The weather cooperated this year, with clear blue skies, lots of sun and just a chill in the air to remind us Christmas is two weeks away.  This year decorated trolleys made the round of houses, which helped speed things along and spare weary feet as they climbed the hills of The Hill section of the city.

Homes on Belmont, Lincoln Ave, Cherry St. and Rock St. threw wide their doors to an appreciative throng of visitors.  Fires crackled merrily, the fragrance of cloves and cinnamon, hot mulled cider and balsam flooded the air as decorations were admired.  Period furnishings, historic photos and mementoes, and homey touches were appreciated by all who were lucky today to enjoy the insides of magnificent homes usually only glimpsed from the street.

18th century tea service and reproduction epergne

The Fall River Historical Society outdid itself this year as well, and all agreed that this was the best year ever for the popular house tour.  At 4:30 footsore house tour guests were treated to a concert of holiday music by the Durfee High School String orchestra.  All in all- a perfect day.  Thanks to families participating this year. It was grand!

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.

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-

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.

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. 

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.

Everything is in bloom at the Fall River Historical Society’s Victorian Garden!