The crew might spend a month constructing a room, only to be ordered to destroy it the next month. Sometimes it seemed she didn't care what she built, as long as she could hear the hammers of her crew. The next morning, she'd present her construction workers with hand-drawn sketches of what was to be done. Winchester would retreat to her séance room and receive instruction from the spirits on the progress of her house. Winchester served as her own architect, but it's possible that some ghosts had a hand in designing the house as well. Photo courtesy Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, CA But how did she end up with such a weird house? Why did she construct stairs that went nowhere and doors that opened into walls? Find out on the next page. She bought a six-room farmhouse on 162 acres in California and set to work building, a task that would occupy her until her death 38 years later. Winchester headed west to build a home for herself and her ghosts. We can't know exactly how she interpreted this advice she might have thought the spirits would get her if she stopped, or she might have seen continuous construction as a path to eternal life. Never stop building, the medium told Mrs. The ghosts had another request: that the house never be completed. Their spirits were seeking vengeance, and the only way to appease them was to build a house for them. ![]() The medium told her that the Winchester family had been struck by a terrible curse and was haunted by the ghosts of all those killed by the Winchester rifle. Distraught over these losses, she visited a medium for spiritual guidance. Winchester died of tuberculosis 15 years later. The young couple started a family in 1866, but their daughter, Annie, died in infancy, a blow that Mrs. The gun was used by Northern troops in the Civil War and was also known as "the gun that won the West". The company had developed the repeating rifle, a gun that was easy to reload and fired rapidly, at a rate of one shot every three seconds. In 1862, Sarah married William Winchester, who was the heir of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Although she only stood 4 feet 10 inches, she was known for her beauty and her sparkling personality. Born in 1839, Sarah Pardee was one of the social stars of New Haven, Conn. Sarah Winchester didn't always want to build a haunted mansion. And I haven't even mentioned the ghosts. It's filled with weird things like stairs and doors that go nowhere. ![]() ![]() This was no ordinary construction job, though the house is an oddball labyrinth of rooms that at one point reached seven stories. For 38 years, she had construction going 24 hours a day at her home in San Jose, Calif. But for Sarah Winchester, construction was a way of life. We worry about the expense and complain about the inconvenience. Most of us want to get home construction over as soon as possible. Photo courtesy Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, CA
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |