Haunted hotel guide · Fall River, Massachusetts

Staying at the Haunted Lizzie Borden House, Fall River: The Rooms, the Murders and the Ghosts

You can spend the night in the house where Andrew and Abby Borden were killed with a hatchet in 1892, including the room where Abby’s body was found. It is the most famous haunted bed and breakfast in America.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

5.0/5Haunted Rooms Score
1892Year of the murders
6Rooms and suites

Book directMeet the ghosts

On the morning of August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden and his second wife Abby were killed with a hatchet inside their narrow house on Second Street in Fall River. Andrew’s younger daughter, Lizzie, was arrested, tried and acquitted the following year, and nobody else was ever convicted. The case became the trial of the century and a children’s rhyme, and the murders remain unsolved.

The house has been a bed and breakfast since 1996, and it is unlike any other hotel in this guide: you sleep in the Bordens’ own bedrooms, eat a version of their breakfast and tour the rooms where the bodies were found. The house calls itself America’s most haunted, and guests and tour staff describe a woman weeping, a woman in Victorian dress tidying up, footsteps and doors that open and close. For the full story of the case and the house as a historic site, see our page on the Lizzie Borden House.

Lizzie Borden House at a glance

5.0/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation5
History5
Ghost hunter access5
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
  • Address 230 Second Street, Fall River, MA 02721 (92 Second Street until 1896)
  • Borden home 1872 to 1892; murders on August 4, 1892
  • Most haunted spots The John Morse room where Abby was found, the Andrew and Abby Suite, the sitting room where Andrew died, the basement
  • Best-known ghosts Andrew and Abby Borden, a weeping woman, a woman in Victorian dress who straightens up the house
  • Booking the haunted room Every room is booked by name on the house’s own website, including the Morse room. You can also book the whole house.
  • Good to know Two suites and four rooms; the third-floor rooms share a bathroom. Breakfast costs extra. Daytime house tours, evening ghost tours and ghost hunts run on site.

Book direct

The ghosts of Lizzie Borden House Bed & Breakfast

Andrew and Abby Borden

The ghosts most visitors hope to meet are the victims. Abby was struck down first, in the second-floor guest room, and Andrew was killed later that morning on the sitting room sofa downstairs. Guests and tour staff tell of the sense of being watched in both rooms, of cold spots and of a presence on the stairs between them.

These are the stories people bring to the house as much as the ones they take away from it, and they are best treated that way. No account has ever been verified.

The weeping woman

One of the most repeated reports is of a woman heard crying when no one else is in the room. Some guests think it is Abby, others Lizzie or her sister Emma. The house’s original listing on this site described guests having a less than restful night because of it.

The woman in Victorian dress

Guests have described a woman in Victorian clothing who seems to be cleaning and straightening the house, sometimes seen bending over a bed as if making it. Many link her to Abby Borden, who ran the household, or to the maid, Bridget Sullivan, whom the family called Maggie.

Doors, windows and footsteps

The other reports are the familiar ones: doors opening and closing by themselves, windows slamming shut, footsteps on the stairs and the third floor and voices when the house is quiet. The house runs guided ghost hunts on the first floor and in the basement, plus an unguided overnight hunt in the basement, so you will not be the only one listening.

The skeptic's view

Not everyone is convinced. Investigator Joe Nickell argued in a 2020 Skeptical Inquirer article that the experiences reported here rest on unverifiable personal feelings and on techniques like table-tipping, Ouija boards and dowsing, which are driven by the ideomotor effect rather than by spirits. Earlier owners even kept a Ouija board for guests. It is worth knowing before you book: the house makes the most of its reputation, and suggestion is powerful in a place like this.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • John Morse Room: The second-floor guest room where Abby Borden was found on August 4, 1892. Lizzie’s uncle, John Morse, had slept here the night before. It is the most requested room in the house.
  • Andrew and Abby Suite: The Bordens’ own second-floor bedroom, with a former sewing room now used as a second bedroom.
  • Lizzie and Emma Suite: A two-room second-floor suite made up of the rooms Lizzie and her sister Emma used.
  • Bridget Sullivan Room: The third-floor room of the family’s maid, who was the only other person known to be in the house that morning.
  • Jennings and Knowlton Rooms: Third-floor rooms named for Lizzie’s defense lawyer, Andrew Jennings, and the district attorney, Hosea Knowlton. Full-size beds and a shared bathroom.

History of Lizzie Borden House Bed & Breakfast

Andrew Borden was a wealthy Fall River businessman and bank president, but a famously careful one. He bought this house in 1872 because it was close to his businesses on Main Street. It had been built as two apartments, and he turned it into a single home for his family: his second wife Abby, his daughters Emma and Lizzie, and later a live-in maid, Bridget Sullivan, who slept in the attic. He did not add indoor plumbing or electricity, and Lizzie was said to be embarrassed to invite her friends home.

On August 4, 1892, Abby was killed in the second-floor guest room and Andrew on the sitting room sofa. Lizzie was arrested within days. Her trial in New Bedford in June 1893 was followed by newspapers across the country, and the jury acquitted her. She and Emma inherited the house, but Lizzie soon bought a larger home at 7 French Street, which she called Maplecroft, and she lived there until her death on June 1, 1927. The Bordens are buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River.

The house stayed in private hands for decades. Martha McGinn’s grandparents bought it on August 4, 1948, the anniversary of the murders, and in 1996 McGinn and Ronald Evans opened it as a bed and breakfast. Donald Woods and Lee-Ann Wilbers bought it in 2004 and added 90-minute tours and murder-related displays. They listed it for $2 million in January 2021, and in May 2021 it sold for close to that figure to Lance Zaal, whose company US Ghost Adventures runs ghost tours in cities across the country. The Boston Globe noted that the three-story clapboard house has changed little since 1892.

Today the house is presented as a Gilded Age time capsule, with period furnishings and original fixtures. It offers a 90-minute house tour daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., a one-hour Nightfall tour in the evening, ghost hunts, murder mystery dinners, a Victorian tea, outdoor ghost walks around Fall River and a guided tour of Oak Grove Cemetery.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Book the Morse room or the Andrew and Abby Suite well ahead, especially for August 4 and October weekends.
  • Breakfast is extra, $20 a person: pancakes, eggs, sausage, home fries, juice and coffee.
  • If you are traveling as a group, you can book the whole house.
  • The 90-minute daytime house tour is the best way to understand the case before you sleep there.
  • Visit Oak Grove Cemetery to see the Borden graves, and walk past Maplecroft on French Street, where Lizzie lived after the trial.
  • Third-floor rooms share a bathroom, so pick a suite if that matters to you.

Want to investigate, not just sleep?

Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.

See all Haunted Rooms ghost hunts

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Frequently asked questions

Can you stay overnight at the Lizzie Borden House?

Yes. It has been a bed and breakfast since 1996, with two suites and four rooms booked by name on the house’s own website. You can also book the whole house.

Which room was Abby Borden killed in?

The second-floor guest room, now called the John Morse Room after Lizzie’s uncle, who slept there the night before the murders. Guests can book it.

Is the Lizzie Borden House really haunted?

It calls itself America’s most haunted house, and guests report a weeping woman, a woman in Victorian dress, footsteps and doors opening by themselves. None of it is proven, and skeptics such as Joe Nickell put the experiences down to suggestion.

Did Lizzie Borden kill her parents?

Nobody knows. Lizzie was tried for the murders of her father and stepmother and acquitted in 1893, and no one else was ever charged. The case is officially unsolved.

Who owns the Lizzie Borden House now?

Lance Zaal, founder of US Ghost Adventures, bought it in May 2021 for close to its $2 million asking price. It still runs as a bed and breakfast with tours and ghost hunts.

Is breakfast included at the Lizzie Borden House?

Breakfast is offered for an extra $20 a person: pancakes, eggs, sausage, home fries, juice and coffee.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

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About the authors

The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.

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