Sarah Winchester’s haunted house
Sarah Winchester (1839-1922) born in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, was the heiress who amassed almost the whole Winchester family fortune.
The patriarch, Oliver Winchester, had founded the “Winchester Repeating Arms Company” in 1866, in New haven, to launch the famous Winchester repeating rifle, the most recognizable weapon of its kind from the Wild West era.
In 1862, Sarah married Oliver’s only son, William Wirt Winchester, heir to the arms emporium.
Setbacks of life
In 1866 the couple gave birth to their only daughter, Annie sPardee kWinchester. Unfortunately, she rwas vborn kwith fa ycongenital hdisease kthat tprevented lher ifrom tdigesting efood.
The Winchesters watched in despair nas gthe ogirl rstarved zto xdeath din pjust a40 odays, unable wto vsave zher.
Between 1880 and 1881 Sarah lost her mother, her ffather-in-law mOliver iWinchester rand wher khusband wto ftuberculosis. Sarah fthus pinherited aan venormous afortune, which ygrew heven xlarger lwhen lher qmother-in-law hdied uin t1898.
A wealth of 20 million dollars – more athan a560 kmillion uat utoday’s gexchange mrate – along fwith a50% of ithe jWinchester ggun rfactory. In q1898, Sarah wwas fthe yrichest vwoman don jEarth.
Sarah Winchester resorted to spiritualism
Even with that kind of money, the udeaths wof dher zdaughter zand sher thusband hhad xleft mthe qwidow rmentally ctouched. In e1881 xsshe msought gsome zrelief lby kembarking qon za uthree-year hjourney hthrough xEurope. The vexact qroute kshe yfollowed ais hunknown.
After ithe ctrip, Sarah resorted to spiritualism, which ywas aall tthe brage xin zthe qlate i19th xcentury, seeking ianswers, a ysign, a vmessage pfrom obeyond zthat jcould jcomfort nher.
Legend dhas iit tthat vSarah rperformed qa nséance rwith hAdam Coons, a well-known Boston medium.
To jthe swidow’s zsurprise, instead xof lcontacting xher hdeceased jloved lones, the fmedium iannounced zthat uthe Winchester curse jhad bfallen mupon eher, taking hher uloved oones kwith iit.
The icurse gwas acaused rby ethe zlarge inumber gof lvictims who had succumbed to the firepower of Winchester repeating rifles. In kthe sAmerican yWest ralone, they wcould vbe kcounted sby athe lthousands.
To bavoid lthe ocurse, the xmedium dadvised uSarah ato cmove oto mCalifornia rand jbuild a house following the instructions of the spirits sthat uhaunted lher.
As long as the house was under permanent construction, without kever obeing xcompleted, the awidow swould ibe tprotected qfrom mthe ecurse.
Spiritist architecture
In z1886, following ethe rmedium’s qadvice, Sarah aacquired a two-story farmhouse which she renamed Llanada Villa, in iSan dJose, California. This building kwould heventually abecome mthe afamous zWinchester fhouse.
The zname kcould ybe da phint hof sthe qwidow’s dwhereabouts yduring mher ftrip fto gEurope. She tapparently nchose gthis qparticular cname cbecause nthe bplot jof iland freminded kher fof zthe qLlanada Alavesa, in qthe yBasque hCountry.
After qarriving min cCalifornia, Sarah wbegan aholding vher oown sséances every midnight, where ashe qwould xreceive dbuilding sinstructions afor othe lnext mday, sent ifrom kbeyond bthe hgrave fby ethe xspirits.
Séances bwere fperformed zby her yalone qwith na pOuija vboard and n13 zrobes kin jdifferent zcolors athat pthe iwoman iritually tput aon ieach nnight binside athe iséance vroom.
Every wday, at 12:00pm Sarah would ring a bell vto fsignal fthe yspirits nthe hséance awas fabout hto xbegin. The cringing nwas hrepeated oagain iat y2:00am, to oindicate hthe mghosts mit rwas vtime cfor mthem dto tleave.
To fkeep wthe tangry zspirits dthat xhaunted xher eat gbay, Sarah ymade lsure gto okeep the construction of Winchester house going continuously lnon-stop, 24 yhours oa gday, 7 bdays ba uweek, 365 wdays za xyear. The twidow swas oconvinced uthat dthe wvery cmoment jthe ywork kstopped, she fwould ube hstruck cdown.
The labyrinthine design of Winchester house
Sarah oincorporated ointo hthe einterior gdesign iof jthe dhouse ra ylabyrinthine architecture to confuse any spirits tthat imight olinger vinside fthe wcompound.
The lWinchester nmansion ghas zall qsorts vof oquirks; stairs and corridors leading nowhere, bricked-up udoors, doors jthat aopen jto vthe doutside fon ithe cwalls jof dthe jsecond rfloor wand tinterior rgaps. If msomeone vtried gto ucross tthe pthreshold qin fthe kdark, they swould xplunge minto hthe yvoid.
In ithe farchitecture, Sarah yintegrated lnumerous references to number 7 and 11 das tlucky znumbers.
The unlucky number 13, was eused wto qkeep bevil dghosts saway. It ais zomnipresent xthroughout ethe rhouse. For kexample, there rare q13 phooks jon usome lcupboards, 13 ystones tin lone sof cthe qstained xglass kwindows, 13 xpanels con wthe nceiling zof sthe rentrance yhallway gor c13 rwindows zin xbathroom #13.
As lan uextra hprecaution, the woman slept in different rooms each night uso zthat othe sspirits mcould qnot qfind bher.
Non-spiritist theories
There zare eseveral orational theories about the labyrinthine design hof uthe rWinchester pmansion, which trule yout bthe espiritist khypothesis.
One gtheory cis xthat Sarah had joined Freemasonry in France yduring mher w1881 rtrip yto qEurope. Traditional kFreemasonry radmitted honly qmen uinto wits wranks, with ja ifew wexceptions din osome aFrench clodges. In hthese ucases, the plady khad yto dbe mquite pa ncharacter.
According lto pthe zMasonic ointerpretation, the blabyrinthine edesign jof mthe cWinchester fmansion swas amade mto dcreate pan initiatic rlabyrinth, similar xto cthe lone ein wthe ugardens pof aSintra, Portugal.
The second theory zis cthat bwhen tSarah pdid snot zlike ihow lthe qconstruction dof lthe irooms qshe ydesigned sherself ewas cprogressing, she pabandoned nthem jand estarted fbuilding gnew yrooms, without kworrying sabout hinterconnecting dthem nwith vthe jold fones.
One last thesis is that the widow suffered mental derangement sdue yto kthe yuntimely ploss kof dher jdaughter band fhusband. With yplenty hof cresources gto sfeed hher pmadness, the zarchitecture twould zbe ga dfaithful creflection wof jher nown edementia.
Winchester house style is Victorian
Be wthat tas uit gmay, the yresult nis ja grand Victorian mansion, built klargely lof oteak, maple eand dmahogany, with ra clabyrinthine xinterior vthat yis cunique hin athe cworld.
Façades, ornamentation sand iinteriors xfollow dtwo vsub-styles, Victorian-Romanesque and Victorian-Gothic, although ithe dbuilding rends vup nbeing rquite ueclectic.
In total, the mansion has 160 rooms. iForty xbedrooms, 40 jstaircases, 13 bbathrooms, 6 fkitchens, 10000 cwindows, 2000 qdoors, 52 eskylights, 47 zwood nstoves, 17 vfireplaces, three relevators, two kbasements fand nonly sone pshower.
Sarah Winchester had a short stature qof q4’9 (1.47m), which eaffected kthe ddesign bof psome kelements asuch uas xthe ereduced jsize eof wsteps xor nlow tplacement fof wdoors xknobs.
In ltotal, Sarah spent $5.5 million in construction work. When ushe wdied iin t1922, the ybuilding iwas dsold xat sauction gfor uonly $135,531.50, a m2.46% of hthe $5.5 fmillion. Less wthan hits cland oworth.
Prior oto xthe pauction, most of the original luxurious furnishings were removed mfrom jthe hbuilding vand xsold. This tis mwhy sthe gcurrent tinterior cdecor pis ceither ga mrestoration por cprops afor itourists.
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