Spooky Haunts: The Winchester House

Travel 4 Minutes

Today, the house is known as the Winchester Mystery House, but at the time of its construction, it was simply Sarah Winchester’s House. Sarah Winchester was the widow of William Wirt Winchester, heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.  Born around 1840, Sarah Winchester grew up in a world of privilege. She spoke four languages, attended the best schools around, married well, and eventually gave birth to a daughter, Annie. However, tragedy struck in her late twenties when Annie died, followed by the death of Sarah’s husband William more than a decade later.  After William’s death in 1881, Sarah inherited roughly $20 million (over $500 million in 2019 dollars) as well as fifty percent of the Winchester Arms company which left her with a continued income equal to $1,000 a day (or $26,000 a day in 2019 dollars).

Newly in possession of a massive fortune and struggling with the loss of her husband and daughter, she sought the advice of a medium. She hoped, perhaps, to get advice from the beyond as to how to spend her fortune or what to do with her life.  Though the exact specifics remain between Sarah Winchester and her medium, the story goes that the medium was able to channel dearly departed William, who advised Sarah to leave her home in New Haven, Connecticut, and head west to California. As far as what to do with her money, William answered that too; she was to use the fortune to build a home for the spirits of those who had fallen victim to Winchester rifles, lest she be haunted by them for the rest of her life.

In 1884, Sarah Winchester purchased what would later become known as the Winchester Mystery House. At the time of the sale, the house was a small unfinished farmhouse, but that quickly changed.  Winchester hired carpenters to work around the clock, expanding the small house into a seven-story mansion. Due to the lack of a plan and the presence of an architect, the house was constructed haphazardly; rooms were added onto exterior walls resulting in windows overlooking other rooms. Multiple staircases would be added, all with different sized risers, giving each staircase a distorted look.  Stranger so was the fact that many of the alterations seemed pointless. Staircases would ascend several levels then end abruptly, doors would open to solid walls, and hallways would turn a corner and end in a dead-end.

Additionally, Winchester insisted that the home be built exclusively out of redwood – however, she didn’t like the look of the wood, so she insisted it be covered with a stain and a faux grain. By the time the house was completed, over 20,000 gallons of paint had been used to cover the wood.  By the turn of the century, Sarah Winchester had her ghost house: an oddly laid out mansion, with seven stories, 161 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 10,000 panes of glass, two basements, three elevators, and a mysterious fun-house-like interior.

Anyone who set foot in the home could tell that no expense had been spared.  Gold and silver chandeliers hung from the ceilings above hand-inlaid parquet flooring. Dozens of artful stained-glass windows created by Tiffany & Co. dotted the walls, including some designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany himself. One window, in particular, was intended to create a prismatic rainbow effect on the floor when light flowed through it – of course, the window ended up on an interior wall, and thus the effect was never achieved.

Even more luxurious than the fixtures were the plumbing and electrical work. Rare for the time, the Winchester Mystery House boasted indoor plumbing, including coveted hot running water, and push-button gas lighting available throughout the home. Additionally, forced-air heating flowed throughout the house.

Unfortunately, in 1906, an earthquake struck San Jose, and the Winchester Mystery House sustained a hefty amount of damage. Thanks to the floating foundation (a foundation that equals the weight of the surrounding soil) the entire house was saved from collapse. The top three floors were ultimately removed, leaving the house with only four stories, as seen today.

Throughout the years-long construction of the Winchester Mystery House, Sarah Winchester would never confirm that she was building a haunted house. However, stories and rumors swirled throughout San Jose.

The contractors who worked on the house reported Winchester having daily seances with local mediums, in an effort to reach “good spirits.” These “good spirits” were reportedly consulted to find out how to best appease the spirits whom she was allegedly building the house for. These spirits are reportedly what called Winchester to make so many illogical additions to the home.

Far after the construction was completed, Winchester continued to make efforts to appease the victims of the Winchester rifles.  Out of the 13 bathrooms in the home, only one was functional, in an effort to confuse any ghosts wishing to haunt a spigot. Furthermore, she would sleep in a different room every night in the Winchester house, and use secret passageways to get from room to room so that no spirits could follow her.

In the years Sarah Winchester lived in the house, the residents of San Jose whispered about its strange construction and even stranger inhabitant, but it was in the years after her death that the wild stories became even wilder.   After her death in September of 1922, Sarah Winchester left all of her belongings to her niece, Marion, who had served as her personal secretary later in life. However, the Winchester Mystery House was never mentioned in her will, adding to the mystery of the home.   After appraisers deemed the house worthless due to its strange design, damage from the earthquakes, and long-winded construction, Marion took everything in it and auctioned it off. The current owners of the house claim it took six weeks to empty the house of all furniture, though the report is uncorroborated.

After the house was emptied, a local investor purchased the home for a cool $135,000. Just five months after Sarah Winchester died, the Winchester Mystery House was opened to the public for tours.

Inside the home…some of it looks quite lovely…some is just bizarre.

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Published by pat frederick

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216 thoughts on “Spooky Haunts: The Winchester House”

  6. DanDan
    October 29, 2022 3:02 pm

    Police dispatch to Paul Pelosi home:

    “RP (reporting person) stated there’s a male in the home and that he’s going to wait for his wife. RP stated that he doesn’t know who the male is but he advised that his name is David and that he is a friend.”
    pic.twitter.com/O0HeS0s0I5

    — Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 28, 2022

    Like

    2. now that i see this written THIS way, I can make sense of this a little. it’s a lexical ambiguity…

      he doesn’t know who the male is but he advised that his name is David and that he is a friend.”
      means
      Pelosi doesn’t know who the male is but (the intruder–he) advised that his name is David and that (the intruder–he) is a friend (meaning not there to hurt him if indeed he was looking for nanzi)

      Liked by 1 person

        1. I’m not saying it’s correct…but it’s like them saying “they were both holding a hammer”…that can be interpreted 2 ways…they were both holding the SAME hammer or they were EACH holding a hammer…
          in one case there’s one hammer in the other there’s two

          Liked by 1 person


  7. “In an attempt to limit “health misinformation,” YouTube announced it will certify medical professionals as “reliable” and “authoritative” sources of information.

    In a blog post on the platform’s website, its global head of YouTube Health Dr. Garth Graham said: “YouTube Health has been working on additional ways to help doctors, nurses, mental health professionals and healthcare information providers to bring high quality health information into the spaces that people visit throughout their day – like their favorite video-sharing app.”

    To apply to be labeled as reliable, users have to submit their license and adhere to the “best practices” for sharing health information set by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).

    YouTube gives “authoritative” sources a boost in the algorithm and non-authoritative sources are suppressed. “In the coming months, eligible channels that have applied through this process will be given a health source information panel that identifies them as a licensed healthcare professional and their videos will appear in relevant search results in health content shelves,” the blog post says.

    YouTube has been censoring medical information that contradicts the narrative of local health authorities and the WHO – even when information provided by the WHO turned out to be false.”

    Liked by 1 person

  9. The Bee:

    “Heartbroken Progressives Forced To Resort To Old-Fashioned Technique Of Just Not Reading Tweets They Don’t Like”

    SAN FRANCISCO, CA — With Elon Musk acquiring Twitter, many heartbroken Leftists expressed concern they may soon have to resort to just not reading tweets they don’t like.

    “Now that Elon Musk is in charge, I am being reduced to pre-Industrial-Revolution extremes – not reading material that bothers me,” said avid Twitter user @ImpeachIndictTraitorTrump45. “I may have to leave Twitter for Canadian Twitter. Is Canadian Twitter a thing?”

    Advanced research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has identified the “You Don’t Have To Read It Then!” method as far back as preliterate cultures, where town criers could be ignored with wax stuffed in ears. The research identifies the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press in the 1440s as a turning point for ease-of-disregarding, where tractates circulating adverse opinions could be ignored without the use of ear suppression or other materials.

    At publishing time, a great cry went out from the angry liberal Twitterverse as previously banned accounts were freed and began to publish Tweets that the angry liberals did not want to see.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. none of this adds up…if the perp let him go in the bathroom, why didn’t pelosi stay there???and they’re trying to paint him as a q believer and election denier…

    FTA
    While authorities have not detailed a motive, DePape’s online history indicates that he subscribed to the discredited narrative that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate and espoused a range of bigoted and radical beliefs. He expressed anti-Semitic views and appeared to embrace the QAnon movement, which posits a secret cabal of pedophiles has been protected by people in power.

    Scott also thanked the responding emergency dispatcher Heather Grives for recognizing something was wrong when Paul Pelosi dialed 911, allowing police to spring into action.

    “What he said, she felt there was something more to it,” Scott said.

    POLITICO reported earlier Friday that Pelosi had been able to dial 911 after telling the intruder he had to use the restroom and then called from inside, where his phone had been charging.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/28/police-pelosi-attack-intentional-00064098

    Liked by 1 person

  11. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

          1. It depends on the fish personality really. Some you have to keep them by themselves while others go great with others of their kind.

            Really depends. Most people keep one because the males can fight.

            Plus tank size. But some keep them with other fish.

            They’re like a fighting fish.

            Liked by 1 person

    1. And yet

      King Charles makes £1million selling off 14 of the Queen’s beloved racehorses amid fears new monarch is winding down royal racing operation
      King Charles sold over a third of his late mother’s beloved racehorses this week
      He made an average of £76,821 for each horse and more than £1million for all 14
      His first race-winning horse Just Fine was one of four sold for a six-figure sum
      Source close to the Royal Sandringham Stud said he is winding down operation

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11367905/King-Charles-makes-1million-selling-14-Queens-beloved-racehorses-Newmarket.html

      Liked by 1 person

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