14 Haunting Details In regards to the Winchester Thriller Home
Despite the cheerful appearance of the Winchester Mystery House, the history of this vast California mansion is lined with tragedy, mystery … and maybe some ghosts. Of course, it inspired a chilling horror film, Winchester, which is in theaters today. But before heading to the movies, wander through the curious past of one of America’s most notorious homes.
1. THE WINCHESTER HOUSE IS NAMED AFTER ITS MISTRESS.
Sarah Lockwood Winchester – the wife of gun tycoon William Wirt Winchester, whose family created the Winchester rifle known as “the gun that won the West” – designed and oversaw the construction of the sprawling Victorian Queen Anne mansion, That Bears Her Name Construction of the 24,000-square-foot home at 525 South Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California began in 1886.
2. MANY BELIEVE SARAH BUILT THE WINCHESTER HOUSE OUT OF FEAR.
Overwhelmed in grief after her husband’s death from tuberculosis in 1881, folklore says that Sarah was looking for a spiritualist who could communicate with the dead. While presumably seeking consolation or closure, she received a terrifying warning instead.
Through the medium, William told his widow that their tragedies (the couple had only one child, a daughter named Annie, who died at the age of six weeks) was the result of the blood money the family had made from the Winchester rifles. He warned that vengeful spirits would seek them out. To protect herself, William said that Sarah “needs to build a home for” [herself] and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon. “
Sarah was advised to leave her home in New Haven, Connecticut, and move west to build a great home for the spirits. There was only one catch: the construction work on the house never stopped. “If you keep building you will live,” Sarah warned Sarah. “Stop it and you will die.”
3. THE HOUSE WAS 38 YEARS IN CONSTANT CONSTRUCTION.
In 1886 Sarah bought an eight room farmhouse in San Jose, California and began construction. She employed a crew of carpenters who split up shifts so that construction could go on day and night, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, 38 years. Work was not stopped until September 5, 1922, because the home’s eighty-year-old thought leader died of heart failure in his sleep. It is said that when the carpenters heard the news of Sarah’s death, they stopped so abruptly that half-hammered nails protruded from the walls.
4. THE HOUSE IS FULLY ARCHITECTURAL RARE.
Sarah made many bizarre demands on her builders, including the construction of trap doors, secret passages, a skylight in the floor, cobweb windows and stairs that led to nowhere. There are also doors that open to blank walls and a dangerous door on the second floor that opens into nowhere – save for an alarming case in the courtyard far below.
5. AN EARTHQUAKE ONCE RASPED THE HOUSE AND CATCHED SARAH.
In 1906, the great San Francisco earthquake collapsed three floors of the then seven-story house. A postcard of the place from 1900 shows a tower that was later overturned by the natural disaster. This tower, as well as several other rooms destroyed in the disaster, were never rebuilt, but cordoned off. Sarah was safe, but she was stuck in the Daisy Bedroom, named for the floral motif in the windows. She had to be dug up by her staff because the entrance was blocked by rubble.
6. THE HOUSE WAS DESIGNED LIKE A LABYRINTH.
Some say the maze layout should confuse the ghosts and give Sarah some peace and quiet and a chance to escape them. She was the sole architect of this extraordinary house, and an overall construction plan has never been uncovered. So Sarah may be the only person who ever really knew all of her secrets. When moving helpers were called in after her death, people complained about its labyrinthine design, which includes many winding corridors. A removal worker told American Weekly that Winchester House is a place “where you don’t go down to the basement or up to the roof.”
7. SOME SAY THE SYMBOLS IN THE HOUSE DO NOT POINT GHOST, BUT FRANCIS BACON.
An alternative theory about the confusing design of Winchester House is that Sarah created a puzzle full of encryption, inspired by the work of the English philosopher Francis Bacon. There is speculation that hints of the house’s true meaning are hidden in the ballroom, Shakespeare windows, and iron gates. This theory suggests that Sarah was a member of a mystical society like the Rosicrucians or a secret society like the Freemasons – or possibly both.
8. THERE ARE OTHER THEORIES, INCLUDING THAT SARAH WAS “INSANE”.
Others speculate that Sarah was coping with her grief with a hectic pace of activity or that she was simply “insane”. However, Winchester Mystery House historian Janan Boehme paints a happier picture, imagining that the constant renovations reminded Sarah of the good days she and William built her home in New Haven together.
“I think Sarah tried to repeat that experience by doing something they both loved,” Boehme told the Los Angeles Times. She also suspects Sarah was just a passionate – if eccentric – philanthropist who used her family fortune to purposefully keep the San Jose community busy. “She had a social conscience and tried to give something back,” said Böhme, noting the hospital that Sarah had built on behalf of her husband. “This house in itself was her greatest social work of all.”
9. ONCE IN WINCHESTER HOUSE SARAH WAS WITHDRAWAL, BUT NOT ALONE.
There is only one known photo of the widow Winchester that was taken in secret. Though withdrawn, she was never alone. She had 18 servants, 18 gardeners, and the ubiquitous construction team that worked on the site. Every morning Sarah met with the foreman to discuss the ever-evolving blueprints. And it is said that she visited the séance room every evening to speak to the ghosts who interfered in the plans for the unusual design of the house.
10. THE HOUSE WAS AS OPULENT AS UNUSUAL.
The home has 950 doors, 10,000 windows, 40 stairs, 52 skylights, 47 fireplaces, six kitchens, plus a trio of elevators and once groundbreaking items like wool insulation, carbide gas lamps, electricity, and an indoor shower with a sewage drainage system.
11. NOBODY IS SURE HOW MANY ROOMS THE HOUSE HAS.
After Sarah’s death, Winchester House was converted into a tourist attraction. But when trying to get a room number, the new owners kept coming up with different numbers. After five years of renovation, they estimated the number of rooms to be around 160, which is the number most cited today.
12.SARAH had an obsession with the number 13.
One of the secrets Sarah took to the grave was why she insisted that so many things have to do with the number 13. Winchester House has many 13-paned windows and 13-paneled ceilings, as well as 13-step stairs. Even her will was in 13 parts, and she signed it 13 times. But the highlight could be the 13th bathroom of the house, which contains 13 windows of its own.
13. IT IS A NATIONAL LANDMARK.
The Winchester Mystery House was granted landmark status on August 7, 1974. The fascinating mansion is still owned by the family (families?) Who bought it from the Winchester Estate for $ 150,000 in 1922 – their identity, however, is another Winchester House secret. But thanks to them, tourists can now explore 110 of the 160 rooms Sarah came up with. The Winchester Mystery House even offers special tours on Halloween and Friday the 13th.
14. IT IS REGULARLY QUOTED AS ONE OF THE MOST SECRET PLACES IN AMERICA.
To this day, Winchester House is a destination for believers hoping for their own paranormal encounter. A popular spot for such activities are the third floor corridors, where tour guides have claimed to hear footsteps and disembodied voices whispering their names.
In a Reddit AMA, a Winchester House guide confirmed that the third floor of the house – only part of which is accessible on guided tours – is definitely the scariest part of the house, “because the servants lived there, so a lot had happened.” the activities reported there. Also, you can’t really hear any of the other tours on this floor, so you feel pretty isolated. ”The customer review has been automatically translated from German.
