 |
Two Hours & Under
Spooky… Spooky…
The Winchester Mystery House Revealed
By Christina Barr
Staff Writer, Connected Now, Inc.
The Tour
 Following
a train of curiosity, I made my way up thin steps, making
several switchbacks and even going down in order to
go up. The stairways were narrow, the decorations ornate.
Rooms with no door handles to get out. Doors that lead
nowhere. Stairs up to a ceiling. Windows in the floor.
Cupboards only half an inch deep, or that opened to
another room. Stairs that stand at two inches tall.
Recurring patterns of thirteen – thirteen windows in
a bathroom, thirteen bathrooms, thirteen hooks on the
wall. As I cruised through the house, there was a sense
of a greater presence – my tour guide, Wayne! During
my tour of the Winchester Mystery House, we all had
a moment of thinking, “What kind of person would live
in a house like this?” Apparently the Winchester Rifle
heiress would! Not only did Sarah Pardee Winchester
live in this mansion of oddities – she intentionally
built it this way.
The Curse
The Winchester rifle was revolutionary, dubbed “the
rifle that won the West.” It was what some believe to
be the beginning of a family curse resulting in a curious
dwelling known to this day. Sarah Pardee became part
of the Winchester family in 1862 in Connecticut, and
didn’t move West until prompted by a psychic after the
passing of her husband and newborn daughter. Annie Winchester
passed away as a newborn after contracting a fatal childhood
illness. William Winchester met a similar fate when
he succumbed to tuberculosis.
After such grief, Sarah
visited a Boston psychic who informed her that she was
being punished by the souls of those fallen by the infamous
Winchester rifle. Sarah learned that to appease these
souls, she must move West and build a house that was
never to be finished. And so Sarah Pardee Winchester
landed in what is now San Jose, CA, building a mountain
out of a molehill. With an inheritance of $20,000,000
and exquisite taste, Mrs. Winchester bought a small
farmhouse with over 160 acres and began construction
on her new house in 1884. The house was continuously
worked on until her death in 1922. It became open to
the public in 1923, and was first visited by me one
September evening in 2004.
Ghosts and Such
There is much speculation to the paranormal activities
that some claim to have witnessed in the Winchester
Mystery House. Some say they have seen spirits wafting
through the rooms, heard peculiar noises like doors
slamming or footsteps in an empty hall. I have no cause
to dispute such claims, nor do I have any to back them
up. What I experienced during my tour of the mansion
was more of wonder and awe at Mrs. Winchester’s architectural
ideas implemented so fastidiously and creatively.
The Modern Conservationist
Mrs. Winchester built a house of mystery, however in
my experience it was more an example of exquisite beauty
and a modern marvel. There are many quirks to the house,
but not all seem that strange after my visit. Mrs. Winchester
was quite ahead of her time: she was an equal opportunity
employer with more than competitive wages, pension plans
and housing on her property for her staff, water conservation
plans, and an intricate surveillance system to keep
an eye on her employees.
Living alone for 38 years, Mrs. Winchester didn’t get
out much nor did she entertain frequently. But she did
build her own séance room that only she was allowed
in. With this room, she was able to stay connected to
those spirits who she believed had cursed her.
I was amazed by her personal shower that had multiple
shower heads, none of which came from above so as not
to disarray her intricate Victorian hairstyle. There
were water controls outside of the shower as well as
a thermostat inside the shower to control the water
temperature. This may not seem unique in today’s technological
era, but it was amazing in Victorian times. The average
person today wouldn’t want to use the shower, though,
as it was built to suit Mrs. Winchester’s small stature.
She stood a mere four feet ten inches tall.
The plant room was designed with water conservation
in mind: each day her servants would bring the household
plants to one room. This room has a floor of wooden
panes that lifted up and out of the way, all numbered
to make them easy to replace, with a solid stone floor
underneath that would not decay like wood. Once the
plants were loaded into the room, a servant would attach
a hose to a faucet and water the plants. The runoff
would drain out one side of the floor through slats,
and into the garden below. Virtually no water was wasted,
which was very conscientious of Mrs. Winchester living
in a drought-ridden area.
Home Sweet Home
The house is enticingly beautiful, with over 10,000
windows to allow light (that’s more than the Empire
State Building), many of which are Tiffany stained glass
(estimated in her time to be worth $25,000), stunning
hardwood floors, crown molding, and character like no
other. Sure, there are staircases that lead to the ceiling,
but perhaps during the estimated 600 remodels of the
house, Mrs. Winchester decided to start one project
in lieu of another already in progress. She figured
after the 1906 earthquake that took the seven-story
building down to a four-story building that she needed
to cut back on some building costs. This makes those
useless stairways and cupboards seem a little less mysterious
and more like the architect was a bit of an eccentric.
Though a tourist attraction, the Winchester Mystery
House is truly a work of beauty that can only be experienced
first hand. There is an array of accommodations that
offer package deals for the house tour, as well as other
destinations such as Great America twenty minutes away,
Children’s Discovery Museum, Tech Museum of Innovation
and Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum all ten minutes away.
There are several participating motels and hotels that
offer package deals in conjunction with the Mystery
House, all of which can be found on the Winchester website
(www.winchestermysteryhouse.com).
Shozo Kagoshima has worked at the Winchester Mystery
House for 28 years, starting out as a cashier and working
his way up to General Manager, proving that although
Mrs. Winchester has passed away, her house is still
a good one to work for. The house is available for group
tours with discounted rates for groups of fifteen or
more. It is also available for private parties and weddings,
though don’t try to get married there on Halloween,
as it is already taken! Each Friday the Thirteenth and
Halloween you can experience the Winchester Mystery
House in the dark with nothing but a flashlight and
your wits to guide you! Go check it out and see for
yourself if it’s a haunted house or just a mystery.
You can also buy tickets the flashlight tour occurring
October 23, 30 and 31 from www.Tickets.com.
For more information, contact the Winchester Mystery
House at (408) 247-2101 or visit www.winchestermysteryhouse.com.
Winchester Mystery House Fun Facts:
- Most windows have 13 panes, many walls have 13 panels and some rooms have 13 windows.
- 40 staircases, several of which lead absolutely nowhere, ending at a ceiling.
- Some of the stairways have 13 steps.
- One room features a window in the floor.
- Two closet doors open to blank walls.
- One door opens to an eight-foot drop to a kitchen sink.
- The door of another room opens to a 14-foot drop to an outdoor garden.
- There are 47 fireplaces, four of which have flues that go nowhere
- Many of the bathrooms have glass doors.
- There are an estimated 160 rooms in the house (estimated because every attempt to count them has produced a different number, and the layout too intricate to decipher as there are no formal blueprints)
- There were at one point 18 acres of garden
For more information, contact the Winchester Mystery House at 408- 247-2101 or visit
www.winchestermysteryhouse.com.
|
|
