The local tourism industry in Fall River has not been immune to the negative impacts of COVID-19.
In normal times, the daily tours at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum include several visitors from all over the United States and even overseas.
But on Wednesday, only two Massachusetts residents showed up for the 3 p.m. tour. And they didn’t stop in on a whim. They had to reserve their tickets online.
“We’re getting a lot of local people, people within a 300-mile radius, but not much beyond that,” said Jerry Pacheco, the operations manager for the bed and breakfast museum at 230 2nd St., the site of the infamous murders in 1892.
“It’s been an extreme challenge to say the least,” Pacheco said.
The novel coronavirus, which has ravaged the state’s economy, also made this summer a difficult season for Fall River’s few tourist attractions, which rely on ticket sales and foot traffic for significant portions of their revenue.
Some local attractions, like the Fall River Historical Society, have not been able to open at all since the pandemic swept through the country in mid-March. Those that did reopen had to cut back their programming to comply with social distancing protocols.
“There was supposed to be a concert this summer. Also, our World War II weekend celebration, the 75th anniversary of the war’s end, would have been a huge event here, but of course that’s not happening now,” said Christopher Nardi, the chief operating officer of Battleship Cove.
Nardi said Battleship Cove this summer could not operate its overnight camping program, which he described as a huge loss of revenue. The museum will not be able to offer that program again until Massachusetts enters Phase 4 of Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening plan, which may not happen until a vaccine is available.
Until then, museums, entertainment centers and local nonprofits are trying to figure out how best to stay afloat amid the dire economic headwinds.
“We’ve had to make huge adjustments, which have hurt our ability to earn revenue. We’re going to have to look and see what we’re going to have to do to get through the winter,” Nardi said.
The Narrows Center for the Arts, located at 16 Anawan St., has been closed since March 16. Patrick Norton, the Narrows’ executive director, believes the live music venue will be shut down for the remainder of this year.
“Thank god we’ve been doing this 20 years. If this happened ten years ago, we’d have been out of business already,” said Norton, who estimated that the Narrows’ revenue this year is about 20 percent of what it was at the same point in 2019.
The Narrows Center has been holding live-streamed concerts on Friday nights since May 17. Compared to other live music venues, Norton said the Narrows Center is faring well. A few venues, including several in Boston, have already been put out of business.
“I feel for a lot of people I know who’ve worked in the live music industry for the last 20 yeras who are losing everything,” Norton said. “You can see the toll this is taking on the musicians.”
The Fall River Historical Society, 451 Rock St., decided earlier this summer to keep its museum closed to the public after taking into account the required level of sanitation, social distancing and the fact that a majority of its older volunteers would be vulnerable to the virus’ effects.
“Opening a historic house with social distancing in place can be kind of tricky, especially for this building because we don’t have galleries or large public spaces,” said Michael Martins, the curator of the Fall River Historical Society.
Martins said the museum’s reduced capacity “does not warrant opening the house for the foot traffic we’re seeing right now.” In mid-September, he said the historical society will reevaluate the possibility of reopening the museum, depending on what the public health picture looks like. For now, only the gift shop is open.
“We had to cancel our events, our lecture series, a concert series, and obviously those are major fundraisers for the museums,” Martins said. “We’re seeing a tremendous loss financially to the museum this year, which we’re going to have to make up for in other ways.”
At the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast Museum, which reopened on June 8 after having been closed since mid-March, the pandemic at least hasn’t dampened the public’s interest in visiting the home of Fall River’s most infamous historical figure.
“People love the Lizzie story,” said Pacheco, who is still receiving calls and emails from people interested to know if the museum is hosting tours and booking rooms. The answer is yes to both, but at reduced capacities for now.
“Once we opened back up, we had to call a lot of people in those months and get them to move reservations or cancel, because we can only have so many people in the house,” Pacheco said. “We hope to be back at full capacity by next summer.”
Photo courtesy Brian Fraga
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