Haunted Legends: Winchester Mystery House - San Jose, CA

A House Built for Spirits
Haunted Legends: Winchester Mystery House
San Jose, CA

One hundred sixty rooms, staircases that lead to nowhere, doors that lead to walls. The Winchester Mystery House has become an icon to weird architecture, but there's a reasoning behind it that you won't believe. Of course, it has to do with ghosts, but the house itself is a marvel to both the land of the living and the dead.

If you are a hunter, a Civil War buff, or have watched History Channel's Pawn Stars, you may be familiar with the name "Winchester". The Winchester rifle is known as "The Gun That Won the West" and Sarah Winchester took grief in being associated with the gun for one reason, but we'll get to that a little later.

Sarah Lockwood Pardee was born in New Haven, Connecticut around 1840 and soon became known as the "Belle of New Haven." She was well liked, spoke four languages, was considered beautiful, and played piano graciously. In 1862, she married William Wirt Winchester, the heir and son of the creator of the famous Winchester rifle.

Everything was perfect and it would soon become even better with the birth of their first child, a girl named Annie. But tragedy struck almost immediately when the child caught the then mysterious disease known as marasmus (a disease defined by as a "progressive wasting of the body" according to thefreedictionary.com). The baby wasted away and so did Mrs. Winchester's heart, little by little, the tragedies fell upon her. Fifteen years after the death of Annie, William died of tuberculosis (see my story "Haunted Legends: Waverly Hills Sanitarium" for more info on the "TB" epidemic.)

Why was such tragedies plaguing her? She was a good person, was nice to everyone, and was kind and giving. Why were these tragedies happening? Some sources say she sought help by a Boston medium who told her that the reason all of these tragic events were happening was because of one thing---ghosts. The souls of Native Americans, and soldiers, who succumbed to death during the Civil War because of the Winchester Rifle. They put a curse on the family and were going to stop at nothing until they weeded out the Winchester family and Sarah was next. Sarah had to act, but how?

According to the medium, she would have to move far out west, which landed her in San Jose, California. She would then have to build a grand house for the spirits, perhaps as a gift of guilt for the blood and death of many that the rifle had caused in its path. She discovered the ideal location to her new residence when she was visiting her niece. In 1884, she bought an unfinished farm house and it's land in the Santa Clara Valley which was just 3 miles away from San Jose. An unfinished farm house soon turned into a sprawling, massive structure of awe and strange.

She immediately hired carpenters and was determined to make a house to please the spirits that were looking for some supposed revenge on her. The project would take quite awhile, thirty-eight years to be exact. Of course, either she wasn't pleased or the spirits weren't pleased, because the sound of hammers didn't stop until Mrs. Winchester passed away in her sleep on September 5th, 1922. Sure, most of the activity stopped, but only on the living side.

When Sarah Winchester passed away, the little unfinished farmhouse is now a mansion of 160 rooms, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 10,000 windows, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens. All those rooms...and no swimming pool. The items in the house were given to her niece, who in turn auctioned most of the items off. It took six weeks to empty the hole house, but the remnants of human life still remain.

Alleged Hauntings at the Mystery House:

-Even though it's been since 1922 since Sarah gave her last order, they say the carpenters are still trying to finish the work---even in the afterlife. An employees friend, who was taking pictures of the house, caught a mysterious figure who looked like a worker of that era in the photograph itself when nobody was even in the picture frame at the time.

-National Lampoons...Ghosts of Winchester House? Not likely, but these ghosts do like to play pranks on their living friends. On some occasions, workers will shut off all the lights, lock the doors, and leave. They have turned around and noticed that the lights of the third floor have been on when they were absolutely sure that they turned them off. When they go back in, they discover that the doors have been unlocked again.

-One tour guide smelled chicken soup at one time. Okay, not really scary, I know, but the kitchens haven't had a meal cooked in them for decades now.

-Apparently, there's an eternal fist fight happening in the Hayloft between two spirits who had a disagreement. It's not known whether either men passed away, but when people go into the Hayloft (which was once a storage room for Mrs. Winchester's belongings) people have reported feeling "violence" as one has explained.

-A man with a moustache, white overalls, and pushing a wheelbarrow has been spotted by several employees and some tourists have seen the man as well and have pointed him out in a picture that the house has it its possession. That's a hard working man after eighty years.

-Sarah Winchester-Rest in Peace? Over the many years since Mrs. Winchester passed away, séances have been held by famous psychics over the years, including Harry Houdini, who was known as a psychic debunker. To the knowledge of those within the house, no reports have been made about Mrs. Winchester still residing in the house, but they are glad she is not there. With a generous and kind lady, who went through so much in life, she may just be finally resting in peace with her Annie and William.

All information for this article is from the incredible website: www.winchestermysteryhouse.com where you can find pages upon pages of information of the famous house. Thanks for reading and happy hauntings!

Photo credits:

Top Picture: www.gogobot.com
Young Sarah Winchester/Black and White Winchester Mansion Picture: www.prairieghosts.com
Photo of Winchester Carpenters: www.eaglefreeenterprises.com
Photo of Elder Mrs. Winchester: www.curiouschapbooks.com