The Mystery Of The Winchester House
Wikimedia CommonsSarah Winchester as a young woman.
The legend of the Winchester Mystery House has endured for more than a century, especially when a film starring Helen Mirren brought the tale into popular consciousness. It’s a story of love, loss, and a good dose of lunacy.
Sarah Winchester was the widow of William Wirt Winchester, the heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and she was born into privilege in 1840.
But tragedy struck when Sarah Winchester’s husband and infant daughter died. She promptly visited a spiritual medium who told her these misfortunes were revenge by the evil spirits of those who were killed by Winchester rifles.
The only solution, she believed, was to build a home big enough to protect her from those evil spirits. She inherited over $500 million by today’s standards as well as half of the company and was thus more than capable of doing so. She left New Haven, Connecticut for sunny San Jose, California and got to work building a mansion that could confuse the paranormal.
Wikimedia CommonsSarah Winchester’s Mystery House in San Jose, California.
It was said Sarah Winchester’s intention was to build a home that could confuse the spirits and protect her from them. Winchester never did confirm her true intentions for the house, but builders said they had daily seances during construction. She allegedly tried reaching out to “good spirits” in order to consult them on how best to appease those who haunted her.
Ultimately, the project would take 38 years to complete. The 160-room home had 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and six kitchens. The house featured secret passageways, upside-down columns, rooms that were sealed off, and staircases that led nowhere. Even the bathrooms were meant to confuse them, as only one out of 13 worked.
The Florida StandardThe Winchester Mystery House at the time Sarah Winchester resided there. Its seven stories are visible here.
Despite a 1904 earthquake, the house was built on a floating foundation that saved it from destruction. The top three floors were removed, unfortunately, leaving it with only four stories today. After Winchester’s death in September 1922, the legend of the Winchester Mystery House only grew larger.
Winchester’s niece, Marion, inherited all of her belongings which she then promptly auctioned off. Only five months after Winchester’s death did her home open to the public for tours. Nearly a whole century later in 2016, a secret attic was discovered.
Two years later, the eponymous Winchester movie was filmed at the actual house. Despite the fact that not a single paranormal investigation has captured anything remotely extraordinary, visitors continue to report feeling the presence of spirits.
Visitors have claimed to have heard footsteps in her bedroom, doorknobs turned by themselves, and even to have felt drastic temperature changes.
