Winchester House
After touring the Egyptian Museum Daughter Janice took me to the amazing, curious and mysterious Winchester House which was constructed by Mrs Sarah L.Winchester. First I want you to see 3 photographs before I get into the specific details of the family and history of this magnificent house and gardens.
Winchester House
Mrs. Sarah L.Winchester
Aerial View Of Winchester Mystery House
Now I want to tell you some details about the family and this house. The information I have comes from the tour guide at Winchester House, materials available at the Winchester House and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The day we toured the mansion all room had fully decorated Christmas trees which were very beautiful. Sarah Lockwood Pardee was born in September 1839 in New Haven, Connecticut to Leonard Pardee a carriage manufacturer in New Haven and his wife Sarah W. Burns. Sarah was raised in luxury obtained the best education at the best private schools. She spoke four languages and was an accomplished piano player. On September 30 1862 Sarah married William Wirt Winchester the only son of Oliver Fisher Winchester, Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut and the owner of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. They had one daughter, Annie Pardee Winchester, who was born on June 15, 1866 and died July 25, 1866 from the childhood disease of marasmus. Following the death of Annie, Sarah suffered from deep depression. The couple had no more children. Oliver Winchester ( William's father ) who died in 1880 had been active in the First Baptist Church. William (Sarah husband ) died in March 1881 of tuberculosis. This left Sarah as the heiress to his estate and eventually a 50 percent holding in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Reportedly she had a daily income of $1,000.00. It was estimated that in 2008 that would have been roughly $22,000 a day. Sarah still suffered from deep depression
At this time the story about Sarah Winchester is odd and the legends started forming around her and her life. It is understandable that she would have felt the loss of her loved ones very deeply however she apparently began to believe that her family was cursed and she sought out spiritualists to help her determine what she needed to do. The story goes that a Boston Medium told Sarah that her family and fortune was indeed haunted and cursed by the spirits of all the people killed by the Winchester rifle specifically the American Indians, Civil War soldiers and others.She was told that the death of her family members was caused by these spirits and it was implied that she might be next. The medium is claimed to have told Sarah she should move west to build a house for herself and and the spirits. Also, the medium supposedly told her if construction on the house ever stopped she would join her husband and infant daughter in death but if construction did not stop she could be sure she was not in any danger. Also, the implication was that by building this house it was suppose to bring her eternal life. Interestingly enough the Henry rifle manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Rifle Company was used for years against the Indians but it was the Winchester Repeating rifle which won fame as the Rifle that won the west.
Whether the prime motivating factors that influenced Sarah to move from Connecticut to California was the information provided by the medium or the fact that Sarah suffered from arthritis and she thought the climate in California would be better for her she did leave to visit a niece in Menlo Park, California. While she was there she purchased an 8 room unfinished farm house located in the Santa Clara Valley on 161 acre from John Hamm three miles west of what is now San Jose, California. The dates differ on when she made this purchase. Some say it was in 1884 and other say it was in 1886 but regardless she immediately started spending her $20 million inheritance by adding rooms and renovations which continued 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,365 days a year for the next 38 years. One of the first things she had the gardeners do was to plant a tall cypress hedge surrounding the house to keep prying eyes of neighbors away. She was fascinated with numbers especially the numbers 4, 6 and 13 especially the number 13 which are incorporated in this house in many ways and places. There are 13 bathrooms, windows have 13 panes, thirteen chandeliers. I will try to elaborate on this later. There is disagreement among scholars about the claim that construction never stopped except for a brief period after the 1906 earthquake.
When the April 18, 1906 earthquake happened at 5:12 A. M. she was trapped in her bedroom for several hours when the bell tower which was 7 or 8 stories tall collapsed onto the bed room where she was sleeping. When her servants finally found her and got her out of the wreckage she told the construction crew to stop working on the nearly completed front part of the house and her carpenters to board it up, leaving most of the extensive earthquake damage it as damaged. It is said the carpenters left nails partially driven into boards. as we toured the house we went through many of the rooms that had been damaged by the earthquake. The path through these rooms kept us from the walls where you could see the plaster had been shaken off the lath. Our guide explained they had to stop letting people close to the walls because people were breaking off pieces of plaster to take as souvenirs. Again according to the legends, Sarah thought the spirits were angry with her because she was spending too much time decorating and working on the front rooms. Constructions resumed on new additions and remodeling the other parts of the house. Sarah's full-time address from the earth quake until her death was in Atherton, California. She also owned homes in Los Altos and Palo Alto, California but visited them only ocassionally.
Due to constant construction and the lack of a master plan, the house became very large and quite complex. Many of the serving staff needed a map to navigate around inside the house. The house also featured doors that open into walls, staircases that lead nowhere, the recurring number 13, and windows that look into other walls. A sky light in the middle of a floor. There are two theories as to why Mrs Winchester built such an unusual house. The first is by far the most popular and states that she built the house to confuse the ghosts of those killed by the Winchester rifles. The second, much less popular, is that while Mrs. Winchester was an extremely wealthy woman and could build her house any way she wanted, she had no architectural training at all, so some oddities could simple be design errors. Personally that does not make sense at all because she was noted for not liking something and having it torn down and rebuilt or just board it up. It appears to me to be a specific design pattern she was attempting to achieve namely that of a very large labyrinth or puzzle which to date no one has successfully solved. No one ever interviewed her and she left no notes or journals and there were no blueprints. Over time many wild stories about Sarah and her house have been circulated. It does not appear that any of Sarah's many relatives in the area ever came forwarded to dispute these wild stories or if they did they have been lost or were ignored.
In the 1920 Mrs. Winchester maintained a houseboat on San Francisco Bay at Burlingame, California which became known as " Sarah's Ark" as it was reputedly kept there as insurance against her fear of a second great flood, such as the Biblical one experienced by Noah and his family. The more mundane answer is that many people of her social standing in California at that time had house boats or yachts. The yacht was destroyed in the fire of 1929. This is so typical of the stories about Mrs. Winchester and the reasons she did the things she did. There seems to be at two reasons suggested but apparently we will never know the true reasons.It does seem odd that someone so into the mystic would place any value on the biblical account of Noah and the flood.
In many respects Mrs. Winchester herself appeared to be a contradiction. On the one hand she appeared very generous by paying her workers double the going rate. She was apparently an anonymous donor to many charities and it is said she invited neighborhood children to play on the grounds or inviting them in to eat ice cream or play the piano. This does not match up with other stories about her desire for seclusion, never having visitors to the house or keeping her face covered with a dark veil at all time. There are unconfirmed stories about servants getting fired because they accidentally caught a glimpse of her without her veil.
Mrs. Sarah Winchester died in her sleep of heart failure September 5, 1922 at the age of 83. She was buried next to her husband and infant child in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut. She left a will written in 13 sections, which she signed thirteen times. She was survived by her sister and many nieces and nephews to whom she left cash and substantial trust funds. She also left cash to her favorite employees and a substantial sum to the Winchester Clinic of the General Hospital Society of Connecticut for the care and treatment of tuberculosis patients.The belongings in the house were left to her niece Mrs. Mariam I. Marriott, who took what she wanted and auctioned the rest. It took movers eight truckloads a day for six and a half weeks to empty the entire house of furniture. The furniture was not identified as coming from Winchester home which makes it impossible to track it down today. The home was auctioned off to the highest bidder who turned it into an attraction for the public with the first tourist walking through the house in February 1923, 5 months after Sarah died.
Lets look at some facts and figures about the Winchester Mystery House. It is California Registered Landmark # 868 and named to National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Construction started in 1884
Construction ends in 1922
Cost of Construction $5,500,000.
Length of Construction 38 years
Size of Original Estate 160 acres
Number of Rooms 160
Number of Doors 2,000
Number of Windows 10,000
Number of Stairways 40
Number of Fireplaces 47
Number of Chimneys 17
Number of Bathrooms 13
Number of Kitchens 6
Number of Gallons of Paint Needed to Paint Exterior 20,000
Some interesting facts picked up as we toured the house as related by our tour guide. She had 22 carpenters, 20 domestic servants, and 18 gardeners all who had to do exactly as she instructed them. Any disagreement or suggestions about doing it a different way was cause for immediate termination of employment. It was suggested the reason for this rule was that she was receiving her instructions from the " spirits" and she had to carry out the instructions exactly as she received them.
As stated earlier she was obsessed with numbers especially the number 13. Examples of this are throughout the house. There are 13 ceiling panels in rooms with 13 windows. There are 13 panes in the the windows
There are 13 bathrooms but apparently all of them do not work.She ordered an elaborate chandelier from Germany and when it arrived it only had 12 candles. She added a 13th candle and it is very obvious that it was not part of the original design. there is a beautiful glass window with a spider web design that has 13 colored stones in it ( this was brought from Tiffany of New York at a cost of $1500 ) an apparently has special meaning that is unknown to us today. In the seance room there are 13 coat hooks apparently for the spirits to hang their coats. Outside the house there are 13 date palm trees and 4 fountains ( 4 was an important number to her ). The green house had 13 glass copulas.
Many of the rooms are very lavish in woodwork, carvings and flooring and furnishing to entertain the good spirits. In the center of the house was a room that was blue in color and was the seance room. The room has a small desk or shelf , paper and writing instrument apparently to write down instructions as given by the spirits. Interestingly the room has one door to enter the room but 3 doors to leave the room. Of these 3 doors - one goes into a closet. One doors if used would drop you straight down into a kitchen sink and the other of course lets you thankfully exit the room in the normal manner.
The grand ballroom is the most beautiful room in the house and is very large with exotic woods and carvings throughout. The floor has 6 different hardwoods that are placed in a beautiful design. The room has two stained glass windows and there is a magnificent fireplace and pipe organ. Between these windows is a painting of Shakespeare. I will try to discuss the 2 windows later.
When the April 18, 1906 earthquake happened at 5:12 A. M. she was trapped in her bedroom for several hours when the bell tower which was 7 or 8 stories tall collapsed onto the bed room where she was sleeping. When her servants finally found her and got her out of the wreckage she told the construction crew to stop working on the nearly completed front part of the house and her carpenters to board it up, leaving most of the extensive earthquake damage it as damaged. It is said the carpenters left nails partially driven into boards. as we toured the house we went through many of the rooms that had been damaged by the earthquake. The path through these rooms kept us from the walls where you could see the plaster had been shaken off the lath. Our guide explained they had to stop letting people close to the walls because people were breaking off pieces of plaster to take as souvenirs. Again according to the legends, Sarah thought the spirits were angry with her because she was spending too much time decorating and working on the front rooms. Constructions resumed on new additions and remodeling the other parts of the house. Sarah's full-time address from the earth quake until her death was in Atherton, California. She also owned homes in Los Altos and Palo Alto, California but visited them only ocassionally.
Due to constant construction and the lack of a master plan, the house became very large and quite complex. Many of the serving staff needed a map to navigate around inside the house. The house also featured doors that open into walls, staircases that lead nowhere, the recurring number 13, and windows that look into other walls. A sky light in the middle of a floor. There are two theories as to why Mrs Winchester built such an unusual house. The first is by far the most popular and states that she built the house to confuse the ghosts of those killed by the Winchester rifles. The second, much less popular, is that while Mrs. Winchester was an extremely wealthy woman and could build her house any way she wanted, she had no architectural training at all, so some oddities could simple be design errors. Personally that does not make sense at all because she was noted for not liking something and having it torn down and rebuilt or just board it up. It appears to me to be a specific design pattern she was attempting to achieve namely that of a very large labyrinth or puzzle which to date no one has successfully solved. No one ever interviewed her and she left no notes or journals and there were no blueprints. Over time many wild stories about Sarah and her house have been circulated. It does not appear that any of Sarah's many relatives in the area ever came forwarded to dispute these wild stories or if they did they have been lost or were ignored.
In the 1920 Mrs. Winchester maintained a houseboat on San Francisco Bay at Burlingame, California which became known as " Sarah's Ark" as it was reputedly kept there as insurance against her fear of a second great flood, such as the Biblical one experienced by Noah and his family. The more mundane answer is that many people of her social standing in California at that time had house boats or yachts. The yacht was destroyed in the fire of 1929. This is so typical of the stories about Mrs. Winchester and the reasons she did the things she did. There seems to be at two reasons suggested but apparently we will never know the true reasons.It does seem odd that someone so into the mystic would place any value on the biblical account of Noah and the flood.
In many respects Mrs. Winchester herself appeared to be a contradiction. On the one hand she appeared very generous by paying her workers double the going rate. She was apparently an anonymous donor to many charities and it is said she invited neighborhood children to play on the grounds or inviting them in to eat ice cream or play the piano. This does not match up with other stories about her desire for seclusion, never having visitors to the house or keeping her face covered with a dark veil at all time. There are unconfirmed stories about servants getting fired because they accidentally caught a glimpse of her without her veil.
Mrs. Sarah Winchester died in her sleep of heart failure September 5, 1922 at the age of 83. She was buried next to her husband and infant child in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut. She left a will written in 13 sections, which she signed thirteen times. She was survived by her sister and many nieces and nephews to whom she left cash and substantial trust funds. She also left cash to her favorite employees and a substantial sum to the Winchester Clinic of the General Hospital Society of Connecticut for the care and treatment of tuberculosis patients.The belongings in the house were left to her niece Mrs. Mariam I. Marriott, who took what she wanted and auctioned the rest. It took movers eight truckloads a day for six and a half weeks to empty the entire house of furniture. The furniture was not identified as coming from Winchester home which makes it impossible to track it down today. The home was auctioned off to the highest bidder who turned it into an attraction for the public with the first tourist walking through the house in February 1923, 5 months after Sarah died.
Lets look at some facts and figures about the Winchester Mystery House. It is California Registered Landmark # 868 and named to National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Construction started in 1884
Construction ends in 1922
Cost of Construction $5,500,000.
Length of Construction 38 years
Size of Original Estate 160 acres
Number of Rooms 160
Number of Doors 2,000
Number of Windows 10,000
Number of Stairways 40
Number of Fireplaces 47
Number of Chimneys 17
Number of Bathrooms 13
Number of Kitchens 6
Number of Gallons of Paint Needed to Paint Exterior 20,000
Some interesting facts picked up as we toured the house as related by our tour guide. She had 22 carpenters, 20 domestic servants, and 18 gardeners all who had to do exactly as she instructed them. Any disagreement or suggestions about doing it a different way was cause for immediate termination of employment. It was suggested the reason for this rule was that she was receiving her instructions from the " spirits" and she had to carry out the instructions exactly as she received them.
As stated earlier she was obsessed with numbers especially the number 13. Examples of this are throughout the house. There are 13 ceiling panels in rooms with 13 windows. There are 13 panes in the the windows
There are 13 bathrooms but apparently all of them do not work.She ordered an elaborate chandelier from Germany and when it arrived it only had 12 candles. She added a 13th candle and it is very obvious that it was not part of the original design. there is a beautiful glass window with a spider web design that has 13 colored stones in it ( this was brought from Tiffany of New York at a cost of $1500 ) an apparently has special meaning that is unknown to us today. In the seance room there are 13 coat hooks apparently for the spirits to hang their coats. Outside the house there are 13 date palm trees and 4 fountains ( 4 was an important number to her ). The green house had 13 glass copulas.
Many of the rooms are very lavish in woodwork, carvings and flooring and furnishing to entertain the good spirits. In the center of the house was a room that was blue in color and was the seance room. The room has a small desk or shelf , paper and writing instrument apparently to write down instructions as given by the spirits. Interestingly the room has one door to enter the room but 3 doors to leave the room. Of these 3 doors - one goes into a closet. One doors if used would drop you straight down into a kitchen sink and the other of course lets you thankfully exit the room in the normal manner.
The grand ballroom is the most beautiful room in the house and is very large with exotic woods and carvings throughout. The floor has 6 different hardwoods that are placed in a beautiful design. The room has two stained glass windows and there is a magnificent fireplace and pipe organ. Between these windows is a painting of Shakespeare. I will try to discuss the 2 windows later.
Grand Ball Room
Grand Ball Room. What Marvelous Wood Work
Shakespearean Windows On Either Side Of Fire Place
The grand Ball Room was reportedly built at a cost of $49,000. An ordinary home would have cost $1,000.00 or less.
Mrs. Winchester was a collector of stained glass and there were hundreds that were never installed and are simply stacked in a storage room. In one room there is a very large stained glass window that was installed so that the sun would never shine through it.
As noted above the house had 40 bedrooms and Sarah never slept in the same one two nights in a room. Some of her domestic help was on hand 24 hour a day but apparently they never knew for sure which room she was in so she devised a call system where she could push a button and the servants could look at a panel and know where she was located. ( I wonder if she called for a glass of water in the middle of the night did she put on her dark veil before the servants came into the room )?
Reportedly This is the Bed In Which Sarah Winchester Died
Some of the more odd items are the stairways. Some go up and you end at the ceiling. One flight of stairs has 40 steps and makes many switch backs but only actually rises only 9 feet from the bottom step to the top step. Some stairs are extremely narrow and difficult to climb. as noted earlier she had arthritis and as she aged it became very bad in fact so bad that she could only lift her feet a couple of inches. To help her go up and down the stairs some stairs have very wide risers but were only 2 inches high. I am sure they worked well for her but were difficult for me. In another part of the house she had an Otis electric elevator.
Stairway stops at ceiling
Stairs With Two Inch Risers
The grounds and gardens around the mansion are beautiful there are several building located on the grounds and I will give a brief description of several of these.
The grounds and gardens around the mansion are beautiful there are several building located on the grounds and I will give a brief description of several of these.
The " Foreman's House " was a 8 room farm house which served as the servants quarters. It had indoor plumbing and electricity. Mrs. Winchester's foreman John Hansen once occupied this house.
The " Fruit Drying Shed " contained an evaporator which was used to dry the prunes and other fruit that was grown on her estate. The evaporator dried fruit at the rate of 1 1/2 tons every 30 hours. These dried fruits were sold in nearby towns.
The " Tank House " was the place for the water holding tank. This tank was originally in the tower that was destroyed by fire in the late 1940's. The bottom portion was used as a plumber's work shop. Many of the original dies and cutters are still there. The upper floors were used for field hand's living quarters.
The " Pump House " The Pierce gas engine in this building provided electricity to the mansion and ultimately powered the Otis elevator.
The " Garage/Car Wash " Mrs. Winchester had several cars including a 1909 French Renault and a 1917 Pierce Arrow Limousine. All of these cars were kept clean and in good repair in this building.
The " Greenhouse " used for normal green house activities. Her 18 acre garden included plants,shrubs and trees from over 100 different countries.
The " Central Garden " A crescent shaped hedge in this courtyard points to the room where Mrs. Winchester died.
The " Gas Lighting Shop " Before electricity was installed, this plant pumped carbide gas used to light the fixtures. The gas was produced by adding small amounts of calcium carbide to water.The resulting gas was pushed through the gas lines with a piston controlled by the counterweight.
The " Egret Fountain " All the statue and fountain pieces were manufactured in New York by the J. L. Mott Company. They are made of corrosion resistant metal consisting of zinc and tin. The pedestals are made of cast iron. This fountain piece depicts the North American Egret.
The " Gardener's Shed " Mrs. Winchester had this building constructed in the shape of a key hole. Some say it represented eternal life - which Mrs. Winchester hoped to achieve by keeping the carpenters building 24 hours a day.
The " Palm Drive " This was the main driveway to the mansion. Mrs. Winchester had added her own personal touch. At one time it was lined with 13 Washingtonian Palm Trees.
The " Cupid Fountain " One of the features of Victorian homes was the display of the ancient classics in the statue and fountain pieces. This fountain depicts the mythological Cupid and a swan.
The " Llanada Villa " These sandstone pillars and wrought iron gates once marked the entrance to Mrs. Winchester's estate. She called it Llanada Villa.
The " Cherub Fountain " All the fountains have been restored over the years. Originally they all had brick foundations coated with several layers of rough concrete. The figures are that of a Cherub ( small boy ) riding a Hippo campus ( a sea monster that has the head of a horse and the body of a fish ).
The " Serpent Fountain " Many Victorian homes were highlighted by formal front entries. The fountain and statues were to draw attention to the front doors of the mansion. The fountain piece is a serpent and the statues are of Hebe and Demeter.
Beautiful European Art Glass Doors. You Can See The Earth Quake
Damage On Either Side. Doors Cost $3000.00. It Is Claimed The Doors
Were Never Used After Installation In 1906
" Architecture " The mansion's asymmetrical design and finial-capped roof lines were typical Victorian Architecture Building oddities - but such as the door that opens to an eight foot drop -- were common only to Mrs. Winchester's home.
Door To No Where
The " Coal Chute " the coal chute carried coal directly into the front basement to fire the furnace and many of the mansion's 47 fireplaces. The furnace was kept going 24 hours a day to keep the mansion warm for her arthritic condition. She had developed a gravity feed heating system which helped keep the mansion warm. One interesting note is that the 47 fireplaces did not all have flues or chimneys and some of them used the same one.
The " Almond Courtyard " Before 1906 this courtyard stood in the shadow of a 7-tower.
Also in the garden at the entrance is a statue of an Indian Chief, Little Fawn placed there to appease the Indian Spirit of Indians killed by the Winchester rifle.
The entire force behind the Winchester Mystery House is just that the mystery of the whole thing and Mrs. Winchester's life and beliefs in many occult activities such as seances and communing with spirits and allegedly following their instructions. It is alleged that Sarah had been a Theosophist, a Rosicrucian, a Baconian and a Free Mason. The Masonic order did not accept women in the United States. Following college Sarah traveled in Europe for three years and it is thought she may have joined the Free Masons order in Europe because they were more liberal and accepted women. So what do all those names above mean. I am certainly no expert but the dictionary gives the following:
Rosicrucian - These were people of the 17th and 18th century who professed to be members of a secret society said to have various sorts of occult lore and power and holding esoteric religious doctrines. Its symbol was a cross with a red rose in the middle of it. Also, a member of any of several groups with doctrines and practices said to be based on those of several persons especially the Rosicrucian Order or the ancient Mystic Order Rosae Rosicrucian's or Rosicrucian ism. One interesting tid bit is that the Rosicrucian home would have a central room within which to meditate and get away from the noise outside but not for seances.
Theosophist - A group who has doctrines and beliefs of a modern sect that incorporates elements of Buddhism and Brahmanism.
Brahmanism - A religious doctrine and system of the former Hindu Caste System.
Baconian - A person who believes that Francis Bacon wrote the works of William Shakespeare.
Sarah Winchester was said to be a staunch supporter and adherent to the Baconian doctrine.
OK so after that brief bit of information what does it all have to do with the mystery house. Throughout the house there are examples of occult symbols and Sarah's constant use of certain numbers in the design of virtually everything in the mansion had a special meaning or message but what is it. Roger Bacon developed an elaborate system of cyptography in which he substituted numbers for letters. This is nothing new as the early Egyptian and Romans developed such systems and there are many variations of them. Why, guess what I have in times past even used such systems in official capacity and have developed and even used some for personal reasons. Sarah was said to be a staunch supporter of his theories and she apparently was attempting to leave a message. In fact she created a great big puzzle or labyrinth that is waiting for someone to solve. The Shakespearean windows in the grand ball room have words out of some of Shakespearean work that had special meaning to Sarah. Richard Allan Wagner wrote a book "The Lost Secret of William Shakespeare ". This was planned to be a book about Sarah but as he got deeper into the subject he explored the interest Sarah had in certain numbers and the Baconian doctrine and the book turned out to be more on Bacon than Sarah. Very interesting but too deep for me to delve into but I do believe that Sarah was in her sad and misguided way trying to leave a message.
Finally, Henrietta Severs who was reportedly Sarah's nurse has said that Sarah was not a Theosophist and did not conduct seances in the one room as claimed. Former tour guides from years ago said they did not make up stories to tell visitors to the mansion as has been claimed but just repeated what they had heard and may have elaborated upon them. There does not seem to be any evidence to show the owners of the mansion made any special efforts to dream up stories to tell the guests but it is obvious that such stories help justify the name placed on Sarah's mansion - Winchester Mystery House for it is indeed is a house of many mysteries. I would love to spend more time exploring the house.
This wraps up my 2 cents worth about the Winchester Mystery House and if you are ever in the area I recommend you take all the tours they have to offer even the tour of the basement. I will leave you with the words our tour guide left us with. She said if you liked the tour with me you can tell my boss I am Amy if you didn't I am Molly ( not her real name ). If you like this edition of the blog I am Grandpa Bill and if you didn't I am that guy that kept following me around on my travels last spring.
I love you
Grandpa Bill
Finally, Henrietta Severs who was reportedly Sarah's nurse has said that Sarah was not a Theosophist and did not conduct seances in the one room as claimed. Former tour guides from years ago said they did not make up stories to tell visitors to the mansion as has been claimed but just repeated what they had heard and may have elaborated upon them. There does not seem to be any evidence to show the owners of the mansion made any special efforts to dream up stories to tell the guests but it is obvious that such stories help justify the name placed on Sarah's mansion - Winchester Mystery House for it is indeed is a house of many mysteries. I would love to spend more time exploring the house.
This wraps up my 2 cents worth about the Winchester Mystery House and if you are ever in the area I recommend you take all the tours they have to offer even the tour of the basement. I will leave you with the words our tour guide left us with. She said if you liked the tour with me you can tell my boss I am Amy if you didn't I am Molly ( not her real name ). If you like this edition of the blog I am Grandpa Bill and if you didn't I am that guy that kept following me around on my travels last spring.
I love you
Grandpa Bill
Janice took us to the Winchester House when we were there last year too. Boy was that woman whacky! Can't imagine all the money wasted on all the silly construction! Oh well, it is not mine to spend, but truly some very strange things going on in that house. There were some really pretty furnishing though.
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Joyce
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