MRS. WINCHESTER AND THE WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE

Sarah Lockwood Pardee (“Mrs. Winchester”) was born in Connecticut in September 1839, and she married William Wirt Winchester in New Haven, Connecticut on September 30, 1862. In July 1866, Sarah and William had a daughter that they named Annie. Shortly after birth, Annie died from a childhood disease that causes severe malnutrition and edema. I believe that Mrs. Winchester never recovered from the deep depression that she fell into following the death of her only child, Annie.

Mrs. Winchester’s depression got even worse when her husband, William, died of tuberculosis in March 1881. Because William was the only son of Oliver Winchester, who had died in December 1880, Mrs. Winchester inherited close to a 50 percent ownership in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. As a result of her ownership rights, Mrs. Winchester was a very wealthy woman of her time, receiving $1,000.00 a day in proceeds from the company’s sale of the renowned “Winchester Rifle.”

Due to her depression, Mrs. Winchester visited a psychic in Boston, Massachusetts for spiritual assistance. Allegedly, the psychic told her that the Winchester family was cursed and that her loved ones died because of the haunting spirits of the many lives lost due to the Winchester Rifle. The psychic allegedly also advised Mrs. Winchester to move to the West Coast and build a house for both her and the spirits. Supposedly, Mrs. Winchester was told that in order to please the spirits, she must continue to build on the house or else she would die.

In 1884, Mrs. Winchester moved to California and bought an 8 room farmhouse, with 161 acres, in what is now San Jose, California. Using her hefty inheritance, she transformed the property into a 168 room home covering 6 acres, which is now known as the “Winchester Mystery House,” or more simply as the “Winchester House.” Reports indicate that the renovations and additions to the house continued around the clock, with no downtime, for the next 38 years, up until Mrs. Winchester’s death on September 5, 1992. Mrs. Winchester also used the money from her inheritance to maintain a houseboat on San Francisco Bay, which became known as “Sarah’s Ark.” She kept this boat because she had a great fear of a second great flood, such as the Biblical one experienced by Noah.

Mrs. Winchester built the house in ways that were designed to confuse the ghosts and to cater to her own physical attributes and paranoia. The Winchester House has doors that abruptly lead to walls, doors that lead to shallow closets, and windows with spider web designs looking straight into walls. Since Mrs. Winchester was only 4 feet and 8 inches tall, the windows were built 4 feet from ground level so that she could spy on her servants. She built staircases leading straight up to the roof, and due to her arthritis, each step was only 2 inches high.

As illustrated by the layout of the house, Mrs. Winchester had a strange obsession with the number 13. There are 13 bathrooms, 13 chandeliers holding 13 lights each, 13 drainage holes, a greenhouse with 13 cupolas, clothes hooks in multiples of 13, walls with 13 panels, and many of the wooden floors contain 13 sections. Some rooms have 13 windows, and nearly all of the windows have 13 panes of glass. Each spider web patterned, stained glass window contains 13 colored stones. Every staircase but one has 13 steps. This exception is a winding staircase with 42 steps, although each step is only 2 inches high. Mrs. Winchester also had her will written in 13 sections, and it was signed 13 times.

Every Friday the 13^th, the large bell on the property was rung 13 times at 1 P.M. to summons Mrs. Winchester to go into her séance room and talk to the ghosts. The séance room is blue and white, with one main entrance and two doors, one leading to the adjacent room, and the other one leading down to the kitchen. Sometimes, to be rude to the ghosts, she would not proceed straight into the séance room after the 13^th bell. Instead, she would walk on and on throughout the labyrinth of rooms and quickly step into another apartment. She believed that the ghosts would get lost if she did this fast enough. She would open a window that lead to a staircase, and go down one story, only to meet another flight of stairs that brought her right back to the same level. Mrs. Winchester believed that this was very annoying and confusing for the evil spirits, who she thought were suspicious of her traps.

Because of the psychic’s advice, Mrs. Winchester constantly kept her servants and workers very busy. Servants headquarters where located on the third floor. The servants had there own office with regular sized stairs so that they could quickly help out Mrs. Winchester. Mrs. Winchester had a buzzer that she would ring when she needed her servants. The servants were used for all of Mrs. Winchester’s needs, such as providing her with food and water and running her bath water. They also cut the grass and kept up the bushes so that they were always presentable for the “visiting ghosts.” Because Mrs. Winchester always wanted to change something, the workers were constantly remodeling the house. Working every day was hard on the servants and workers, who had to use a map to navigate throughout the house.

After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Mrs. Winchester locked herself in her bedroom for several hours, believing the ghosts were mad at her because she spent too much time fusing about the construction of the front side of the house. She then blocked off the first 30 rooms in the house, and concentrated all of her time with the construction of the back of the house. The front of the house was never touched again.

In the years that the house has been open to the public, employees and visitors alike have reported unusual encounters. There have been reports of footsteps, banging doors, mysterious voices, windows shattering, cold spots, strange moving lights, and doorknobs turning by themselves. Many psychics who have visited the house to observe paranormal activity refuse to go back after their visits, claiming that there are ghosts and evil spirits haunting the house.

About The Author: Abigail Froio is 12 years old and she loves to read and write stories involving the supernatural, especially stories about vampires and ghosts. Abigail enjoyed researching Mrs. Winchester’s story. In fact, she even traveled to San Francisco with her family so that she could visit the Winchester House. She loved the experience, and enjoyed each of the mysteries about Mrs. Winchester. Abigail decided to write this report because she was very curious about Mrs. Winchester’s apparently crazy mind. She took her time and really learned about the house and the Winchester family, as she intended.

The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was famous for the “Winchester Rifle,” which was a lever-action, repeating rifle that allowed a shooter to fire a number of shots before having to reload. This gun was used by many hunters, pioneers, cowboys, and lawmen, and was commonly referred to as “The Gun That Won The West.” Although the rumors surrounding this weapon were exaggerated, many people did die as a result of this repeating rifle.

See Footnote # 1.

See Footnote # 1.

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