Every night is Halloween night at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. The legend of Sarah Pardee Winchester was created by her bizarre mansion and her nightly seances to thwart the vengeful spirits that Sarah believed haunted her in retaliation for the people killed by Winchester rifles, the "gun that won the West."
Intrigued by the number thirteen, spiders and daisies, the lonely widow Winchester, spent $5.5 million and 38 years of her life building a 160-room Victorian, which had carpenters working 24 hours a day until her death in 1922. Watch your step -- forty staircases with 367 steps, many of which are only two inches in height, make this house unusual.
"Buy a house" a Boston psychic, Adam Coons, told Sarah Winchester after losing her husband, William Wirt Winchester, son of the famous Winchester repeating rifle manufacturer. Years earlier she had lost a tiny daughter just a month after her birth and never recovered from the loss. Seeking an outlet for her grief, a spiritualistic medium was consulted and Winchester was told that the deaths of her husband and daughter were brought about by the spirits of those who had been killed by the Winchester rifle.
The petite Winchester followed the psychic's advice and bought an eight room farmhouse and 162-acre working farm and set about spending her $1,000 daily income on the 24,000 square foot house that has 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, enough keys to fill two large water buckets, six kitchens, 40 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, and 47 fireplaces built of rosewood, cherry, oak, teak, pipestone and Italian marble.
Confusing the spirits or architectural mistakes? Sarah Pardee Winchester had her carpenters build stairs that go nowhere, doorways that open to blank walls, hidden windows, a seance room with no windows and skylights in the floor. But she also included the famous Tiffany crystal windows and doors, gold and silver chandeliers, rare hardwoods, ceiling medallions, wallpaper with crushed mica, exotic tapestries and parquet floors in her designs. Sarah, born in 1839 in New Haven, Connecticut, was the belle of the town -- highly cultured, an accomplished musician and proficient in speaking four languages.
The eccentric widow, who slept in a different room every night to confuse the spirits, innovated many items ahead of their time including wool insulation, an inside crank to open and close windows and illuminating gas for gas lights. Annunciators, which preceded today's intercom systems were installed and the fireplaces had hinged drops for ashes. Recycling water for plants was made possible by her design that captured the water from her indoor plants in the greenhouse and used it for the outdoor plants. She held the patent on a rather innovative laundry sink and had Otis elevators installed in the home.
During the Great San Franciso Bay Area Earthquake of 1906, which registered 8.3 on the Richter scale, Mrs. Winchester was trapped for more than several hours at the front of the mansion in her famous Daisy bedroom. She assumed that the earthquake was a warning from the spirits that she spent too much money on the front section of the house so she ordered that the front 30 rooms of the house be sealed up. This decision meant that the new front entry was never used and the $9,000 grand ballroom, which was unique in that it was built almost entirely without nails, was never used to entertain guests.
On Halloween, the beautiful and bizarre mansion, also known as Llanada Villa, provides special entertainment and provides trick-or-treating in the gardens for families. Special flashlight tours are given every Friday the 13th and on Halloween allowing guests to tour the mysterious mansion at night....with only the moonlight, flashlights and their imagination.
On Friday the 13th in May, 1974, the Winchester Mystery House was designated California Historic Landmark #868. On August 7, 1974, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, DC.
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Photos of the Winchester Mystery House
Pat Rioux
