The Winchester Mansion:
Sarah Lockwood Pardee was born in 1837. In the early 1860's, she met a
man whose name was William Wirt Winchester. He was the son of Oliver Winchester,
the famed gun manufacturer and heir to his forture. William and Sarah
married in 1862. In 1866, they had a daughter who they called Annie. When
Annie was six months old, she died of what was thought to be some kind
of children's disease. This is when Mrs. Winchester began to believe there
was a curse on the family. She was so traumatized by her daughter's death
that she nearly slipped into madness.
Mr. And Mrs. Winchester had no other children. Mrs. Winchester tried to maintain a normal life but was again struck with tragedy. William Winchester was stricken with tuberculosis and died in 1881. Upon his death, Sarah inherited $20 million and almost half ownership in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. This was an incredible amount of money for that time, but it was of little comfort to Mrs. Winchester. She never got over the death of her daughter and husband whom she loved dearly.
A friend suggested to Mrs. Winchester that she seek the advice of a medium, a popular recourse at this time. She took her advice. The experience reinforced Mrs. Winchester's belief that the family was cursed by those who died at the hand of the Winchester rifle. As the story goes, the medium told Sarah Winchester that the spirits took her daughter and husband in revenge and the only thing she could do was to acquire a house and build continually day and night. If Sarah was to stop construction, she would die as well. So Sarah set out to fulfill the medium's advice and purchased a six-room farmhouse and the 162 acres it sat on in San Jose in 1884. Mrs. Winchester started using her $20 million immediately making various additions twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for the next 38 years.
The six-room farmhouse was remodelled quickly even though the original hayloft and backstairs remain much the same as originally built. Rooms were added and remodelled according to drawings Sarah did by hand even though she was not a qualified designer. It is believed that Sarah intentionally did the construction in such a twisted manner to confuse the spirits and to make it difficult for the spirits to find her. Nightly she took her pick of the eventual forty bedrooms of the house, and she then spent the time between midnight and 2:00 AM conversing with spirits. The bell was rung at midnight to summon the spirits and rung again at 2:00 am to tell the spirits to depart. The rest of the time the bell lay quiet.
The Winchester "Mystery House" contained 160 rooms including
40 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, 47 fireplaces (some with flues
that go nowhere), 2 ballrooms, 40 staircases and more than 450 doorways.
All staircases have 13 steps except one. There were 2,000 doors and 10,000
windows. Each window had 13 panes along with some rooms having 13 panels
and other rooms having 13 windows. One room has a window in the floor.
There are rooms within rooms. One door opens to an 8' drop to a garden
and another door opens to an 8' drop overlooking a kitchen sink. There
are 13 drain holes in a kitchen sink. There is a 12 light gas chandelier
that was modified to 13 lights. The original house had 7 floors which
was reduced to 4 floors after the 1906 earthquake
Mrs. Winchester was asleep during that earthquake and was trapped. When
she was extracated she believed that the earthquake was a message from
the spirits that she spent too much time on the front of the house. Because
of this she had 30 rooms boarded up and never used them again. She continued
construction in other parts of the house.
There are numerous accounts of paranormal activity such as ghosts, organ music playing and book pages turning by themselves. In addition there are so many unanswered questions about Sarah Winchester. Why was she fascinated with the number 13? Why did she sleep in a different room every night. Why did she have such a huge house but never allowed visitors? Why did she dismiss any worker that accidentally saw her face? Sarah Winchester died in her sleep on September 5, 1922 at the age of 85 and was buried alongside her husband and daughter.
It is believed that when the workers learned of her death, construction abruptly stopped even to the extent of leaving nails hammered part way in the wood. Sarah's servants opened her safe hoping to find money only to find locks of hair from her husband and daughter with copies of their obituaries and her will.
Sarah's will was written in 13 parts and signed 13 times. It provided for a few servants and she left all her furniture to her niece. It took 8 truckloads a day for 6½ weeks to remove all the furniture. No arrangement was made for the house and grounds. The house was eventually sold and turned into a tourist attraction.
Sarah Winchester lived a strange life doing outrageous things. All of this seems like madness to most, but did Sarah really believe she could control the spirits that came to the house for evil purposes. All answers to questions have been buried along with Sarah Winchester. The biggest question being "Did Sarah Winchester really have such deep-seated superstitions or was she just a crazy rich woman with too much money and a poor sense of building design?"
