Haunted houses: The Winchester Mystery House, America

Due to the measures surrounding the coronavirus, there are almost to no outings to visit in the coming time. But we do want to make you happy with our blogs. Before joining OpstapmetLisa, I had a blog about creepy places around the world. I especially love the history behind certain houses and stories! Because our blog about real haunted houses in the Netherlands was read a lot by you, we are now making a series about haunted houses in the world. Because there is a lot of haunting going on all over the world. This week the strange house of Sarah Winchester.

Sarah Winchester

When William Winchester died in 1881, he left his wife a huge inheritance. Sarah inherited not only her husband’s $20.5 million, but also 50% ownership in his business, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. That earned her another $2,000 a day, but she did not keep the money for herself. In fact, that money was for the spirits. For Sarah Winchester firmly believed that she was being haunted by the victims of her husband’s guns. A medium told her to move West and build a house there for the spirits. It had to be built nonstop and it was never to be finished. Only then could Sarah find peace. The depressed Sarah followed the advice and in 1884 bought a dilapidated farmhouse in San Jose, California.

The house: its construction and comforts

Funnily enough, no architect was involved in the construction of the house. Consequently, there is no structure in this 160-plus room late Victorian villa. Although construction began in 1884, it is equipped with every convenience. For example, there are toilets inside, something that was rare at the time. There was also hot running water and, yes, central heating. There are also three elevators in the building, as Sarah was no longer able to walk well in later life. In addition, there are a number of extra low stairs in the house because she could only lift her feet a few inches at the end.

Of the 160 rooms, there are 40 bedrooms, two ballrooms, one of which is unfinished, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, two basements and 10,000 windows, many of them stained glass by Tiffany’s. The floors are of hand-inlaid wood and silver and gold chandeliers hang in all the rooms. A funny element of the house though is the closet that, when opened, gives access to as many as 30 rooms of the house! The house itself is made of wood, but because Sarah did not like the color of the wood, the entire house had to be hand-painted. This was done with a whopping 78,000 gallons of paint.

The house that may never be finished

At first the house was 7 stories high, but the great earthquake of 1906 caused part of the house to collapse. Sarah then spent hours locked in her bedroom. The upper floors were boarded up and never repaired because one of the conditions was that the house should never be finished. Because the foundation “floats,” the quake damage below was limited. Another modern piece of architecture for the time.

Poor, crazy Sarah

That Sarah wasn’t quite right becomes clear when you take a closer look at the house. For there are stairs that lead nowhere and doors that give access to a blind wall, or as on the second floor, to a vacuum. So you should not take the wrong door. Also, there are windows that simply overlook other windows of the house. You end up from one labyrinth to another. Hence, one cannot say for sure how many rooms there actually are. One kept getting lost while counting. Sarah believed the house would confuse the spirits so they could never find her. She also slept in a different room every day. So it was that after the earthquake, she spent hours locked in her bedroom; the staff simply could not find her.

The curse of the Winchesters

Sarah was not always so strange; she was a well-liked person. When she married William in 1862, he inherited his parents’ business. Business prospered and the Winchesters became stinking rich. Starting in 1866, however, disaster began to strike. Annie, their daughter, died at a very young age, and William himself died 15 years later of tuberculosis. Sarah, already unable to get over the death of her infant daughter, fell into a severe depression as a result. She therefore visited the medium who told her of the vengeful spirits. Sarah was terrified of the spirits and did everything to placate them. Thus, every night she held a séance in which the spirits told her what to rebuild the next day.

The house today

Sarah died in her sleep on September 5, 1922. After her death, work on the house was immediately put down. Her assets were divided among her niece and personal secretary. In her will, however, she did not mention the house itself. The house was seen as worthless because of the devastation of the earthquake, the strange constructions and because it was unfinished. And the ghosts? They still live there. The program Ghost Adventures (seen on Spike) found evidence of it. Today, the house is open to the public. Several tours are offered daily. On every Friday the 13th and on Halloween, there are “flashlight tours” at night. These are not suitable for children and people who are easily frightened. This is one of the most extraordinary haunted houses in the world, though!

Want to read more about other haunted houses around the world? Then take a quick look here!