Dozens of artful stained-glass windows created by Tiffany & Co. Gold and silver chandeliers hung from the ceilings above hand-inlaid parquet flooring. Public Domain One of the staircases to nowhere.Īnyone who set foot in the home could tell that no expense had been spared. By the time the house was completed, over 20,000 gallons of paint had been used to cover the wood.īy the turn of the century, Sarah Winchester had her ghost house: an oddly laid out mansion, with seven stories, 161 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 10,000 panes of glass, two basements, three elevators, and a mysterious fun-house-like interior. Staircases would ascend several levels then end abruptly, doors would open to solid walls, and hallways would turn a corner and end in a dead-end.Īdditionally, Winchester insisted that the home be built exclusively out of redwood – however, she didn’t like the look of the wood, so she insisted it be covered with a stain and a faux grain. Stranger so was the fact that many of the alterations seemed pointless. Multiple staircases would be added, all with different sized risers, giving each staircase a distorted look. Due to the lack of a plan and the presence of an architect, the house was constructed haphazardly rooms were added onto exterior walls resulting in windows overlooking other rooms. Winchester hired carpenters to work around the clock, expanding the small house into a seven-story mansion. At the time of the sale, the house was a small unfinished farmhouse, but that quickly changed.
In 1884, Sarah Winchester purchased what would later become known as the Winchester Mystery House. Wikimedia Commons The Winchester Mystery House as seen from a the southern side. As far as what to do with her money, William answered that too she was to use the fortune to build a home for the spirits of those who had fallen victim to Winchester rifles, lest she be haunted by them for the rest of her life. Though the exact specifics remain between Sarah Winchester and her medium, the story goes that the medium was able to channel dearly departed William, who advised Sarah to leave her home in New Haven, Connecticut, and head west to California.
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She hoped, perhaps, to get advice from the beyond as to how to spend her fortune or what to do with her life. Newly in possession of a massive fortune and struggling with the loss of her husband and daughter, she sought the advice of a medium. However, tragedy struck in her late twenties when Annie died, followed by the death of Sarah’s husband William more than a decade later.Īfter William’s death in 1881, Sarah inherited roughly $20 million (over $500 million in 2019 dollars) as well as fifty percent of the Winchester Arms company which left her with a continued income equal to $1,000 a day (or $26,000 a day in 2019 dollars). She spoke four languages, attended the best schools around, married well, and eventually gave birth to a daughter, Annie. Sarah Winchester was the widow of William Wirt Winchester, heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.īorn around 1840, Sarah Winchester grew up in a world of privilege. Today, the house is known as the Winchester Mystery House, but at the time of its construction, it was simply Sarah Winchester’s House.
Wikimedia Commons Sarah Winchester as a young woman.
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