Sarah Lockwood Pardee (“Mrs. Winchester”) was born in Connecticut in September 1839, and she married William Wirt Winchester in New Haven, Connecticut on September 30, 1862. In July 1866, Sarah and William had a daughter that they named Annie. Shortly after birth, Annie died from a childhood disease that causes severe malnutrition and edema. I believe that Mrs. Winchester never recovered from the deep depression that she fell into following the death of her only child, Annie.
Mrs. Winchester’s depression got even worse when her husband, William, died of tuberculosis in March 1881. Because William was the only son of Oliver Winchester, who had died in December 1880, Mrs. Winchester inherited close to a 50 percent ownership in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. As a result of her ownership rights, Mrs. Winchester was a very wealthy woman of her time, receiving $1,000.00 a day in proceeds from the company’s sale of the renowned “Winchester Rifle.”
Due to her depression, Mrs. Winchester visited a psychic in Boston, Massachusetts for spiritual assistance. Allegedly, the psychic told her that the Winchester family was cursed and that her loved ones died because of the haunting spirits of the many lives lost due to the Winchester Rifle. The psychic allegedly also advised Mrs. Winchester to move to the West Coast and build a house for both her and the spirits. Supposedly, Mrs. Winchester was told that in order to please the spirits, she must continue to build on the house or else she would die.
In 1884, Mrs. Winchester moved to California and bought an 8 room farmhouse, with 161 acres, in what is now San Jose, California. Using her hefty inheritance, she transformed the property into a 168 room home covering 6 acres, which is now known as the “Winchester Mystery House,” or more simply as the “Winchester House.” Reports indicate that the renovations and additions to the house continued around the clock, with no downtime, for the next 38 years, up until Mrs. Winchester’s death on September 5, 1992. Mrs. Winchester also used the money from her inheritance to maintain a houseboat on San Francisco Bay, which became known as “Sarah’s Ark.” She kept this boat because she had a great fear of a second great flood, such as the Biblical one experienced by Noah.
Mrs. Winchester built the house in ways that were designed to confuse the ghosts and to cater to her own physical attributes and paranoia. The Winchester House has doors that abruptly lead to walls, doors that lead to shallow closets, and windows with spider web designs looking straight into walls. Since Mrs. Winchester was only 4 feet and 8 inches tall, the windows were built 4 feet from ground level so that she could spy on her servants. She built staircases leading straight up to the roof, and due to her arthritis, each step was only 2 inches high.
As illustrated by the layout of the house, Mrs. Winchester had a strange obsession with the number 13. There are 13 bathrooms, 13 chandeliers holding 13 lights each, 13 drainage holes, a greenhouse with 13 cupolas, clothes hooks in multiples of 13, walls with 13 panels, and many of the wooden floors contain 13 sections. Some rooms have 13 windows, and nearly all of the windows have 13 panes of glass. Each spider web patterned, stained glass window contains 13 colored stones. Every staircase but one has 13 steps. This exception is a winding staircase with 42 steps, although each step is only 2 inches high. Mrs. Winchester also had her will written in 13 sections, and it was signed 13 times.
Every Friday the 13th, the large bell on the property was rung 13 times at 1 P.M. to summons Mrs. Winchester to go into her séance room and talk to the ghosts. The séance room is blue and white, with one main entrance and two doors, one leading to the adjacent room, and the other one leading down to the kitchen. Sometimes, to be rude to the ghosts,…..
to read more click the link below
MRS. WINCHESTER AND THE WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE
Awesome Books!!!
Contact