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. 

 East side stone carvings and remaining two pillars from the old city hall at the start of Old Second Street, now a pedestrian mall.

(The music heard is from the 1980 film Somewhere in Time- based on the novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson which was set in 1896 at the Hotel Del Coronado in California. The film version was updated to 1912 and filmed at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan).

The Sanford House on Lincoln Avenue

The term “Painted Lady” has now become part of the American vernacular and describes a Victorian house of three or more colors.  The painting scheme is also called “polychrome”. 

The term was first used for San Francisco Victorian houses by writers Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen in their 1978 book Painted Ladies – San Francisco’s Resplendent Victorians.  There has since been sequels to the popular book, which has never been out of print since its first publication.

Fall River has a particularly fine collection of these glorious homes both in the Historic Highlands or “The Hill” section of the old mill town, and also in the south end of the city.  “Painted Lady” refers to the Victorian disdain for using too much make-up, paint and powder, which became associated with showgirls, ladies of the evening and actresses.  By using three or more colors on the intricate gingerbread details of these homes, highlighting the architectural elements is achieved.

The exquisite Queen Anne in the photographs below, the Sanford House, is located on Lincoln Avenue, and was recently repainted in October 2007.  It is surely one of the loveliest homes on The Hill and a favorite of locals.

As the world becomes more hurried and streamlined, a certain nostalgia for the workmanship and attention to detail has rekindled in today’s generation.  These amazing homes are being once again appreciated as testimonials to a slower, more gracious time when neighbors stopped to visit over lemonade on the porch, ladies bent over their needlework in wicker chairs, and children were happy to toss a ball on immaculate rolling lawns.  Fall River is rich in architectural heritage- may it ever be so.

Before The Rescue

In Bygone Days