Fall River Mystery: What Happened to the Lizzie Borden Sofa?

FALL RIVER (WBSM) — It’s a question guides at the Lizzie Borden House in Fall River deal with all the time when people are touring the home where the 1892 murders of Andrew and Abby Borden took place.

Abby’s slain body was found in the upstairs guest room and Andrew’s bloody body was found on the downstairs sofa, leading guests to ask:

“Is that the actual sofa?”

The simple answer is no, the original one was a little too – ahem – soiled to continue being a place to sit in the Borden home.

However, for a long time, the actual answer was a little more complicated.

Many had theories as to what happened to the place where Andrew Borden took his final nap, but the truth had been lost to history for over 130 years.

That all changed recently.

The Facebook page Lizzie Borden Warps & Wefts recently re-shared a post from September of last year that answered the question, with a photo of a news story from the time period after the trial that was published in the Middletown, New York Daily Press.

“The old fashioned softa on which her father was killed and which was used in the trial, has at last come to an end,” the article reads. “It was ordered broken up by Miss Borden, who used it as fire wood.”

There you have it; once the sofa was no longer evidence in a murder trial, it was returned to Lizzie Borden, who – regardless of whether you believe she was guilty or not – would be justified in wanting it destroyed.

The article also addressed those who had questioned why Lizzie and her sister Emma would choose to remain in the place where their father and stepmother had been murdered. They didn’t for long, of course, as Lizzie purchased her beloved Maplecroft in the Highlands.

“Many hard things are said about her that it is a wonder that she does not leave the place. She has, however, purchased a new residence which she and her sister are fitting up elegantly and it is said she intends to remain in Fall River and ‘live it down.’”

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Once the Borden sisters moved out, they had their former home at 92 Second Street reverted back into a two-family and then rented it out.

Meanwhile, the sofa that currently sits in the house was one that was purchased once the house became the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast beginning in 1996.

The former owner went through a painstaking search to find a sofa that looked as close to the original one as possible, and it must be pretty convincing, considering how many people believe it is one and the same.

So next time you visit the Lizzie Borden House, don’t be afraid to sit down on that sofa, because nobody has been murdered on that one – that we know of, at least.