A Breakfast To Die For

The term bed-and-breakfast evokes the idea of a romantic getaway, a quiet and peaceful setting — more like a home than an impersonal hotel — and maybe a place with a unique history and nostalgic charm. Like, maybe, the setting of a gruesome 19th century murder?

While looking for potential (and modestly priced) vacation getaways for 2009, I stumbled on the Web site for the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts. Yes, it’s the same home where the infamous Lizzie Borden lived with her sister, father and stepmother right up until that day in 1892 when the bloody bodies of Andrew Borden and his second wife, Abby Durfee Borden, were discovered in the house. Lizzie, the adult daughter, was charged with the murders but was acquitted after a sensational trial. History hasn’t been kind to poor Lizzie, though. After 117 years, it’s still generally believed — in literature, plays and movies — that she was the one flailing the ax that fateful August afternoon.

What could have made Lizzie do it? Could it have been breakfast? By most historical accounts, the meal served at the Borden table that morning was quite a hearty affair: bread, mutton, mutton broth, johnny cake, sugar cookies, bananas and coffee.

Guests who spend the night at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast can be served those very same delicacies as well as “a delicious meal of breakfast staples.”

On second thought, there’s always the Best Western. Less history, fewer ghosts.— By Charles Ferruzza