infamous house where the crimes went down.

They were about a century too early. The house was very much a private residence in 1893, then occupied by new characters after Lizzie and older sister Emma moved out for fancier digs elsewhere in the city. Tourists weren't formally allowed inside until the mid-1990s.

The article notes the couple gazed up at the house for a few minutes before rapping on the side door. A distressed Mrs. Peckham answered. The man said he had traveled a long way and wished to see the rooms where Mr. and Mrs. Borden had been killed.

"This is not a museum," Mrs. Peckham responded, slamming the door in his face.

"But they were not to be put off in that manner," the article reads. "The man muttered something about having traveled 2,000 miles to see the Borden house, and he didn't propose to be disappointed. The pair then made a tour of the back yard."

Talk about entitlement.

The article notes that the police were eventually called on the couple by a gentleman across the street. Only then did the tourists get the message that they weren't wanted.

The article refers to the couple and people like them as "cranks" and "lunatics." Today, these same kinds of people are welcome guests.

It's funny how time changes things.