Wendy D. Smith

NOVEMBER 2007 The Winchester Mansion: Sarah’s Spooky Legacy You may have heard of the Winchester Mansion in San Jose, California, but how much do you know about its eccentric owner Sarah Winchester ? This remarkable woman devoted nearly forty years of her life to a bizarre construction project designed to keep the spirits at bay. Born Sarah Lockwood Pardee ca. 1838, our petite heroine was a cultured and well-educated product of Connecticut society, a pampered debutante of old money. Sarah spoke four languages, was an avid reader and gardener, and quite an accomplished musician. She married into the Winchester rifle fortune, taking William Wirt Winchester as her husband in 1862. Heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company after the death of his father in early December 1880, William unfortunately succumbed to tuberculosis three months later, leaving Sarah widowed and alone at age 44. Having already lost an infant daughter several years earlier, Sarah was griefstricken. Her doctors encouraged her to move to a better climate and her friends suggested she take up a hobby to distract her from her mourning. But Sarah had her own ideas; she desperately began to seek out Boston psychics and spiritualists who might be able to offer her an explanation for the loss of her loved ones. Adam Coons, a prominent spiritualist of the time told Sarah she was cursed by the souls of those killed by “the gun that won the West”, her fatherin-law’s (in)famous Winchester rifle. Coons claimed that these restless spirits were seeking revenge, and were responsible for the deaths of of Sarah’s daughter and husband. The Winchester rifle had made the family fabulously wealthy in the days before federal income tax, William being a majority stockholder along with other family members. Oliver Winchester as it turns out, was not the inventor of the rifle that bears his name. Quick to seize upon the potential of a popular rifle, Mr. Winchester used profits from his shirt company to form the New Haven Arms Co. and soon became the most successful gun maker in America. The Winchester began as the concept of New York inventor Walter Hunt, and evolved through a long series of design improvements into the most reliable, powerful firearm in use on the Western frontier. Prized by settlers, Native Americans and outlaws alike, it enjoyed a long popularity in this country. The original Hunt design was awkward to operate with its small lever and difficult to repair. Jennings introduced a repeating mechanism in 1849, but the rifle was neither powerful enough nor accurate enough to bring down large game, especially at long range. Two gunsmiths at the factory, Daniel Wesson and Horace Smith, began experimenting with the design and submitted a new patent for a rapid-fire repeating firearm in 1854. This long-handled pistol was lighter, and loaded in under a minute with waterproof ammunition. By 1855, Smith and Wesson were seeking investors. Oliver F. Winchester bought up 800 shares. By 1856, Winchester was left in charge of the company as it went heavily into debt and lost many investors – including Smith and Wesson, who by that time had grown more interested in developing pistols than rifles. With the Civil War looming and the Westward migration in full swing, Winchester needed to produce a more powerful and dependable weapon he could market to the U.S. government. He hired Benjamin Henry who came up with a 0.44 caliber cartridge repeating rifle. Introduced in 1862, it was the first practical lever-action rifle both reliable and easy to use. Due to its nonstandard ammunition, it was slow to be adopted by the Federal Ordinance of Officers, but it soon became widely used on the frontier. The Sioux trumped Custer at Little Big Horn with their repeating Winchesters outgunning the Cavalry’s single shot rifles. The 1873 model was the most popular rifle ever produced by the newly-christened Winchester Repeating Arms Co., with over 540,000 units made. The 1873 Winchester boasted several innovations: a wooden forearm (for comfort), a new loading gate mechanism, iron frame (stronger than brass), a more powerful cartridge (33% more gunpowder), and a center-mounted primer. Fans of the Winchester included Billy the Kid, Jesse James, “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Theodore Roosevelt. Now back to Sarah. Her spiritualist advised her that the only way to appease the angry victims of the rifle was to move to the West coast, buy a house, and build onto it 24 hours a day ! If she did this, no further harm would come to her; if she stopped building however, she’d be forever haunted by the spirits of the innocents who’d died by a Winchester. William’s ghost would guide Sarah to her new home, and the spirits would tell her what to build and when. So at the age of 44, this demure little widow left behind all she knew and loved and embarked alone upon an unparalleled adventure into the bizarre. In 1884 Sarah found an eight-room farmhouse in San Jose that sat upon 160 acres. For the next 38 years she added rooms and features to the house, employing anywhere from 42 to 80 people at any given time, 24/7, 365 days a year ! Eventually the mansion towered over seventy feet high and contained 160 rooms. She kept a full staff of decorators, carpenters, gardeners and servants. The number thirteen was apparently Sarah’s favorite number, as it appears repeatedly in various forms throughout the mansion and grounds of the estate. It is unknown exactly why she used it, perhaps to dispel evil spirits, for protection, or perhaps she just felt herself unlucky. In any case, the number appears in some very strange places: there are 13 windows in the 13th bathroom, 13 jewels in the Spider Web Window, 13 hooks in the séance room, 13 petals on each daisy in the windows of her Daisy Bedroom, and even 13 sections in her will signed by 13 people. It is said that when a specially-ordered chandelier arrived with only a dozen gas jets, she had a 13th one added before installing it in the Grand Ballroom ! Every evening when midnight tolled in the bell tower, Sarah retire to the Blue Room to consult the spirits. Buried deep within the mansion, this séance room could only be reached by following a winding path through other rooms. This was an attempt to confound the “bad” spectres. When the bell tolled again at 1 or 2 AM, Sarah would emerge with new architectural sketches scribbled on bits of paper or cloth. Formal blueprints were never drawn up, so only Sarah knew the locations of all the rooms, halls, closets and staircases in the house. The widow used only the finest materials and furnishings gathered throughout Europe and America. There were storerooms filled with expensive furnishings that were never even used ! Mrs. Winchester installed many modern innovations – elevators, an intercom, even a storm drainage system in the South Conservatory that emptied into the outdoor gardens below. But the Winchester Mansion is best known for its architectural anomalies designed to confuse the most curious of spirits: staircases ending at the ceiling, doors opening onto brick walls or over sheer drops of several stories, and corridors leading to isolated rooms. There are even rumors of a hidden wine cellar, of which Sarah possessed the sole key. As the story goes, Mrs. W. was dining one evening with her secretary and they ventured to the wine cellar to select a fine vintage only to discover a distinct handprint upon the wall ! Fearing demons, Sarah ordered the room sealed off forever. Another persistent legend connected with the estate is that Sarah slept in a different room every night to elude the vengeance of her spirits. In actual fact, she was known to frequent only two bedrooms. Her favorite one was the Daisy Bedroom which she slept in until the 1906 earthquake. After that, she retired to a bedroom overlooking the gardens in the back of the house. Mrs. Winchester’s employees recalled her being firm, yet kind and fair. Although she wouldn’t abide theft, gossip or sloth, she often rewarded hardworking loyal employees with lavish gifts of real estate or pensions. Many stayed on fifteen or twenty years. One carpenter stayed in her employ thirtythree years, his only duty being to continuously install and remove flooring ! Sarah finally passed away in her sleep on September 5, 1922. She was 83 years old at the time of her death, having spent over forty million dollars on her mystery mansion, with only 2.9 million remaining. Workers ceased construction at the news of Mrs. W’s death, leaving rooms unfinished, nails half-driven into wood. The furnishings were bequeathed to a favorite niece, and what she left behind took movers six weeks to remove because the house was such a maze of rooms. Sarah’s will stipulated that the mansion be preserved in perpetuity, and since 1973 a private corporation has completely restored it to its original condition as of seventy-five years ago. A fittingly elegant legacy of a truly enigmatic lady ! But don’t let the opulence fool you, dear reader. This mansion is haunted ! A former office manager states she once saw a small gray-haired woman fitting Sarah’s description sitting at a kitchen table. There was no such periodcostumed person employed at the time. Poltergeist phenomena have frightened several staff members: locked doors unlocking themselves, lights turning back on, water mysteriously leaking from unknown sources onto desks, organ music playing, a non-existent dog barking, vanishing beams of light in Sarah’s bedroom and even exploding light bulbs. In the late 1970’s, a popular psychic and three of her team members felt cold spots and heard organ music playing in the séance room. The psychic saw a ghostly couple in servants’ clothes materialize in a corner of Mrs. Winchester’s bedroom. A caretaker employed between 1973-81 told one reporter he was awakened one night by the sound of a nail squeaking as though it were being pulled out of wood and then dropped to the floor in his room. A tour guide heard his name whispered one night in 1981 as he walked down a hallway near the aviary. Other tour guides have reported hearing footsteps or smelling phantom smells like chicken soup ! Some have speculated that Sarah’s is not the only ghost haunting the property. Several workmen were said to have been killed or injured during the house’s construction, and some of them may still be roaming these passages. Perhaps their loyalty to their mistress extended beyond the grave. So if you ever happen to be in the San Jose area, be sure and pay a visit to Sarah’s spooky mansion. Who knows ? She may be waiting to greet you personally ! If any of you have visited the Winchester Mansion and have a ghostly anecdote to share, please write me at:-and I will post these stories in a later column. Blessed Be ! Mme. G REFERENCES 1. Scott, B. and Norman, H. Historic haunted America, pp. 35-51; Tom Doherty Associates, L.L.C. 1995. 2. Selby, L.L. The Inscrutable Mrs. Winchester and Her Mysterious Mansion; pp. 11-50, 54-59, 75, 88-91; Publish America, L.L.L.P. 2006.