Posted by: sanctaflora | August 11, 2009
Fall River Historical Society Summer Garden
Posted by: sanctaflora | July 29, 2009
Fall River Rising Exhibit
Now through August 23rd a special exhibit at Lotus Rising, 73 Columbia Street will be running featuring cityscapes, waterscapes and photos of city municipal buildings, cemeteries, and private homes. Among the photographs are some familiar Fall River Painted ladies.
Posted in Exhibits, Gingerbread Gems, Hidden Treasures | Tags: Fall River Photo Exhibit, Fall River Rising
Posted by: sanctaflora | June 7, 2009
Signs of Spring
The beautiful Dana Brayton house porch is getting a nip-tuck this week as the Rock Street side porch has supporting pillars replaced.
A little further south on Rock, one of the two “Twin Sisters” on the east side of the street recently received a little paint and powder which she sorely needed. The dove grey clapboard color and the chalky grey-lilac trim are worthy of any Painted Lady.
Her twin sister next door-
Posted by: sanctaflora | February 17, 2009
Underwood Street
Although Mapquest does not even show Underwood Street on its map of Fall River- it does exist and is a charming street which begins at the corner of French with the Hooper House, crosses Lincoln and Pearce streets and terminates at the intersection of President’s Avenue. There are a good many styles of houses, but the gambrel roof or Cape Anne seems to be very popular. The Hooper House, only a few doors down from Lizzie Borden’s Maplecroft begins Underwood in the shadows of the looming Charlton Hospital- and has always been a landmark structure. Today it is a multi-family home which some have compared to the popular Addams Family home from the old television program. Underwood is tucked away neatly, but for avid admirers of Painted Ladies, it is well worth the effort. Underwood also offers some fine views of the Simeon Borden/ Sarah Brayton House.
Posted by: sanctaflora | August 24, 2008
Charm on High Street
Tucked away on the east side of High Street are these two delightful capes which face each other like two old friends. Unlike any other architecture to be seen on the street, these two charmers are showing their west side elevations to the street and are easy to miss when driving by.
The unexpected color combinations of sage with violet shutters, surrounded by the white picket fence and exuberant plantings of hot pink cosmos make this gambrel-roofed “Cape Anne” a Painted Lady of sorts. 
The facing sister cape in buttercream paint with chocolate door and shutters boasts a venerable brick chimney and picture book welcome home warmth.
Posted by: sanctaflora | August 10, 2008
Spring, Third & Fourth Streets
Students of the famous Borden case have studied the properties on Third and Fourth Streets with some interest. Third Street, directly behind the Borden House once was the address for Crowe’s barn, an orchard and Dr. Chagnon’s house and offices. Men in Crowe’s yard, as well as a young girl named Lucy Collette, watching out for patients on the day of the murder on the porch of Dr. Chagnon, had to give statements to the police. Today the area is very much changed and Third Street has been cut off to an abrupt end by the large brick Borden Place East building.
There is a particularly fine early example of a Cape style dwelling at the corner of Spring and Third. In 1892, during the Borden investigations, Spring Street stopped at Second Street. Another notable Spring Street dwelling, which according to Rebello’s Lizzie Borden : Past and Present, was moved back one lot from Fourth Street, is the Oliver Gray house. Oliver Gray was the father of Abby Borden, Lizzie’s murdered stepmother. At the time of the murders, Abby’s half-sister Sarah Whitehead, her family, and her stepmother Jane Gray inhabited the house. This house is often referred to as the “house which started all the trouble” as Lizzie’s father, Andrew J. Borden purchased and made over the house to his second wife without informing his daughters. This made for hard feeling in the Borden house, and it is said Lizzie stopped calling her stepmother “Mother” as a result.
The Cook Borden mansion on Fourth Street also has a Lizzie connection. Cook Borden was a prosperous lumber yard owner, and a great-uncle to Lizzie. Today the beautiful mansard-roofed dwelling is a home for single men and contains eight apartments. The current color scheme of the house is particularly noteworthy, and picks out all of the amazing gingerbread and architectural detailing. It is truly a South End Painted Lady. The round circle motifs on the porch are especially unique.
. At the end of Fourth at the north corner of Borden was the one time location of Hiram Harrington’s smithy. Mr. Harrington was not a champion of Lizzie during her ordeal, and did not speak to her father in his later years. Mr. Harrington was married to Andrew Borden’s sister, Lurana. There’s a lot of history in the two-blocks behind the Borden house, and some wonderful Victorian homes.
Posted by: sanctaflora | July 28, 2008
The Fall River Public Library & The Titanic
One, among many reasons to visit and admire the art and architecture of the library atrium is a work by Fall River artist Mary Lizzie Macomber entitled, Marconi. Miss Macomber (1861-1916) was a much-celebrated artist of the American Pre-Raphaelite school whose paintings of beautiful women won international acclaim, and whose works were exhibited at the 1892 Chicago Columbian Exposition.
There are several works by Miss Macomber at the library, but one in particular is unusual and haunting. In April, 1912, the world was stunned by the sinking of the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic, bound for New York from Southampton on her maiden voyage. Thanks to Marconi’s invention of the wireless, the Cunard rescue ship Carpathia received the SOS and was able to save over 700 souls. In her painting Marconi, Mary Macomber portrays an ethereal, angel-like woman, listening over the ocean, with both hands to her ears. In the far distance at the top of the canvas, faint sparks can be seen traveling out over the water; a tribute to the life-saving invention of Gugliemo Marconi.
Posted by: sanctaflora | July 24, 2008
In the South End
Not all the great old Painted Ladies are on The Hill and in the Highlands. There are some architectural beauties to be found in the south end of town, in the Globe section and in Corky’s Row. Architectural diversity is one of the great charms of Fall River, whether in commercial and civic buildings or residential dwellings. The double and triple decker construction, so commonly seen in New England mill towns still abounds in the city, with a great many of these dwellings now clad in aluminum siding. Occasionally a shingled example still exists, and more rarely still, a brick dwelling. Some resourceful means have been found to preserve at at least some of the carved “gingerbread” ornaments and embellishments of these South End Painted Ladies. A few boast some eye-catching paint schemes as well.
Perhaps the most impressive example, in sheer size, of mill architecture in the area is the King Phillip Mill which engulfs several blocks.
Posted by: sanctaflora | July 14, 2008
The Simeon Borden/ Sarah Brayton House
This elaborate High Victorian Ruskinian Gothic residence was built in 1875 for Simeon Borden. He was a prominent civil engineer and land surveyor who was deeply involved in Fall River’s expanding street system following the Civil War.
The residence was built of brick instead of wood, which at that time made this an unusual building for the city. This particular style was popular in the mid-1870’s and many of the city’s buildings which resemble this house were designed by Hartwell and Swazey, such as the Academy Building in the Borden Block and the Central Congregational Church on Rock Street.
Simeon Borden sold the residence to Sarah Brayton in 1895 and it was then christened “Broadview”. Sarah S. Brayton died in 1915 and willed the home to her niece, Nancy Jannett Bowers Brayton who married Judge James Madison Morton in 1955. Their heirs donated the mansion to the Christian Day School which closed in 1992. Since 2001, it has been the address for the Women’s Center/ OB-GYN.
Posted by: sanctaflora | July 9, 2008
Summer in the Garden
Everything is in bloom at the Fall River Historical Society’s Victorian Garden!
Categories
- Architectural Elements
- Architectural Terms
- Art & Architecture
- Borden-Related Houses
- Exhibits
- Founding Families
- Garden Spots
- Gingerbread Gems
- Hidden Treasures
- Highland Avenue
- House Tales
- Not Quite Painted Ladies
- Public Buildings
- Renovations
- Rock Street
- The Hill and Historic Highlands
- The South End Beauties
- Uncategorized
- What are Painted Ladies?
- Winter Street
