The Sink

[Allen]

I have gotten confused in the past when I hear testimony that seemed to imply there was a sink in the Borden kitchen, when we know that the sink was in the sink room off the kitchen near the side door.

Trial testimony Alice Russell page 391:


Q. Will you state what you saw after you returned?
A. I went into the kitchen, and I saw Miss Lizzie at the other end of the stove; I saw Miss Emma at the sink. Miss Lizzie was at the stove, and she had a skirt in her hand, and her sister turned and said, "What are you going to do?" and Lizzie said, " I am going to burn this old thing up; it's covered with paint."

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Page 410:

Q. And this conversation with Emma, you may state it again, if you please, so there will be no doubt about it.
A. Emma turned around from the sink and she says " What are you going to do?" and Lizzie says " I am going to burn this old thing up. It is covered with paint."

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Bridget Sullivan trial testimony, page 197:

( in reference to dinner Wednesday night)

Q. Did you clean up the dishes after dinner? or Mrs. Borden?
A. Mrs. Borden put the dishes out in the kitchen from the dining room.

Q.You washed them?
A. Yes, sir.

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page 222:

Q. After you had completed your breakfast what did you do?
A. I took the dishes off out of the dining-room and brought them out in the kitchen and began washing them.

Q. Did you complete the washing of the dishes before any one else appeared?
A. No sir.

Q. Who next appeared?
A. The next I remember to see was Mr. Borden and Mr. Morse going out the back entry -- the back door.

Q. Did Mr. Morse return after the two went out to the screen door?
A. No sir, he went out.

Q. Did Mr. Borden return at that time?
A. Yes sir.

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page 224:

"Q. After Mr. Borden went upstairs did you continue to remain in the kitchen until some one else came, or did you go away?
A. No, sir, I was washing the dishes at the sink, and Miss Lizzie came through.
Q. About how long was it after Mr. Morse went that Miss Lizzie Borden came?
A. I don't know how long it was. It was no more than five minutes, I don't think. I don't remember how the time was.
Q. When she came, into which room did she come? Where did you first see her?
A. The kitchen.
Q. From what room did she come?
A. From the sitting-room.

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page 226:

Q. What did you go to doing when you came back into the kitchen?
A. I completed washing my dishes. Some of them was washed, and all of them wasn't, and I finished them and took them in the dining room, and I got them completed, and Mrs. Borden was there.

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Trial testimony of Emma Borden page 1542+:

Q. When did you next see the Bedford cord dress?
A. Sunday morning, I think, about nine o'clock.

Q. Now will you tell the Court and the Jury all that you saw or heard that morning in the kitchen?
A. I was washing dishes, and I heard my sister's voice and I turned round and saw she was standing at the foot of the stove, between the foot of the stove and the dining room door. This dress was hanging on her arm and she says,"I think I shall burn this old dress up." Do you wish me to go on?

Q. Go right along.
A.I said, " why don't you," or " you had

Page 1543

better," or " I would if I were you," or something like that, I can't tell the exact words, but it meant, --- Do it. And I turned back and continued washing the dishes, and did not see her burn it and did not pay any more attention to her at that time.


I realized, Emma and Bridget very well could have been at the 'sink' in the kitchen. I was thinking in terms of today's hot and cold running water, even though I knew that sink in the Borden home produced only cold water. Which means the water had to be heated on the kitchen stove in order to wash the dishes. Sometimes more than one kettle of water had to be heated. Kettles of water were usually kept on the stove to keep them warm for such things. So the water would have been taken from the sink in the sink room into the kitchen to be heated on the stove.

My aunt owns a wonderful old dry sink that came with a house that she bought. A victorian dry sink. These were wash stands that held basins of water and were used for doing dishes and things of this nature when a direct water supply wasn't available. I realized the Borden's may have owned a dry sink, they were pretty common in victorian homes. It would also be practical if they did, and it would make sense. The water could be heated on the stove, and then taken a few steps to the dry sink to do the dishes instead of carrying them back down the hall into the sink room to be dumped into a sink. The dishes would not have to be carried back and forth from the sink room to be washed and put away. It could also explain why so many witnesses seem to testify there was a sink in the kitchen. Perhaps there was.

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Made for the kitchen beginning early in our nation's history and still being reproduced, the "dry sink" was utilitarian and provided a work surface for preparing food or washing dishes and cookware. There was typically no water supply, so basins and bowls contained wash water to be discarded later out the back door. The dry sink was basically a cabinet piece with a boxed structure on top, or perhaps a back and sides to contain splashing. Some had small drawers under the surface for tools or soap. The "sink" portion of the piece was simply a wooden box sometimes lined with tin, zinc, or other metal for additional protection. At times, if there were a well or water reservoir under the floorboards of the kitchen, a pump would be attached. The dry sink would be located under the pump head and the piece was no longer "dry". In that case, a bucket or kettle could be set in the sink to pump water for heating, or, if a water-proof "sink" had been mounted on top, it could become a receptacle for the water which could be drained to a bucket below. (Waste water was sometimes re-used to scrub floors.)


http://www.depotantiques.com/index.php?id=26
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dry sink

NOUN: A wooden cabinet that supports a wash basin not connected to a water supply.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/62/D0406250.html

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Before indoor plumbing, many people owned pieces of furniture called dry sinks. Found in kitchens and bedrooms, they held a wash basin and a pitcher of water. Michael Ogle is an antiques dealer and expert on authentic American furnishings and he shares the history of these highly collectible pieces and how they can be incorporated into the decor of almost any room of a country home.

Dry sinks were common in 18th- and 19th-century homes. The top portion acted as a barrier to keep water from spilling onto the floor.
They are found in many rooms in today's country homes and can be used in an entryway, bathroom and as a server in a dining room.
They can be found in a rainbow of colors with blue being the most sought-after hue. Bittersweet, a red-orange color, is also rare and is indicative of sinks from New York.
Ogle says dry sinks can be purchased from $1,000 on up to the many thousands.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_furnishings ... 14,00.html
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http://www.folkpark.com/collections/Ame ... /Dry_Sink/

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http://www.oregonlink.com/mission_mill/ ... space.html

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http://www.purdumantiques.com/dry_sinks.htm

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http://www.housenotsobeautiful.com/Articles/sink.html

[Allen]

This is interesting as well because it would actually place Emma in the kitchen when Lizzie was burning the dress.

[nbcatlover]

Allen--an excellent point which makes great sense.

[Harry]

That's an interesting thought Allen. Off hand I would say that I think when they say kitchen they include the sink room and ice box. But I would need to do more research on that. When I was at the house the distance from the stove to where the sink room entrance used to be didn't seem all that far.

There is also what looks like on the floor plans a window or an opening between the sink room and pantry. I don't know where they kept the dishes but it might have been the pantry. In that case the cleaned dishes could have been passed from the sink room to the pantry through the opening.

If not for the dishes what could that opening have been for?

[Allen]

Trial testimony of Bridget Sullivan page 222:

Q. Now during that time were you in any other room except the kitchen and dining -room?
A. No sir, except going into the kitchen closet to put things away, and so forth. Of course I had to go there, and the ice chest.

Q. The closet you speak of is the closet that leads right out of the kitchen?
A. Yes sir.


---------------------------------------------------

page 271+

Q. Is there a room connected with the kitchen beside the closet?
A. Why, there is the sitting -room, dining-room, closet, and sink room.

Q. Anything else?
A. Front hall -- front entry.

Q. Small hall leading to the outside door? Is there a room there in the corner, the northeast corner?
A. Downstairs?

Q. Yes.
A. There is a parlor there.

Q. No; leading out from the kitchen?
A. There is a closet there.

Q. Well, you call it a closet?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. Is that the only closet there is in the kitchen?
A. That is the closet, the kitchen closet. There is a little closet there, where the wood and coal was kept, and there is a sink room there where the refrigerator was.

Q. Then there is a closet, and that is quite a large closet, --- a sort of pantry, wasn't it?
A. Well, I always called it the kitchen closet. I don't know what anybody else called it.

Q. You could go right into it?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. And shelves around?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. And did you have occassion to go in there when you were preparing breakfast?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. Regularly?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. And when you were clearing away and putting in food did you have occassion to go in there?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. That was a common thing, wasn't it?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. You went in there that morning did you not?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. And in and out of the room several times?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. There was a window opening from that closet out into the backyard, was there not?
A. A window was there; I don't know whether it was open or shut.

Q. I don't mean exactly open, up or down, --- but a window that let the light in?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. And there was door which could be shut to that closet?
A. Yes, sir.

[Harry]

Melissa, here's some more testimony which tends to support that possibility. Emma at the trial, p1576, first question on re-direct:

"Q. (By Mr. Jennings.) You remained in the kitchen yourself all the time washing dishes?
A. I was.

Can't get any more explicit than that.

Then there is this by Emma, p1575:

"Q. Did you see Miss Russell come back again the second time?
A. I don't remember. I think she was wiping the dishes and came back and forth and I didn't pay attention."

There's no mention by Alice that she was near the sink room. Where was she wiping them? I assume the kitchen.

This is getting interesting. Calling Bill Pavao ... come in, Bill.

[Harry]

I missed Melissa's posting of Bridget's testimony on the rooms when I made my last post.

She clearly distinguishes the kitchen from the sink room. That's what I meant by what each considered the kitchen.

Now if we can find similar testimony from Emma or Alice.

[Audrey]

It's a good theory and one which might explain a lot of confusion about the dress burning incident and Emma's urging Lizzie to burn the dress-- and it would actually lend more credibility to Emma in her testimony about the dress burning.

[diana]

Thank you for that valuable compilation of details on the kitchen layout, Melissa!!

[Haulover]

Excellent subject! at any rate. i have wondered if something like this might be at play that would explain it -- especially after looking at the space myself.

i wondered, if someone has to clean dirty dishes and needs hot water especially -- after seeing the length of the area, i thought later -- now, why take dishes into the sink room and then put them back somewhere in the kitchen or dining room?

[Allen]

Trial testimony of Emma L. Borden page 1572:

Q. That is what I thought you would say. Now, you don't recall that the first thing that was said by anybody was," What are you going to do with that dress Lizzie?"
A.No, sir I don't remember saying it.

Q. Do you remember that you did not say it?
A. I am sure I did not.

Q.Miss Russell was in the room, was she not?
A. I don't know. When I turned to hear what my sister had to say I saw Miss Russell, but she wasn't in the room with her then. She was in the dining room with the door open.

[theebmonique]

So, more than likely, when Lizzie burned the dress, all of them were in very close proximity of each other and could see exactly what was happening with the dress. But, maybe too close to be fast enought to say "Lizzie...don't !" Or maybe Emma KNEW why Lizzie was buring it and was slow about saying anything...on purpose.


Tracy...

[Haulover]

Here is some Prelim., Bridget, pg 65

Q. She partook of her breakfast, what were you doing then?
A. I went out in the back yard when she was eating her breakfast.
Q. Where did she come from?
A. The sitting room.
Q. Where were you?
A. At the sink.

...............................

Q. The first you saw of her you were at the kitchen sink?
A. Yes Sir.
Q. Cleaning up the breakfast dishes?
A. Yes Sir.
Q. She came in there?
A. Yes Sir.

____________


Bridget could not have seen from which door (sitting or dining) lizzie entered from if Bridget was in the sink room. this stands to reason, doesn't it?

(understand, i'm referring to the logistical arrangement of the dress-burning trio here.)

"sink" and "sink room" are not necessarily the same place?

[theebmonique]

My thought was that even if Alice was standing just inside the dining room and Emma in the kitchen at the sink, not in the sink room, they could both have seen Lizzie heading fro the stive with the dress. It seems that even if Emma's back was turned as Lizzie entered the room, that she would have turned around as Lizzie started todo things at the stove.


Tracy...

[Kat]

Here is the floor plan and shows the sink and the pantry and "pass-through."
Picture courtesy of Bill Pavao.

[Kat]

Didn't Bridget say she had nothing to do with the stove after breakfast? If so, wouldn't that include heating water for the dishes? She spent about 30 minutes stopping and starting those dishes and doesn't say she got any hot water in the meantime.

[theebmonique]

Is this where they were standing for "the burning" ?



Tracy...

[Kat]

Lizzie was over by the closet door on the far side of the stove.
Emma, supposedly was in that sink room, and Alice was entering the kitchen from ?

[theebmonique]

So Emma could not have been in the kitchen at the other sink, but must have been in the sinkroom ? I thought Alice came from the dining room ? (I moved Lizzie to the other side of the stove)



Tracy...

[nbcatlover]

Trial testimony of Emma L. Borden page 1572:

Q. That is what I thought you would say. Now, you don't recall that the first thing that was said by anybody was," What are you going to do with that dress Lizzie?"
A.No, sir I don't remember saying it.

Q. Do you remember that you did not say it?
A. I am sure I did not.

Q.Miss Russell was in the room, was she not?
A. I don't know. When I turned to hear what my sister had to say I saw Miss Russell, but she wasn't in the room with her then. She was in the dining room with the door open.

How could Emma testify that she saw Miss Russell in the dining room from the sinkroom? She had to be at a dry sink in the kitchen.

[theebmonique]

I agree that Emma must have been at the dry sink...to be able to see what she claimed to see. In fact, I think she would have to have been just a bit further over (south) than where I 'have' her in the floor plan illustration.


Tracy...

[Kat]

Well let's say a possible dry sink.
We need more proof that there was one.

I have a dry sink.
It was my great-grandmother's.
But they used it at their farm, because they were wealthy enough to have had running water in the home in the late 1890's.

I think until there is a legtimate fact showing the Borden's used a dry sink, it's speculation for now.
That's not to say don't keep at it- just add the "possible" would be my opinion.

Since the Borden's had a sink with a faucet and running water, and the dishes were kept near there in the pantry area and set up on the dining room table, I don't see a need for a dry sink in the kitchen- my own opinion. It seems redundant.

[Harry]

There is a lot to be said for a possible dry-sink in the kitchen. There is nothing that positively rules it out.

However, on the other hand, no one - witnesses, police, or authors has ever mentioned it.

Another thing we seem to have presumed (myself included) is that Emma and Bridget were always stationary while in the sink room. Why could they not have been moving occasionally between the sink room and kitchen? If someone were talking to me from the kitchen and I was in the sink room, I could easily see myself pausing and stepping into the kitchen to reply. It was only a few steps.

The trouble with testimony is the person only answers (if we are lucky) the question asked. That does not mean that their answer is the whole story.

I also keep going back to that opening between the sink room and the pantry. If not for passing through cleaned pots, pans and dishes then what was it used for? What else do you do in the sink room that requires access to the pantry?

[Allen]

I've also been to the house, and I think that the walk to the sink room would be a bit longer than the walk to the other side of the kitchen, so I don't see it as redundant since the water would've been heated in the kitchen.

The sink in the sink room only had running cold water. Bridget does not state for the record that she went to get any hot water. But she also was never asked specifics about how she did the dishes. In my opinion she wasn't asked specifics because it was a mundane task that everyone that owned a home did or had their servants do, and everyone knew what washing the dishes involved. She also did not describe needing hot water to wash the clothes, or that she rinsed the clothes, or any of the specifics of washing or ironing the clothes. Only that she washed and ironed them. However, I think this would imply that she needed and used hot water and rinse water to do this task since this is how clothing was washed. But this is just my opinion.

In my opinion, if she had not been asked specifics, all we would know is that she washed the windows. We wouldn't know about the dipper, the pail, and dashing water up on the windows. But they needed those specifics to show where she was outside the house at different times, what she could possibly see or not see, and how long she was outside with the screen door unhooked. I don't think she was asked those questions because anyone was really concerned with how she washed the windows. But again, that's just my own opinion. I think the dry sink makes a lot of sense, and it accounts for a lot of things in the testimony that would be confusing otherwise.

[Haulover]

the simple question here is whether they actually washed the dishes in the sink room -- or washed them in the kitchen. if they had a customary way of doing them in the kitchen, that would clear up some logistical oddities. i don't see it actually clarified in testimony, one way or the other.

wasn't it always an assumption that emma was actually in the sink room doing the dishes when lizzie took the dress? but why?

for me, it's not so important whether they had this dry sink proper -- as it is where they washed them. a small tub on the table would suffice, there in the kitchen. this i can't back up except for the physical proximity emma claimed--well, suppose this was true.

i can't find evidence that puts emma IN the sink room just because she was doing dishes -- yet it often sounds like they are doing their dishes in the kitchen. that's about the size of it?

in speculating about the method (practicality) -- i would not take a load of dishes to the sink room and then take them back into the kitchen. why would anyone?

[Audrey]

They could have even used a basin of some type....

[Kat]

Well, Andrew could decide where he wanted a sink when he had the running water installed. So it seems to me he had the choice to put the sink anywhere in the kitchen proper, but he didn't- he put it in the northeast corner by the door and where the pantry is.

Anyway, as to comments about eliciting testimony from Bridget as to specifics, it's true that it seems hard to get info out of her and the way she puts things sometimes are a bit hard to understand.
But remember, we don't have her inquest testimony. That rather informal gathering might be where these questions about every day life in the Borden household reside. And it was a fishing expedition so that by the preliminary hearing they could enter facts and evidence to do with the crime.

So Bridget's inquest testimony might be more illuminating upon these daily household chores, and maybe why we don't get as much of the mundane as we'd like later on at prelim and trial.

I can see Emma wandering while drying dishes and maybe being in the corridor by the sink room when she spoke to Lizzie. I don't stay still while drying dishes, I wander around.

[Susan]

Great topic, gang, interesting reading! The placement of the sink with running water made me also wonder why the icebox was put in this sinkroom at a remove from the kitchen. I understand that if it was directly in the kitchen, the heat from the stove might affect the block of ice, but, why couldn't the icebox be put in the pantry with the other foodstuffs that were there? And, could the placement of the icebox have something to do with the placement of the sink; ice melts into the drip pan and needs to be emptied into the sink?

For what its worth, I did find this interesting little tidbit in the Witness Statements on page 19:

Mrs. Arubia P. Kirby No. 29 Third Street, the next house north of Dr. Chagnon's, says "I was in the kitchen and sink room all during the forenoon of the 4th of August, and could and would have heard and seen anybody who might have gone up or down Dr. Chagnon's driveway."

I guess sink rooms were a common thing in Fall River at the time?

[Kat]

Where was Mrs. Churchill's sink- somewhere on the south side of her kitchen by the windows facing the Borden side of the house?
D'ye recall, anyone?

[Ad]

Posted: By Allen: Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:12 pm Post subject: Bridget's testimony I was reading through some of my New York Times articles again when I began to reread an article published on August 27, 1892. In it Bridget's testimony was described.

The sink where the dipper was procured was on the east side of the kitchen.

This pretty much answers our question about a sink in the kitchen.
If Bridget places the sink on the east wall, and if the sink was on the right side of the window, then Emma (at the sink), Miss Russell (in the dinning room by the door) and Lizzie (at the stove by the closet) could all have seen each other as Lizzie burnt “the dress”.

[nbcatlover]

Susan--if my old house is any indication, the Ice Man didn't come into the main living section of the house. The old iceboxes (refrigerators) had separate lead pipe drains to a sink in the basement--no running water required; no drip pans to be emptied, either. Ours were in a hallway to the back entrance.

[Susan]

Thanks, Cynthia, I had thought of that afterwards, that bringing ice into the house might be too messy so that the icebox would be kept closer to the door the iceman would deliver from.


Kat, I looked through Mrs. Churchill's testimony, her sink is in her kitchen, close to her south facing windows which face the Borden's side door and such. But, whether on the west side or east side of the kitchen?

From the Trial volume 1, page 354:

Q. When you were working in your kitchen you would not be looking towards the Borden house?
A. My sink in (sic) quite near one of the windows, and if I turned to the bench I should be near the window.

[Allen]

I don't know if this will help at all, or just add confusion.


Trial testimony Mrs. Churchill page 346:

(Being questioned on what occured when she arrived home from the market.)

Q. Will you describe what happened in the kitchen?
A. I passed to the south side of the kitchen and laid my bundles on a long bench.

Q. Where is that bench with reference to the kitchen windows which look out toward the Borden house?
A.It is in front of one and extends nearly to the other window.

Q. Will you describe what occurred then?
A. And I looked out of the window, and I saw Miss Lizzie at the inside of the

Page 347

screen door.

Q. Will you describe how she was standing inside of the screen door?
A. Looked as if she was leaning up against the east casing of the screen door, and she seemed excited or agitated, to me, as if something had happened, and I stepped to the other window and asked her what was the matter.

Q. Which window did you step to?
A. The other kitchen window, the east window.

This comes directly after the bit of testimony that Susan posted.

Q. Was I wrong in understanding that the kitchen is on the southerly side of the house?
A. On the south east side of the house.

Q. And it would be quite opposite the screen door of the Borden house?
A. Yes, sir.

Page 357:

Q. Was your window open?
A. The one I stood in front of had a screen blind closed. That was in the kitchen, but I stepped to the other to speak to her. There are two on the south side of the kitchen.

[Kat]

Yes I'm getting confused, but you all are very helpfull!

I'm trying to figure if Mrs. Churchill's sink is between her 2 southerly windows.

Al:

This pretty much answers our question about a sink in the kitchen.
If Bridget places the sink on the east wall, and if the sink was on the right side of the window, then Emma (at the sink), Miss Russell (in the dinning room by the door) and Lizzie (at the stove by the closet) could all have seen each other as Lizzie burnt “the dress”.

The right side of which window?
The floorplan shows a window in the pantry to the east (facing out back) and the sink to the north of that, or to the left, not the right.
I'm biased because my first tour of the Borden house was by Bill Pavao, the curator, and we discussed the sink in the sink room and felt the wall where the opening had been closed up.

[Allen]

I don't think I dispute there was a sink in the sink room at all, I just have my doubts as to whether or not this is where the dishes and things like this were done. I think the evidence in the testimony of the witnesses seems to point more toward the fact that it was not. I think this was just where they obtained their water, like the faucet in the cellar was were Bridget obtained her water for laundry, but she didn't do her laundry there at the faucet.

[Ad]

So Emma could not have been in the kitchen at the other sink, but must have been in the sinkroom ? I thought Alice came from the dining room ? (I moved Lizzie to the other side of the stove)



Tracy...

Kat,

If you take Tracy's picture (thank Tracy, by the way) and move Emma to the other side of the window (to the right; away from the sink room/pantry) almost in line with Lizzie's position, towards the south wall.

Exactly opposite where Tracy has Emma marked in red; then I believe all three women could see each other. Remember too, they are not cemented in place, they are moving about.

There are definitely two windows on the east side of the house, one in the sink/pantry area and one in the kitchen itself. Place Emma to the right of that one and there you have it, a visual triangle.

[Haulover]

so a kind of sink there in the kitchen at the east wall -- emma washing dishes there as opposed to in the sink room -- would make sense out of what sounds like a fabrication if emma is washing dishes in the sink room, which is to the right of the side door. that's the gist of the idea, as i understand it. this is worth pursuing. i've been looking through the trial but haven't found anything worth reporting.

this is similar to the window-washing. we don't quite visualize it. for ex, i still don't see how bridget managed to hit the windows with a dipper of water from ground level -- they are high, from outside. they are not, from inside. also i recently wondered about this -- the window screens when bridget did the washing -- where were they?

[Harry]

Here's some more testimony by Bridget at the trial, p219+, regarding the kitchen:

"Q. Well, I mean after he had picked the pears, what did he do?
A. He brought them in the kitchen and left them on the table there.
Q. Did you notice how he left the door after he came in?
A. Yes. He left it open.
Q. Did you remain in the kitchen?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you do anything to the door at that time after Mr. Borden came in?
A. I don't remember doing anything to the door.
Q. Perhaps I misled you. I mean when he came in through the screen door did he do anything to that?
A. I don't know. I can't say whether he hooked it or not.
Q. You don't know whether he did or not?
A. No, sir.
Q. After he put the pears down in the kitchen what did he do or where did he go?
A. He washed up in the kitchen and got ready for breakfast. "

She calls it the kitchen but I can't believe Andrew washed up in a dry sink.

Now, after breakfast she describes the following (p223):

"Q. When Mr. Borden returned from letting Mr. Morse out where did he go, where did Mr. Borden go?
A. He came to the sink, and he cleaned his teeth in the sink, and after that he took a bowl, a big bowl, and filled it with water and took it up to his room."

This would have to be the sink room as that had the running water he needed to fill the bowl.

It doesn't solve it as there is still the possibility they had both.

[Allen]

She calls it the kitchen but I can't believe Andrew washed up in a dry sink.

I don't see why this would be much different than another common practice of the time which was to wash with a pitcher, a washbowl, and a sponge which were often set up on what was called a wash stand. A simple example is pictured below. I believe there was one of these in Lizzie's room if I remember correctly.




http://search.ebay.com/antique-pitcher- ... rZ1QQfnuZ1

http://www.bricksandbrass.co.uk/deselem ... wbasin.htm

http://www.1earth.com.au/collectible/fu ... stand.html

[Kat]

Wash stands upstairs would be pretty normal, I agree.

I still don't understand why, with a sink with running water, one would use a pitcher and bowl in the kitchen itself. It seems like going backward in time.

I have been shown the house by the curator, who was an expert in the house and the case, and had lived there for 2 years. I happen to have another question for him and am calling him soon- should I ask?

[Allen]

I still don't understand why, with a sink with running water, one would use a pitcher and bowl in the kitchen itself. It seems like going backward in time.

Well, and this is just my own opinion, I don't think it would be going backward in time for a man who was from an era when things were done this way, and who was accustomed to doing things this way. Many of the things Andrew did were because he was set in his ways, such as using oil lamps instead of gas, and sitting in the dark to conserver on oil.

[diana]

While we're on the topic of domestic chores in the Borden household -- I often find myself mulling over the image of Andrew carrying up that pile of clothes Bridget folded and put on the kitchen table on the morning of the murders. Does anyone else wonder why he did this? Was it just a helpful gesture on his part? Was Abby too infirm to carry them up?

I also wonder who put them away? Did Abby go up before or after breakfast to deal with this? Did Andrew put them away himself when he went upstairs?

Oddly, between the preliminary hearing and trial, Bridget changes her story regarding the laundry. This is another instance where her inquest testimony may have helped give a clearer picture.

Initially, Bridget says she ironed the clothes on Wednesday evening, hung them on a drying rack, and folded them Thursday morning as she was getting breakfast. She then separated the clothes and Andrew took up one pile and Lizzie another.

Q. They were hung to air as was your habit after finishing ironing?
A. Yes Sir.
Q. You folded them up Thursday morning?
A. Yes Sir.
Q. You took them off the clothes horse and folded them up?
A. Yes Sir.
Q. Perhaps that is one of the things you did after breakfast?
A. No Sir, while I was getting breakfast.
Q. There was one pile for Mr. Borden’s room, and one for Lizzie’s and Emma’s room.
A. Yes Sir.
Q. They were not ready until Thursday morning?
Q. No Sir.” (Bridget: Preliminary Hearing.)

So here, she has the laundry taken upstairs on the day of the murders -- but, at trial, Bridget is again asked about what she was doing Thursday morning and seems to contradict her previous testimony.

“Q. What were you doing while breakfast was going on?
A. I was around the kitchen cleaning up things, etc., I don't know exactly what I was doing.
Q. Had your ironing been completed the day before?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And the clothes put away?
A. Yes sir.” (Bridget, trial).

[Harry]

That is quite a change in testimony on Bridget's part.

Lizzie at the Inquest thought it was Thursday:

Page 60:
Q. Did you go back to your room before your father returned?
A. I think I did carry up some clean clothes.
---------------------

Page 61:
Q. Then you were up stairs when your father came to the house on his return?
A. I think I was.
Q. How long had you been there?
A. I had only been upstairs just long enough to take the clothes up and baste the little loop on the sleeve. I don't think I had been up there over five minutes.

Thursday probably is correct because I think Lizzie may have had to admit she was upstairs at some point since she would not have known what Bridget had testified to. Her testimony at this point gets quite confused, she was upstairs, she was downstairs, etc.

[Kat]

So the question is did the clothes go up Wednesday?
Because you say Bridget said she ironed Wednesday and the question at trial was: "Q. Had your ironing been completed the day before?
A. Yes sir."
So the ironing on Wednesday is not in dispute, correct?

Imaging Andrew taking the clothes up himself is odd, you are right. Maybe once down, Abby does not go back up too often? Our dad had a saying: "Don't leave the room empty handed." He meant around the house. There was always something which should have been put away, including whatever one just used. Maybe if Andrew was already going up he did not go empty handed? I'd think this maxim might be even more practical with a house which had steep stairs.

It's an interesting question.

As for the water- Andrew had running water since 1874, so that's 18 years of getting used to a sink in the sink room.
Would he rinse his teeth at a dry sink where people think possibly dishes were being washed? It was bad enough to picture that in the sink in the sink room w/ running water. Yuck.

[Allen]

I had an idea this morning, but I don't know how well this will actually work. I wondered if I should post these at first, and then decided I didn't see where it was much different from posting pictures. However, if there is a problem I will be happy to remove them as I don't want to offend anyone or break any rules I may not know about.This might help to give a better idea of the layout when it comes to the kitchen and the hall leading to the back door for those of you who have not been to the house. That's if it works so it can be viewed I should say. I've never tried anything like this so I don't know if it will.

I have used this video hosting site before, (I'd like to find a better one but so far so I'm stuck with this one) but it was mostly to upload things for my family. I have never tried to actually post them anywhere. These were taken from my video of the house. They became sort of grainy during the transition from television screen, to digital camera, and then to computer. In the first video clip I am coming from the door that leads out of the the dining room into the kitchen.The video of the hall begins while I'm in the actual doorway of the hall. I had shut the camera off to chat and then began taping again. So this just shows the distance from the actual doorway that leads from the kitchen into the hall and not from any point in the kitchen itself. Just click on them, and they should begin the video stream.

[theebmonique]

So it was probably 7-8 steps (15 feet ?) from the backdoor to the kitchen ?


Tracy...

[Kat]

That Is SO 'Effin COOL! Thanks a bunch!

[Allen]

You're very welcome Kat.

[Susan]

Thanks, Melissa, that was really neat! So, the old door to the sink room doesn't exist anymore in the back hall. It appears as Tracy posted that it was a few steps say from stove to sink room, not that far of a remove from the kitchen proper as it looks on the blueprints of the house.

[Kat]

It's down that hall by the side door.
Maybe not as far as I thought.
BUT- in our day there's a bathroom there and the wall is sealed up where the sink room door was so it's harder to visualize what it was like in the day.
If that pantry door was open, then there'd be a sightline thru there to the sink room- just not in sight of the stove, I don't think.
But because those rooms in a line were *linked* they could still all be considered the *kitchen*. They were part of the kitchen, after all.

Here is our Joe's picture of the bathroom which is there now. Back in the shower area is where the sink was but on the rear wall to the right.
Thanks Joe!