The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California, that was once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearms magnate William Wirt Winchester. The house became a tourist attraction nine months after her death in 1922. The Victorian and Gothic-style mansion is renowned for its size and its architectural curiosities and for the numerous myths and legends surrounding the structure and its former owner.
Sarah Winchester
Sarah Winchester was born in 1839 in New Haven, Connecticut. She was called Sallie by people closest to her, after her paternal grandmother. She married William Wirt Winchester in 1862.
In 1866, Winchester gave birth to a girl named Annie Pardee Winchester. Diagnosed with marasmus, she did not thrive and lived only a month. Between the fall of 1880 and the spring of 1881, Winchester's mother, father-in-law, and husband died. She was left with a large inheritance from her husband. In 1884, her eldest sister, Mary Converse, died.
Around this time, Winchester began developing rheumatoid arthritis. Her doctor suggested that a warmer and drier climate might help improve her health. In 1885, at the age of 46, Winchester moved to California from New Haven, Connecticut. According to Mary Jo Ignoffo in her book Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune, her doctor's recommendation, her happy memories of traveling to San Francisco with her husband in the 1870s, and advertising about the weather and health benefits of California were possible factors in Winchester's decision to move. Winchester invited her three remaining sisters to follow her to California, which they did.
In 1886, Edward "Ned" Rambo, a San Francisco agent for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, took Winchester on a tour of the Santa Clara valley to look for a home. He showed her a 45-acre ranch for sale located near San Jose. Winchester purchased the property (from John Hamm) which included a two-story, eight-room farmhouse. Since the property reminded her of Llanada Alavesa from the Basque area, she named her new home Llanada Villa.
In 1890, Winchester's 21-year-old niece, Marion Merriman (called Daisy) came to live with her. Merriman became Winchester's personal secretary, looking after business correspondence and banking. They attended charitable events together and were paying members of Associated Charities and the Red Cross.
In 1903, Winchester paid for Merriman's wedding to Frederick Marriott III. That same year, Winchester purchased several homes and properties in Atherton. One of the homes was offered to the newlyweds to live in, which they accepted. Winchester subsequently purchased a home for the couple closer to the train station for Frederick to travel to work from.
In 1904, Winchester purchased a large property near the hamlet of Burlingame, north of Coyote Point, then bought a houseboat, or ark as they were called at the time, instead of building a house.
Winchester died September 7, 1922, at age 83.
San Jose house renovation Winchester and her husband had developed an interest in architecture and interior design while building a home on Prospect Hill in New Haven. With plans to expand the farmhouse, Winchester hired at least two architects but dismissed them, deciding to do the planning herself. She designed the rooms one by one, supervised the project, and sought advice from the carpenters she hired. She took inspiration for the house from the world's fairs that were common at the time. While the home was similar in scope to other homes of that period, it was unusual for a woman to look after such a project and, Colin Dickey states in his book Ghostland: an American History in Haunted Places, she could be considered an architectural pioneer of her time.
She was known to rebuild and abandon construction if the progress did not meet her expectations, which resulted in a maze-like design. In the San Jose News of 1897, it was reported that a seven-story tower was torn down and rebuilt 16 times. As a result of her expansions, there are walled-off exterior windows and doors that were not removed as the house grew in size. Multiple levels, up to five, were added to different parts of the home. The design was essentially Victorian, with elements of Gothic and Romanesque features.
Features of the house There was carved wood on the ballroom walls and ceilings. Woods such as teak, maple, and mahogany made an intricate pattern on the ballroom floor. A large brick fireplace was framed by two windows that included quotes from Shakespeare. The second-floor bedrooms each had adjoining sitting rooms and sewing rooms. The wall coverings (known as Lincrusta) had a leather or metal appearance. The ceilings had mouldings, stencils, and faux finishes. There were chandeliers from Germany, art glass from Austria, furnishings from Asia, and paintings from France. An annunciator (an early form of intercom, a common feature of large homes during this period) was installed for calling servants. There was an indoor garden with slanted floors that would carry excess water to trapdoors; the doors had pipes to supply water to flowers outdoors. A generator was installed for a water pump and electricity. Because of Winchester's height of four feet ten inches and her health issues, a stairway was built that has 44 steps but rises only ten feet.
The windows are unusual since they are pastel colored and asymmetrical and have sharp bevels. The windows on the upper levels had spider-web tracery, a popular design then. The windows to the right and left of the brick fireplace feature Shakespearean quotations from Richard II and Troilus and Cressida. It has been claimed by tour guides and articles over the years that the windows were made by Tiffany & Co despite the fact that the company rarely used beveled glass. This style of window is also found at Craigdarroch Castle in British Columbia, Canada, prompting architectural historian Jim Wolf to conclude that the windows were made by the same company. Wolf determined that glass artist John Mallon from Alexander Dunsmuir's company, the Pacific American Decorative Company, was the most likely artisan of the windows. This theory was confirmed when an envelope postmarked July 1894, which had the seal of Dunsmuir's company on it and a scribbled note that appears to be in Winchester's hand, was discovered in the wall of one of the dining rooms that was being restored. Many of the art glass windows that were purchased were never installed and have been housed in a storage room.
Winchester would take regular breaks from construction to rest, sometimes for months, since she tired easily. It slowed construction considerably and is counter to the claims made in articles and by tour guides that she had the house under construction around the clock for thirty-eight years until her death in 1922.
At its largest the house had approximately 500 rooms.
According to Bruce Spoon, a student from San Jose State College who decided to write his master's thesis about Winchester in 1951, the reasons for building her large home were to keep workers employed and to express her artistic vision. He reached this conclusion after interviewing people who remembered her and after reviewing newspaper and magazine articles.
1906 earthquake When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake hit, the Llanada Villa was severely damaged. Though there are rumors that Winchester was trapped in the San Jose home, there is no evidence that she was there. She owned several homes in California, and after the earthquake spent most of her time at her home in Atherton.
The seven-story tower and most of the chimneys collapsed. One entire wing was destroyed along with the third- and fourth-story additions. Winchester had the rubble removed but had little more done to the property after the earthquake. It left doors that opened to nothing where balconies had once been, pipes that were protruding from what were once window boxes, and staircases that once led to upper floors ending suddenly.
After 1910, owing to failing health, Winchester did not work on the San Jose home except for odd maintenance jobs and adding an elevator in 1916. Instead she dedicated her time to finances and building an investment portfolio. Mary Jo Ignoffo claims that "She was far more successful constructing an investment portfolio than a mansion."
When Winchester died in 1922 the house had 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens.
As a tourist attraction
The house became a tourist attraction nine months after Winchester's death in 1922. The house was in disrepair and considered to be of no monetary value. A group of investors purchased the property subsequently leasing the house to John and Mayme Brown who turned it into an attraction. They later purchased the house in 1931. There were many room additions and deletions made to the home after Winchester's death.
The first tour guide of the house was Mayme Brown. Past neighbors, friends, and workers for Winchester were distressed when they read about superstitious claims being made about the house and Winchester, and were upset the Browns were making money from falsehoods. They described Winchester as clearheaded and savvier with finances and business than most men.
In 1924 Harry Houdini briefly visited the house and was reportedly impressed by its unusual layout and architectural novelties but could not make a detailed investigation because of more pressing engagements. According to some accounts, Houdini suggested tour operators use "Winchester mystery house" as a promotional name for the property.
When Keith Kittle, a past Disneyland and Frontier Village employee, became the general manager in 1973, the house was in poor shape. He had the house renovated in the 1970s and 1980s and added a Winchester rifle museum. He sought historical landmark status and began an advertising campaign that included large billboards along the highways. The billboards feature a silhouetted house with implications that a ghost encounter was possible. Attendance increased as he played off the history and superstition that was already circulating. Kittle was general manager until 1996.
As of 1963, after both John and Mayme Brown had passed away, the house was incorporated as Winchester Mystery House, LLC, a private business that represents the descendants of the Browns and continues to preserve Sarah Winchester’s house. Captive of the Labyrinth author Mary Jo Ignoffo wrote that tour guides are required to follow a script emphasizing fabrications and inaccuracies. According to Ignoffo, one guide lamented, "I feel so torn because I have to tell people untruths! Every time I go through the house and have to talk about 13s and other 'kooky' things, my heart breaks a little for Sarah ... I have to bite my tongue every time I hear a guest say, 'what a nutcase.
Legends and lore Winchester's story has been embellished over the years by various rumors, hyperbole, and myths, and popular writers have misrepresented or invented details about the house and its owner in order to enhance the legend.
Inheritance Claims of Winchester inheriting as much as $20 million and earning $1,000 per day in royalties from her inheritance can be found in tourist literature purchased at the Winchester Mystery House. Ignoffo states that her husband's estate in 1881 was valued at $362,330 (equal to $ today), but this amount included approximately $300,000 of stock that Winchester would only inherit when her mother-in-law died, which did not happen until 1898. With the addition of her husband's Winchester Repeating Arms Company shares, she owned a total of 777 shares valuing $77,700, which paid average dividends of $7,770 annually between 1880 and 1885.
Moving to California