Constant construction 24/7. Endless changes to the plans. Doorways open to nothing. Hallways that lead to nowhere. And a supernatural haunting over everything. This was all just another day of life at Winchester House. Or, was it?
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In San Jose, California sits an architectural oddity. Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearm magnate William Wirt Winchester, built what can only be described as the most curious mansion in the United States. Having lost both her infant daughter in 1866 and her husband in 1881, she visited the famous Boston medium, Adam Coons. While channeling her late husband, Coons told her to move west. The moving wasn’t the strange part. A lot of people make changes when a loved one passes, especially if money isn’t an issue. And it certainly was not to Sarah. Where the story turns macabre is being told she must continuously build a house for her and the spirits of those lost to Winchester rifles.
Work began after purchasing an unfinished farmhouse in the Santa Clara Valley in 1884. Carpenters were soon hired and worked day and night on the house for 38 years. This claim has been disputed, though. Sarah’s biographer claims that she dismissed workers for months at a time. “To take such rest as I might”. Whichever claim is true, the result is the same. Over the year, the Winchester House became a seven-story mansion and current-day attraction. Due to damage incurred during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, it now tops out at four stories. Legends recount the resulting damage that trapped her in her bedroom for several hours. While workers dug her out, she felt it was spirits saying she spent too much on the front of the house. She responded by boarding up the front 30 rooms.
Legend has it that Sarah would go to the Seance room every night at midnight. She would wear 13 various colored robes each night for the edification of the spirits. The bell tower signaling the spirits it was time. There, she would commune with them. These spirits would guide her in the construction of the house. It was to be attractive to friendly spirits, who would, in turn, keep away the evil ones. Even the maze-like design of the house was to confuse unwanted ghosts. Again at 2:00 am, the bell tower would signal the spirits that it was time to leave. The Seance room itself was peculiar with only one way in and three ways out. One of which was a drop to the kitchen sink a floor below.
Building on the supernatural legends is Sarah’s obsession with the number “13”. A pattern repeated throughout the house. 13 panes of glass in most windows. 13 wall panels. The greenhouse had 13 cupolas. A famous stained glass window has 13 different colored stones set in a spider web motif. Sarah designed this herself. She even used 13 different types of wood in the Grand Ballroom.
The ballroom too, was a marvel. Costing around $9000 in a time when a modest was around $1000. On either side of the ballrooms fireplace, are stained glass windows. On the right side is a quote from Act 4, Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida”. And the left, from Act 5, Scene 5 of “Richard II”. Why she chose these specific lines, or the meaning behind it, is unknown.
Other oddities include doors and stairs that lead to nowhere. Windows overlooking other rooms. Skylights in the floor of a second-story room. Stairs with different sized risers, called “easy risers”. Sarah, suffering from debilitating arthritis, could only lift her foot a few inches. Stairs built in this manner allowed her access throughout the house. An example was a stairway of seven flights and forty-four steps which only rose nine feet. There are large doors that lead to small rooms. Small doors that lead to large rooms. Even a door that opens into a solid wall. It has been compared to Dutch artist, M.C. Escher, whose artwork features such things as “impossible objects”.
There seems to be innumerable ghost stories attached to the house. There is the ghostly worker often seen in the basement pushing a wheelbarrow. Frequently seen, there doesn’t seem to be any malevolent stories. He is content to continue his work in death, as he did in life. It’s even been rumored that tour guides have always been told they may make up, or “conjure” their own stories. This propels the myth of the house being haunted.
But what if the stories are just that? Stories!
Let’s start with where the stories were born. The meeting with the Medium Adam Coons. There is no record of Sarah having ever met the man. Nor any evidence that she believed in the occult or communicating with the dead. If she ever felt guilt due to the deaths attributed to the Winchester Arms Company, she never attempted to halt production. Even after acquiring controlling shares of stock in it.
As for the Seance room, again, there is no record of her using it for communicating with spirits. Several people have said it was even used as a room for some of her employees. I would find it hard to believe she was using it to conduct seances, two hours a night, with someone sleeping in it.
Construction was said to never cease and she would give daily instructions to her workers . It seems unlikely considering she spent considerable time on a houseboat far removed from the grounds. The story of the house being a “hobby house” for Sarah, due to her love of architecture seems more plausible.
A more believable story is that Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester was simply a very wealthy, but a private woman. After suffering the loss of her child and husband, a well-to-do woman dealt with loneliness by withdrawing into more private life. She was close to family, building her sister and brother-in-law a house. She gave to many causes, albeit anonymously, including buying war bonds. Strange for a woman haunted by spirits of those killed by her family business.
Of course, this truth doesn’t sell tickets. And to be honest, it’s fun to see the house through a supernatural lens. In the same way we will go to a haunted house every October. It’s not real, but it’s entertaining.
I would suggest visiting the house for the architectural oddities. Appreciate the craftsmanship of a house built before electric tools. Listen to the ghost stories and be entertained by the passion of the guides. And enjoy your visit to Winchester Mystery House. The “House That Fear Built”.
But always keep an eye out, because you never truly know what is out there.
