Grief built the house, and death finished it.
Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester probably would have become just another woman lost to history, had she not built one of the most interesting houses in the world: the Winchester Mystery House.
Sarah was born in 1839 in New Haven, Connecticut. On 30th September 1862, she married William Wirt Winchester, who was born in 1837 in Baltimore. He was the only son of Oliver Winchester, and heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. In 1866, she gave birth to their only child, Annie Pardee Winchester, who sadly died after five and a half weeks from marasmus – a form of severe malnutrition with energy deficiency. In 1873, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company released the model 73 rifle – “the gun that won the west.” When Oliver died in 1880, William became the sole heir of the Winchester fortune. He was already ill with tuberculosis and died three months after his father. Sarah inherited $20 million, 50% of the Winchester company stock, and a lot of grief.
The Mystery Begins
The long-held rumour about the house is that after her husband’s death, Sarah visited a medium, who was able to channel William’s spirit. He advised Sarah to move to California and build a house for all the spirits who met their death by the Winchester rifle.
Some of the contractors allegedly claimed Sarah regularly consulted with mediums to seek good spirits’s advice on building the house to appease the Winchester’s victims. That’s why the house is so illogical. Author Susy Smith allegedly invented this version in her 1967 book, Prominent American Ghosts. According to her, Sarah saw Boston-based medium, Adam Coons. However, scholar Emily Mace, and others checked a spiritualist periodical, Banner of Light, and Boston city directories, which listed mediums. None were named Adam Coons. It was very common for women of her status to visit mediums at the time. In Victorian Britain, seances and visiting spiritualists were today’s board game nights.
Llanada Villa
Sarah moved to California in 1885. A year later, she bought a two-storey farmhouse in San Jose, which she later named Llanada Villa. The book, Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune by Mary Jo Ignoffo, states that Sarah was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Her doctor suggested moving to a warmer, drier climate to help with the condition.
Sarah and William built their house on Prospect Hill in New Haven, and Sarah developed an interest in architecture and interior design. When she expanded the farmhouse, she initially hired two architects, but later dismissed them and planned the house herself.
Building to Live
In 1895, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story about Sarah’s house, titled, Mrs Winchester Builds to Live. It’s the first known written account about the motives behind the strange house. Sarah never responded publicly to the story, so it was repeated as truth long after her death. A woman being in charge of such a huge project was so unusual. Without Sarah giving a reason for the massive build, people came to their own conclusion. Spirits telling her to build a house was clearly more acceptable than a woman indulging in her love of architecture.
Bruce Spoon, a student from San Jose State College, wrote a thesis on the house in 1951. He claimed that the continued construction was due to her wanting to keep people in employment. Contrary to popular belief, construction wasn’t constant 24/7. Sarah took regular breaks, sometimes for months a time due to the need to rest.
In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake damaged the house. The seventh storey tower, and the third and fourth floors, and most of the chimneys sustained damage. Sarah removed the rubbled but didn’t bother repairing most of the damage.
The House’s Unusual Features
The 160-room house is 24,000 square feet. It has: 10,000 windows; 2,000 doors; 52 skylights; 17 chimneys; 13 bathrooms; 6 kitchens; 47 fireplaces and stairways. One stairway has 44 steps but only rises ten feet;. Unusually for the time, the house also had indoor plumbing, running hot water and push-button gas lighting. Some of the doors open on to walls. The Door to Nowhere opens on to the outside, with a two-storey drop for anyone unlucky enough to stumble through it. Rather than it being an unfortunate doorway for sleepwalkers, it’s actually due to the earthquake damaging that part of the house and Sarah not repairing it.
There are two main theories about the Winchester Mystery House: that the odd design is to confuse the spirits; or the ghosts would haunt Sarah if she stopped building. That then led to the rumour that if construction stopped, she would die. However, it’s more likely due to Sarah’s tendency to abandon some constructions or rebuild it if it didn’t meet her vision. Rather than remove windows or doors, Sarah walled them off. The switchback stairway with the shallow steps is more to do with Sarah being 4’10” and having arthritis, than it is to do with creating a maze to confuse ghosts.
Sarah Winchester died on 5th September 1922. She named all of her employees as beneficiaries in her will. Construction finally stopped.
Sarah’s Legacy
The house became a tourist attraction nine months after her death. Investors bought the property and leased it to John and Mayme Brown, who purchased it in 1931. Mayme was the first tour guide. Harry Houdini visited the house in 1924 and he is the one who suggested calling it The Winchester Mystery House. Keith Kittle, who worked for Disneyland and Frontier Village, became general manager in 1973. He renovated it, adding in the Rifle Museum. He used billboards to advertise it with a silhouette of the house and implying there would be ghostly encounters. This tactic worked and visitor numbers increased.
Local residents claimed they could hear ghostly music coming from the house. However, Sarah played the pump organ in the Grand Ballroom when she couldn’t sleep. Tour guides talk about the number 13 appearing many times in the house – 13 bathrooms, 13 bedrooms, 13 windows in certain rooms. These were added posthumously and have nothing to do with her supposed superstition. People claimed seances too place in the house. Her staff stated she had no interest in them and there is no evidence to suggest any took place.
The Hauntings
Visitors and tour guides have reported cold spots, footsteps, odd sounds, whispering, doors and windows slamming, cooking smells, and feelings of being watched. It’s claimed it’s the most haunted house in America and contains 1000 ghosts, however, there is no evidence the house is haunted. Any strange noises are likely due to the wind and it being an old house.
In 1960, the house was used as the Cyrus Zorba House in the film Thirteen Ghosts. It also inspired Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. The lore surrounding Sarah and the house inspired the 2002 mini series Rose Red, by Stephen King. In 2007, TV show Most Haunted, conducted a seven hour live investigation. In 2018, the film Winchester, starring Helen Mirren as Sarah Winchester, was filmed inside the house. There are numerous other times the house has inspired films, books, album covers and paranormal episodes.
Sarah Winchester bought an ordinary farmhouse and turned it into an extraordinary piece of history. Spectral rumours and gossip about a woman society deemed strange made the house famous. Grief may have built the house, but death has kept it alive.
Read about our visit to the Winchester Mystery House.
Visit the Winchester Mystery House https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House
