Starbucks in Lizzie's house?

FALL RIVER -- The imposing brown house where an elderly couple was hacked to death by a hatchet-wielding murderer more than 100 years ago might seem an unlikely spot for a bed-and- breakfast and a new Starbucks. But Donald Woods -- a former Marine who has long experience as an executive running hospitals, nursing homes, and catering businesses -- sees potential profits as he strolls the grounds on Second Street.

The Lizzie Borden house, home to one of America's most enduring murder mysteries, just became the property of Woods and his girlfriend, Lee-ann Wilber, an amateur bodybuilder and manager of a General Nutrition Center.

Woods and Wilber, who met four years ago in an acting class, talk with the enthusiasm of new homeowners about their plans to revitalize this most macabre of attractions, first opened as a B&B in 1996.

With a few modifications, Woods says, he can vastly expand the appeal -- and bottom line -- of the house where Abby Borden was gored in the head and then left face-down on the floor of the guest bedroom in August 1892, while her husband, Andrew, was chopped 11 times and left on the sofa, as if he was taking a summer nap.

''I don't get excited about blood and guts, or blood and brains in this case," he says. ''I want to get toward treating the family with respect and learn more about what happened. I keep calling it an American family tragedy."

Besides preserving the scene of the crime, Woods wants to open a Starbucks coffee shop in the rear, hoping to attract customers after he demolishes the 1940s print shop next door, plants trees, creates parking, and puts up a new fence. ''Why? Because that's going to be the new Fall River main courthouse," he says, motioning toward a potential source of customers across the street.

It's just an idea for now. But the possibility that this 1840s Greek Revival house, preserved amid so much change, might draw a purveyor of lattes and cappuccinos worries more than a few Lizzie Borden fans nationwide -- Bordenians, as they call themselves.

''I guess you can't fight progress, but Starbucks and Lizzie Borden? It doesn't go," says Faye Musselman of Payson, Ariz., who visits the house several times a year and has compiled a CD-ROM about Borden's trial.

''I can't think of anything more anachronistic," says Stefani Koorey, a theater, film, and humanities professor in Orlando, Fla., who publishes ''The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies." ''It's such a symbol of yuppie commercialism."

But Koorey admits, ''It may be the smartest thing in the world he's doing. Whatever it takes to keep the house open."

Were she alive today, Lizzie Borden would prefer tea and sherry, says William M. Fowler Jr., director of the Massachusetts Historical Society. ''She'd have Earl Grey," he says. ''Starbucks coffee is pretty strong stuff."

Adding a coffee shop would not require a change in zoning, although demolition of the print shop can happen only with approval from the chairman of the Fall River Historical Commission, because it was added to the city's Register of Significant Structures in 1980.

Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. says he's ''not philosophically opposed" to a Starbucks, but has yet to see any formal plans. And Michael Martins, curator of the Fall River Historical Society, which includes a collection of Borden artifacts, says, ''There isn't a Starbucks in the city, so that would be a good thing."

Woods says he has contacted Starbucks but hasn't heard back from the company. He says he plans to keep the house as historically accurate as possible. Replacing the carpet and wallpaper, and planting a new garden are all in the works, he says.