The California coast of the USA has an interesting attraction - the Winchester House. The mansion was owned by a very extravagant widow, who was distinguished by her reticence. The ladies' social circle is exclusively workers and servants. Even President Roosevelt, who once asked for an audience, was refused. After the death of the owner, the building turned into an attraction where tourists come from everywhere. Having paid 37 - 47 dollars, curious travelers wander through the rooms, outside in the courtyard, examining the tacky structure, by the standards of architects. The structure is strange, the stories associated with it are full of mysticism.

Sad story

1884 - beginning mysterious story attractions. The unfinished building was acquired by Sarah Winchester - the legend of the house and the life story of the unfortunate woman are closely connected.

Sarah's father is the owner of a thriving company. The daughter grew up wealthy, her parents gave the child a decent education. A twenty-year-old very nice girl who spoke several languages, played the piano, and knew how to carry on small talk, met William Winchester. The surname is well-known: the father of Sarah’s future husband worked as the lieutenant governor of the state of Connecticut and owned a company that produced weapons. Rifles were often called after the industrialist - Winchester. The young couple lived quite happily. The joy did not last long, the worthy couple was visited by terrible grief: their four-year-old daughter Emmy died. After 19 years of marriage, William, who suffered from tuberculosis, died. It was because of a series of tragic events that a strange story arose - the mystery of the Winchester house.

Curse of the Winchesters

The widow, who had lost interest in life, wanted to find an answer to why fate was cruel, turned to a medium. The widow wanted to hear the advice of the spirits. A resourceful psychic (history has preserved his name, his name was Adam Kuhn), told the poor woman how to live further, what was the reason for her unhappiness. The whole point is that the souls of those killed by the weapons that her husband’s father produced were trying to take revenge. Both the son and his family were cursed. To be saved, Sarah had to build a house where angry souls could not find her and destroy her. At the same time, the ghosts who wished her well should have felt comfortable there.

Unfinished construction

The widow went to the West Coast, where she purchased an unfinished farm near the city of San Jose, where the Winchester home is currently located. The farm was originally purchased with 162 acres of land, and the widow subsequently expanded her holdings, continually building and remodeling the house inside and out. Construction lasted 38 years, because the medium told his client: while the construction work was underway, the widow would live. They say he promised her immortality, provided that the construction never ended.

Since the purchase, California's coastal farms have been inextricably linked. The woman resolutely got to work. Considering that her husband's father made a huge fortune selling weapons, his son was also very successful and rich. Accordingly, the widow turned out to be wealthy, having a daily income of $1,000, despite the fact that she inherited $20 million. There was enough money to implement architectural ideas and interior design solutions.

Mysticism and ghosts

22 carpenters worked to implement the owner’s plans (they say that Sarah did all the projects herself). The men took turns working without breaks: day and night, without vacations or weekends. The house built for the sake of ghosts turned out to be unsafe for the living. The curse of the Winchester house haunted the workers who worked on the construction of the strange structure. Some carpenters claimed to have seen ghosts. Michael Fletcher, a plasterer, told a local newspaper reporter that he saw a translucent figure walking up the stairs. A former ship's carpenter, J. Hegley, met there the spirit of a boatswain he knew, who had been killed earlier.

There were rumors among the workers that rooms in the house appeared and disappeared. The owner made the plans for the interior with her own hands, without the help of architects. The arrangement of living rooms and bedrooms defied any logic. Often the doors did not lead to a corridor or an adjoining room. Behind a closed door there could be a blank wall, a window, or just a courtyard, where you could fall if you stepped over the threshold without looking at your feet.

Oddities at home

The history of construction and the legend of the Winchester house may have ended after 1906. The house had 6 or 8 floors (different sources give conflicting information), an incredible layout, which is why the servants had absolutely no idea which bedroom the mistress chose each night. Therefore, when an earthquake occurred in the early morning of April 18 and several floors collapsed, they searched for the widow Winchester walled up in one of the bedrooms for a long time.

The upper floors collapsed, but the house remained four stories high. Many rooms were boarded up completely, and new ones were built in one place or another, causing the interior to turn into a labyrinth. If we add that many of the stairs just rested on the wall (see photo inside the Winchester house), and some doors ended in a dead end, we can confidently say: Sarah achieved her goal. The house turned into a labyrinth for ghosts, and living creatures often wandered around it. It is no coincidence that the guides who conduct excursions inside immediately ask tourists to stick to each other and count their charges twice: once at the entrance, and once at the exit from the mansion.

People say that ghosts still live in the house. The ghosts of the Winchester house are still inside. One guide said that when he was about to leave to work in another institution, he loudly thanked the hostess and said goodbye to her, standing in one of the living rooms. He claimed that after saying goodbye, he felt a breath of wind and a light kiss on his cheek.

End of construction

The widow Winchester died in 1922 at the age of 85, according to other sources - 82 (all because the exact year of her birth has not been established). After communicating with the spirits in a seance, she went to sleep in one of the bedrooms and did not wake up. Doctors diagnosed cardiac arrest. Construction also stopped, and now it became possible to count the number of rooms in the building.

Sarah Winchester's house, after 38 years of continuous construction, now contains 160 rooms, 9 kitchens, 13 (mystery number) bathrooms, 40 staircases, 47 fireplaces, 450 doorways, 10,000 windows and only 2 mirrors. There should be no mirrors where spirits live. Many doors are secret; when the widow was alive, she could appear unexpectedly anywhere in the house. Why did the servants think she could walk through walls? The stairs are also strange: not all of them lead from floor to floor: some rest against the wall, for some reason one of them goes down 4 steps in order to then go up. Often flights of stairs consist of 13 steps.

Walled up riches

The Winchester House in America, California is now a landmark, a film has been made about it, tourists come here. Many of them report poor health indoors. But this can be explained by suspiciousness, and not by otherworldly influences. You can look not only at the features of the internal layout, but also at the space outside the house, planted with numerous species of trees and herbaceous plants. Even during Sarah’s lifetime, 8 to 10 gardeners looked after the garden, and neighboring children were allowed to frolic on the lawns. The widow, although she did not receive guests in the house, welcomed the children, held receptions in the park in the courtyard, and was involved in charity work.

The Winchester family home still holds mysteries. Rumor has it that there is a cache of gold there, which no one has found yet. The widow left a will, which was in the safe. Besides him, there were only locks of her daughter's hair and nothing else - no money. It is possible that the widow’s entire fortune was spent on construction, which was carried out around the clock for 38 years (I wonder if it was interrupted during the earthquake?). Someone estimated that Winchester, the haunted house, was worth $70 million. Impressive construction estimate!

Sarah Winchester, known in urban legends as Grieving Widow, was the true embodiment of an independent, determined and courageous woman. After the death of her husband, the son of the inventor of the famous Winchester rifle, Sarah went to a medium who “communicated with the spirit of her late husband.” The spirit of the deceased said that all of Sarah's troubles (the death of her only daughter soon after birth, the early death of William) are connected with the fact that the family is cursed by those killed by the rifle created by his father. In order not to incur problems on herself, a woman must build a special house in which spirits cannot harm her. And Sarah set to work with enviable zeal. She constantly built, added to and rebuilt her originally small farmhouse

flickr.com/Mike Shelby/CC

Today you can view the results of her labor for yourself, 110 of the 160 rooms of Sarah's stately mansion, known throughout the world as House of Winchester(Winchester Mystery House), and see the outlandish elements of the building that gave the mansion its name: a window built into the floor; stairs leading to ceilings; the number 13, which seems to lie in wait for you at every corner, web patterns and much more. Winchester Mystery House, originally called Llanada Villa, is renowned for its many design quirks, (at the time, ahead of its time) innovations and paranormal activity.

For the first time in 20 years, the Winchester House Tour will open doors to parts of the house that were previously no tourist has set foot before.

flickr.com/harshlight/SS

Available for a limited time only, this brand new excursion called Explore More Tour for the first time is accompanied by an excursion into the life story of Sarah Winchester herself and her incredible home.

Guests will begin their journey through the mansion from the very bottom of the majestic estate, reaching its rooftops, looking into lonely corridors, dark corners and chilling attics.

For safety reasons, children under 10 years of age are not permitted on the Explore More Tour.

A ticket for children 10-12 years old will cost $20, and an adult ticket will cost $47.

Address
Winchester House Museum
525 S Winchester Blvd
San Jose, California 95128

The name Winchester has long been associated with mysticism and secrets. The creator of the famous rifle left behind a rich legacy and a history written in blood.

Everyone knows that money does not make a person happier. This happened with Sarah, the only heir to the huge Winchester fortune. Her difficult fate will be discussed in this article!

Winchester couple

We should start with the head of this famous family, Oliver Winchester. It was his invention, the famous rifle, that in the second half of the 19th century turned out to be the decisive link in the Civil War. The repeating shotgun, which was then a novelty, became an indispensable attribute of the Wild West and the times when all disputes were resolved through shootouts.

Oliver and his wife had several children, but his only son, William, was the heir to his company. The young man married Sarah Purdy at the age of 25 and spent his entire life as treasurer of the company founded by his father. But his name became known only after his death.

In 1866, the Winchester couple had a daughter, Annie, who did not even live a month. The girl's death broke Sarah, and she spent several years in the hospital. Returning home after treatment, the woman faced serious trials - first her father-in-law Oliver died, then her husband William. The husband suffered from tuberculosis and died in March 1881 at the age of 43.

Winchester Widow

From that time on, Sarah became the heir to a huge fortune. On that moment, late XIX century, she had an inheritance of $20 million (the modern equivalent of $500 million). The woman also received daily income from sales of $1,000 ($25,000) and half of the shares of the Winchester company. This made her one of the richest women of that time. However, this did not make her happy; on the contrary, Sarah was inspired by a strange idea.

She was sure that her family was haunted by evil fate, and turned to mediums. Before marriage, she was devout, but a series of deaths broke her, and Sarah decided to seek answers from the other world. In those years, mediums were very popular, so she had no difficulty finding someone who told her the truth. The medium Alan Kuhn from Boston told the widow that he had communicated with her husband and accurately described him. This reassured Sarah that she was doing the right thing.

The medium, on behalf of William, stated that there was indeed a curse on the family. The reason for this is the souls of those who died from the deadly rifle created by his father. Sarah had to build a house for them and for herself, where the spirits would indicate. There was one more condition - the sound of hammers should not stop in the house.

Sarah, inspired by Alan, traveled west and in 1884 reached a small Santa Clara Valley mansion. There she heard her husband’s voice saying “Here,” and the widow immediately began construction. This house is still known to this day as the most mystical and mansion in the world.

House of Winchester

Sarah devoted the rest of her life, namely 37 years, to construction. She spent all her fortune for this cause and went down in history as the strangest widow. The sound of hammers did not stop for a single day until the woman’s death in 1922.

From an unfinished mansion, she made a seven-story structure based on her personal drawings. Sarah did not use the services of an architect and gave all instructions to the foreman directly in the morning. There was no construction plan, which is not surprising, because this house is absolutely not like the others.

Sarah did everything possible to prevent the spirits coming to the mansion from reaching her. That is why the house was filled with traps and had many connections with the number 13.

The seven-story building had hundreds of rooms that were connected to each other by secret passages. Stairs led to the ceiling, corridors ended in dead ends, and some doors opened onto the street, so a guest could easily fall to his death. There were 13 fake chimneys on the roof, and many of the rooms had tiny secret windows for observation. Sarah ordered the construction of secret passages, thanks to which she found herself in another part of the house in a couple of minutes.

In 1906, the building was damaged by a powerful earthquake, which destroyed several floors. Four floors of this mysterious house have survived to this day. Even during the life of the widow Winchester, this house attracted the attention of the press and lovers of the paranormal. According to one story, the Austrian Schultz Reicherd decided to count how many rooms there were. After days of drawing chalk signs on doors, he realized it was no use. In the morning it turned out that the doors with numbers led to a dead end. Therefore, Schultz agreed with the widow and asked to leave him alone for a couple of days to personally check everything.

Surprisingly, all the workers and Sarah herself left the mansion, only the carpenter who made the fence remained (remember the sound of the hammer?). A few days later it turned out that Schultz had disappeared from the house without a trace and was never seen again. After this story, mediums became interested in the building and strongly advised the widow to leave it - it was full of spirits.

The builders said that at night Sarah encounters hordes of spirits who come here and stay until dawn. Carpenters left work because they saw ghosts and strange phenomena. Of course, this all grew into legends that scare lovers of mysticism.

However, Sarah did not leave her brainchild until her death in 1922. She died at the age of 82 and left her inheritance to her niece. The Winchester mansion still stands today and is popular. By the way, not all of its mysteries have yet been revealed; for example, in 2016 a secret room with paintings and sewing machine. Many rooms remained unfinished.

The story of Sarah Winchester is full of mysteries; it is still unknown what actually inspired her to build such a mystical mansion. She probably herself believed in the curse of the Winchester family...

Each year, thousands of tourists flock to San Jose, California to see the building often referred to as "America's Most Haunted House."

The mansion, spread over a large area, even became the inspiration for a Hollywood horror film starring Helen Mirren.

But which rumors about the mysterious Winchester house are true, and which are fiction?

There are some things we still don't know about this creepy house. There must be a reason for his mystique, after all.

How it all began

The house is named after its original owner, Sarah Winchester, who married into a wealthy family that made rifles.

Unfortunately, Sarah lost her husband William and daughter too early.

By 1881, she became the only living member of her family and heiress to the vast Winchester fortune.

In 1886, she bought a two-story, eight-bedroom house in San Jose. And this is where the story takes a strange turn.

Big works

Winchester hired 16 carpenters and paid them three times the average for their work.

They worked 24/7. Over the next 38 years, workers worked day and night on new structures near the house.

Their long shift finally ended in 1922 when Winchester died in her sleep. The carpenters were reportedly so eager to leave the house that they didn't even bother driving nails into the walls.

Final product

Everyone knows that the Winchester house eventually grew to 160 rooms located on an area of ​​two thousand square meters.

The home's owners say it has 10,000 windows, 950 doors, 52 skylights, 47 fireplaces, 40 staircases, six kitchens, three elevators and only one shower.

It is estimated that Winchester spent $5,500,000 on home renovations during her lifetime.

But the house is not only known for its size and costs. It includes a number of completely strange features.

There are stairs that lead into ceilings, trapdoors, windows in the walls between rooms, a doorway that leads to nowhere, and even a room completely sealed within other rooms that was discovered by accident during renovations.

The Haunting of Sarah Winchester

What prompted Winchester to obsessively build and build his strange house?

The most popular theory is that the heiress was haunted by the numerous victims of her production. She is said to have been a spiritual person, and one of the most famous rooms was built for seances.

But were Winchester's strange designs intended for ghosts or to protect against them?

Theory of 13

Another popular explanation for the building's design revolves around hidden codes.

Winchester designed much of the building, and there are hidden references to number 13 throughout the house.

From staircases with 13 steps, to closets with 13 hooks, and even a bathroom with 13 windows, Winchester seemed obsessed with this number.

Some believe that Winchester was a member of a secret society, such as the Freemasons or the Rosurians, and the building is a kind of code for their secret order.

The strangest theory about the house is much more simple: Winchester may have used the project to provide work for San Jose construction workers.

Missing parts

It's hard to believe, but once upon a time the house was even larger.

At the height of construction, the mansion had seven floors. Three levels were lost in the 1906 earthquake, including the tower that appears on vintage postcards.

Winchester was essentially trapped in her bedroom and was being dug out by workers.

Damage from the earthquake is still visible in some parts of the house.

Encounters with ghosts

Soon after Winchester's death, her home became sad famous place due to encounters with ghosts.

Even the famous wizard Harry Houdini was brought in to try to debunk the myth, but he eventually gave up.

One of the most famous ghosts is supposedly one of the workers, known as the wheelbarrow ghost.

"He's usually seen dressed in overalls and carrying an old wooden toolbox or pushing a wheelbarrow," said Jason Boehme, who studies the history of the house.

“The other place he's been seen is in the basement, where he's pushing a wheelbarrow, so that's why we call him that. He's still looking after the place."

According to workers, the most favorite area for ghosts is the employee quarters on the third floor. Visitors are not allowed to enter there.

The article was prepared based on materials from www.shared.com.

Sarah Lockwood Purdy was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to moving company owner Leonard Purdy and Sarah Burns. The year of Sarah's birth is not established, so it is believed that she was born around 1840.
Her father's business provided decent income, enough for the girl to grow up in comfort and receive an education in the best private schools. At the age of 20, Sarah was a pretty, pretty young lady, less than 1.5 m tall, fragile and very intelligent. She spoke 4 languages, played the piano superbly, could support any small talk and was distinguished by her delicate taste and love of the arts.

In 1862, Sarah married William Wirt Winchester. William was the son of the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, a famous manufacturer of Winchester rifles. This product, as everyone knows, decided the outcome Civil War. It brought stable and huge incomes even after the end of hostilities (the most successful business was and is the arms business. The most successful orders are military ones). This made it possible to assert that all members of the Winchester family, both living and unborn, would never experience need, but would live and die rich.

You can call it a marriage of convenience, because William was the heir to a million-dollar fortune, but I wouldn’t dare call it a successful deal. I hope it will become clear later why.
Be that as it may, the marriage bond turned out to be very pleasant. The couple sincerely loved each other and felt absolutely happy, this was noted by all observers. The young Winchester couple shone in the high society of New England, carefree enjoying their love. It's sad that this state lasted only 4 years... Next - no angels, fluttering pink wings, catching up with a breeze that smells of vanilla.

I believe the beginning of a story full of oddities and mysteries called the House of Winchester began in 1866. Sarah and William's infant daughter, Annie, died this year. The cause of her death was never determined, and her short-term fatal illness was never explained. The terrible death of the baby shocked Sarah, she fell into depression, from which the best doctors could not bring her out. Only 10 years later she began to come to her senses, but she was not able to fully recover until her death.

The second blow for Sarah was the understanding that she would not have any more children and that she would not be able to feel the joy of motherhood. All that remained was to be consoled by the love for my husband and enjoy the reciprocity. However, this was not destined to last long: William fell ill with tuberculosis and died very young in 1881, taking with him the last consolation of the soul of the unfortunate Sarah.

A young widow inherited $20 million with a daily income of $1,000. This was not a consolation for Sarah, who was shaken by the blows of fate; she lost her taste for life and moved away from her relatives and friends. During long sleepless nights, she was tormented by the question of why she had received such a terrible fate and who was to blame for her misfortunes.
Often people in a similar state of mind look for answers to their questions from fortune tellers and other substitute psychologists. Seances were popular at that time, and Sarah decided to ask the spirits for advice. At that time, everyone was fond of spiritualism, there were plenty of mediums, among them there were especially popular ones who practiced in expensive salons. Going to them was not considered reprehensible; everyone went to spiritualistic seances: from an illiterate worker to a governor.

Sarah went to Boston, to the famous medium Adam Kuhn, and he, for an adequate fee, conducted a seance for Sarah, which became decisive in her fate. He went into the astral plane and from there called his partners, the souls of the dead.

The spirits who came to the session put everything in order. They explained that the untimely deaths of people Sarah loved were caused by the numerous curses of those who died from guns manufactured by the Winchester family. Particularly strong curses were imposed by the Indians killed with these guns - a people who possessed ancient magical knowledge. These curses are so strong that the deaths of little Annie and William were predetermined, and Sarah herself should die next. However (here the spirits, apparently, were afraid that Sarah would have a stroke out of fear right in the spiritualist salon and their medium would have to conduct the next sessions in prison) there is a way out. According to the spirits, Sarah could have avoided death and even gained immortality if she had met only three, very unusual, conditions:
1. She should have left her home and moved to the West, towards sunset, until she saw secret signs showing her the place of her new home. There, in this place, she should settle.
2. In order to a) appease the good spirits (those who came to this session with good advice and their fellow tribesmen) and b) confuse the evil ones who want to destroy the unfortunate Sarah, she should build a house. Meeting the first and second conditions simultaneously.
3. The construction of the house must be constant and continuous, because as soon as the knocking of hammers and sounds of construction in the house cease, Sarah will die. If the condition is met, Sarah may well count on eternal life.

We must give the medium his due; he acted quite reasonably in relation to Sarah.
He answered the question that was tormenting her. One that she was ready to believe and believed.
He excluded repeated visits from the unfortunate widow, sending her away from Boston.
He occupied her head with a new idea that would not let her go back into the world of grief and soul-searching: construction is a hectic business that does not allow her to relax for a long time. Simply put, he replaced one obsession with another, less destructive one.
After all, he saved Sarah's life!

Sarah, without hesitating for a long time, packed her things and set off towards the sunset, as the spirits advised her. Actually, she still remained a prudent woman, so she decided that, if she did not meet any secret signs along the way, she would go to California, where her niece lived in Menlo Park, stay with her and figure out how to live further.
However, I did not get to see my niece. On the way there, Sarah spotted the perfect place for her future home, Santa Clara Valley. In 1884, she purchased an unfinished farm three miles west of San Jose and 162 acres of land adjacent to it. Then, over the next 38 years, she expanded her holdings into the vast complex that is known today as Winchester House.
With unshakable determination, Mrs. Winchester set about building her immortality. She immediately hired a team of construction workers who worked in several shifts around the clock. Very soon Sarah was already settling into the eight-room mansion. By the end of the 19th century, this mansion was already an unimaginable 8-story architectural structure, which to this day raises many questions, the admiration of some and the disgust of others, and frightening with its absurdities.

The construction of the house was carried out by 22 carpenters 24 hours a day, without breaks on weekends and holidays. Mrs. Winchester, frightening local residents with her strange lifestyle and incomprehensible passion for design, inspired respect and brought stability to their lives.
This photo was accidentally taken by one of the workers. It is believed that if Mrs. Winchester discovered it, she would certainly tear it up. However, it seems to me that she is posing here. Is not it so?

When choosing goods, Sarah never wastes time on trifles, often paying in gold, which aroused such respect from merchants that goods were brought directly to her carriage for inspection before purchase.

She generously paid her workers, who brought in at least three dollars from each shift, and her plans to live forever provided jobs not only for local residents, but also for their children. In the end, the grandchildren of its builders also took part in the construction of the Winchester House.

It should be noted that the good spirits who showed Sarah the path to salvation turned out to be right: while the house was being built (and it always was), Sarah was alive in all respects. All day long she was busy designing, building and improving more and more new rooms in her house.

There was never any master plan for construction. Sarah never used the services of professional architects, drawing plans for future rooms and corridors on her own, sometimes directly on table napkins. Sometimes the plans were quite spontaneous, and sometimes they changed radically. A painter who worked for Sarah recalled how he spent three days painting the walls of one of the rooms red. The work was barely finished when Mrs. Winchester ordered the room to be repainted white. Sometimes the newly installed doors were dismantled, and the expensive parquet was opened and a new one was laid in its place.

For many years as a leader construction work Mrs. Winchester's assistant (exclusively in this matter!), John Hansen, was at home. He was an efficient man who knew a lot about construction. Sometimes Mrs. Winchester's projects were deliberate failures (literally). Hansen never challenged the owner’s ideas, and the structure fell apart as construction progressed. Every morning, meeting with Hansen, Mrs. Winchester announced to him her new plans for building, altering and reconstructing what had already been built. Some rooms have been reconstructed several times. Many of the designs were illogical and strange, but all the mistress’s tasks were carried out meekly and clearly. On the other hand, there have never been any deadlines for the delivery of objects, or any restrictions on estimates. What foreman can boast of such heavenly working conditions?



The house grew at an incredible speed. Sarah bought more and more plots of land, farms, gardens and fields.

During 38 years of construction, it was never interrupted. The exact number of rooms in the House is still unknown. It is assumed that about 500-600 premises were built, but due to the reconstruction of some and the destruction of others, there are much fewer of them left. There are approximately 160 of them. The house has 16 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, 40 staircases, 2000 doors, 450 doorways, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimney pipes and 10,000 (10 thousand) windows.
Much of this is not intended for traditional use at all.

You ask why such a huge thing does a small, lonely old lady need? Who told you that she needed the house? The spirits needed him! I talked about this at the beginning. She needed continuity of construction, because she did not want to die. And good spirits (including the spirits of William and little Annie who rest in peace) should have felt comfortable and happy in this house. A huge variety of fireplaces are for them. According to legend, spirits enter the house through chimneys.
There are only three mirrors in the huge house. This is also because of the perfume. Who likes to remember that you are not alive, every time you pass by a mirror and do not see your reflection in it? Servants working in the Winchester House were prohibited from using mirrors. They were allowed to bring them with them in their bags and keep them there or in their pockets, taking them out only for a while, if necessary. But then hide it back.
Here, in fact, are two of the three mirrors of the Winchester House. They are in one of Mrs. Winchester's bedrooms, which the servants recall loved. Sarah slept in different bedrooms, never staying in each for more than one night.

This is the wing where the maids lived

Bed linen for the bedrooms was brought from China, Ireland and the Philippines

Not only the evil spirits who were hunting for her life, but also the servants could not guess in which of the bedrooms Mrs. Winchester would deign to rest. A special servant calling system was purchased for them. Regardless of what room of the house the hostess was in, the call buttons were always available to her, and the servants could see on a special map exactly where the hostess was at the time of the call (the lights on the house diagram would light up).

The house has a Grand Ballroom, built almost without a single nail. Its cost is estimated at $9000. For comparison, a good, solid house for one family could then be built for $1000.

On the walls above are quotes from Shakespeare, in which people try to find secret signs. Sarah Winchester always loved music and played music brilliantly. There is a piano in one of her bedrooms, and a pipe organ in the Ballroom. Sarah played music often, almost every evening. In old age, arthritis affected Sarah's finger joints and she had to give up playing music. But the servants claim that when Sarah was no longer able to move her fingers, they heard the sounds of the organ at night, during spiritualistic sessions of the mistress

Every night at a certain time, Sarah retired to the séance room. You can get into it only through a secret passage from the Ballroom. In addition to the table with the accessories necessary for the sessions and the chair next to it, on the wall of the room there are 13 hooks for 13 clothes different colors necessary for communicating with the souls of the dead.
It is possible to leave the room only through the closet. An inquisitive eye will notice a strange threshold near the cabinet that does not fit into the overall interior design. In fact, the top plate of the threshold is the door to the loophole. The loophole is so narrow that it is unlikely that anyone could squeeze through it. Through it you can see the kitchen located on the floor below. Why Mrs. Winchester needed to look at the kitchen late at night, when everyone in the house was asleep, remained a mystery.
The window there on the left is also strange.

No matter how Sarah Winchester tried to protect herself and her home from misfortunes brought by evil spirits, all measures were powerless before the famous San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It happened late at night when everyone in the house was sleeping. Some sections of the structure were partially destroyed or damaged. Sarah found herself locked in her bedroom and unable to get out on her own. It took the servants several hours to find the bedroom in which the mistress slept that night and help Sarah get out of there. The Grand Ballroom and several other rooms were destroyed. The tower buildings that made up the top three floors were also destroyed. Recovering from her shock, Mrs. Winchester ordered the restoration of the Grand Ballroom and the rooms damaged by the earthquake. Mrs. Winchester did not restore the upper floors, considering the destruction of the top three floors as a sign indicating to her the correct height of her house. The work was completed, and the Grand Ballroom and 30 other restored rooms were boarded up, never to be visited by anyone again.
Since then and to this day, the Winchester house has risen 5 floors. The fifth and sixth are tower

The main thing and the first thing that guides working in the Winchester House ask tourists to do is to keep up with the group and not try to wander around the house on their own.

Not only is it easy to get lost there, there are many traps and unexpected dangers to health and, sometimes, life. What are the “doors to nowhere” worth? You will never guess where you will end up when you enter the next door: into another room
or you'll run your nose into the wall...



...either you'll fall into the kitchen sink on the floor below, or you won't fall out into the bushes at all

And in general. It’s good if there is a person nearby who knows exactly which door to enter!

2 thousand doors. Do you want to count?

For some reason, the doors of some bathrooms and toilet rooms are transparent

There is also a problem with stairs in the house. Of the 40 staircases in the house, only a few are simple and straightforward. The famous ones are those that lead to... the ceiling.

By the way, the pipes stretched under the ceiling along the “stairs to nowhere” do not continue on the other side of the wall. Their purpose is not clear

The only explanation for this is that the stairs are designed to confuse evil spirits, knock them off their feet and prevent them from hunting for Sarah's life.

The same stairs, which are quite logical and functional, are so narrow that obese people fed on hamburgers are not recommended to squeeze their bodies between the railings. The railing itself is unusually low, and people of average and tall height have to bend over in order to walk up the stairs, holding on to the railing. These features of the stairs of the Winchester House are quite understandable and explainable if we remember that Mrs. Winchester was of small stature (less than one and a half meters and a very thin build. The stairs were built only for her small body, since the rest of the owners of the house were incorporeal.

It is also clear why the staircase, with only one floor to go up, has 42 steps. These steps are gentle and only 2 inches high. It was more convenient for the elderly Mrs. Sarah, whose legs could hardly obey her, to overcome the staircase of just such a design.

I don’t understand the meaning of a staircase that goes down 4 steps and then goes up 7. Why is this?

There is a ladder called Vertical by employees. It is so steep that only a dexterous young man can climb it.
But by the way, towards the end of her life, Sarah was brought to the main floor of the house by an elevator, which became indispensable after Mrs. Winchester’s legs completely gave out and she was forced to use a wheelchair.

Actually, you can never say with certainty that when you climb the stairs you won’t end up behind glass.

Or maybe you won’t get anywhere at all!

The windows in the house are also not simple. Each of them was designed by the owner personally, ordered and executed not just anywhere, but in Tiffany’s workshops.



10 thousand windows! It would be interesting to meet the person who counted them! How many windows are there in your high-rise building?


One of Sarah Winchester's favorite patterns, invented by herself, is the web.

If you look at the world through such a window, it looks different.
However, no one can be sure that, looking out of the window, he will see what he expects






The stained glass windows in the Winchester House are a special theme. Based on Sarah's sketches, they were made in Austria and installed by Tiffany craftsmen. Stained glass designs are mysterious and unusual. One can argue for a long time about what Mrs. Winchester wanted to tell them, but the artistic value of stained glass windows is not in dispute.



Inlaid with real precious stones

In addition to the fact that Mrs. Winchester had undeniable talents for playing music and designing buildings, she was a good artist.

Sarah's favorite flower is daisies. There are a lot of images of daisies.


The intricate play of light, the variety of sizes, shapes and color combinations creates an atmosphere of mystical mystery, but does not frighten, but fascinates.

It is completely unclear how many stained glass windows there are, whether one flows into another or whether they are stacked, which of them opens as a window, and which serves as a secret door.
There were many secret passages, holes for eavesdropping and spying throughout the house and none of the servants could say exactly where they were located.

Many of the house workers said that they were often frightened by the sudden appearance of their mistress. She walked silently around the house, appearing from hidden doors known only to her. Sometimes the servants literally bumped into the mistress, walking along the corridor and suddenly bumping into Mrs. Winchester, who unexpectedly appeared literally from the wall. No one knew exactly and still does not know all the doors, dormer windows and peepholes installed throughout the house. No one really knows the whole house - only its creator could do that.

Cabinets? Doors? Where do the windows face? Are these actually windows?

Due to Sarah's frequent use of secret passages and secret doors, there were rumors among the servants that Madame had the ability to walk through walls and see through them.

Of course, there are many stories from people who served and are currently serving in the Winchester House about encounters with ghosts and about various manifestations of the presence of otherworldly creatures in the house.
And today, every employee of the Winchester House Museum certainly has his own story, which sends shivers down the spine (of the storytellers).

What can we say about the sightseers who keep their cameras at the ready not at all in order to capture the unique artistic and historical values ​​of the house!

There are plenty of photos like the ones below! And no one is interested in figuring out where they photoshopped and where they didn’t - the main thing is that it’s creepy.


Female figurine in the lower right corner of the glass part of the door

Someone felt a cold breeze, someone touched, someone breathed, someone caught a slight movement in the air out of the corner of their eye... I liked the story young man, who, after working as a guide in the House for several years, quit his job and, before leaving, decided to say goodbye to the House. He entered the empty room and thanked Mrs. Sarah Winchester out loud for the amazing house, which became the first place of work for the young man. In response, he felt a gentle kiss on his cheek. Such romantic young men lead tours of this house.

However, the dangers for nervous system The expenses associated with working in such a mysterious and mystical place for such an extravagant mistress were more than compensated for by such a generous salary and bonus gold that getting a place in the House of Winchester was considered a great success.
The work could not be called easy; neither the ghosts wandering around the house nor the restless housewife, who knew everything about everyone, allowed me to relax. It was necessary to always be alert and work impeccably, thereby showing respect for the owners - living and inanimate.

Mrs. Winchester was very picky about the choice of personnel and it was worth a lot to earn her trust. They say how one day the Mrs. was choosing a gardener. Three gardeners came to her for an interview. She suggested that they dig up one bed at a time and plant cabbage seedlings there. But... roots up. One gardener, wanting to show his intelligence, planted his cabbage, as expected, with its roots in the garden bed. The second, with the same intention, stated that it was wrong to plant with the roots up, it would not bring any positive results and would only destroy the seedlings, and refused to plant cabbage with the roots up, and the third planted the cabbage as Mrs. Winchester suggested, but, having finished the work, warned Mrs. that the work will not bring the desired results, since cabbage planted in this way will not grow, but will disappear. He got the job because a) he showed that he perfectly understands who is boss and respects this status of Mrs. Winchester, b) he is interested in the final result and sincerely cares about the cause.

In Mrs. Winchester's park and public gardens, 8-10 gardeners worked simultaneously. Her park, laid out in Victorian style, featured trees and plants from almost every country in the world. There were northern pines and southern persimmons, and the rarest
trees and common chestnuts from England. The list of plants brought here from all over the world is so long that it would be inhumane to copy it here.

Neighboring children were allowed to play on the lawns of the garden, their mothers and nannies walked along its picturesque paths, Mrs. Winchester did not seek to fence off her park from strangers. Often the children frolicking in the park received ice cream from Mrs., and they were sometimes allowed to strum Mrs. Sarah's piano.

Sometimes the San Jose administration held charity events in the park, generously sponsored by Ms. Winchester. In general, Sarah was a well-known philanthropist. She regularly donated large sums for the improvement of the town, helping the poor and sick, orphanages, founded an orphanage, which patronized the Winchester hospital for tuberculosis patients, which, by the way, still operates within the local clinic.

The owner of the beautiful park herself avoided crowded places and preferred solitude in the gazebo of one of the courtyards, not far from the flower beds with the collection medicinal plants, collected all over the world.

In fact, the park provided for walks with children was the ultimate manifestation of Sarah’s hospitality. She never invited anyone into the house. Contemporaries were able to remember only two episodes related to receiving guests in the Winchester house.
One day, Sarah’s nephew decided to visit his aunt, came from Kansas for this purpose and was caught with a silver tray in his hands. This was the end of his visit to his aunt.
Another time, it was not just anyone who asked for an audience with Mrs. Winchester, but President Roosevelt. He was traveling to Kansas and, on the way, decided to look at the amazing Winchester house with his own eyes. He sent a messenger with a letter of notification and a request for an audience. This was denied to him.

On the territory of the house there is a water tower, a water pump, a complex heating system and other engineering structures.


Laundry

As soon as the construction of the next room was completed and no further reconstruction was planned, Sarah began design.

She did not skimp on the best wallpaper fabrics, which were brought from Persia and India.
She bought the fabric she liked in batches so that no one else in the area would have a similar pattern. Rolls of upholstery fabrics are still stored in storage rooms at home.

The most exquisite furniture made from rare wood, made by the best craftsmen in the world, was commissioned by Mrs. Winchester and decorated the interiors of the house. It turned out to be quite a few corners so cozy that even those who have never been to the Winchester House, but just saw photographs of its interiors, feel the desire to sit down and relax.







Also interesting is the Hall of Fires, built to collect as much heat as possible. This probably alleviated the course of Mrs. Winchester's illness, which last years I suffered from severe arthritis throughout my life. Many windows on one wall let in the maximum amount of sunlight, heating the room, and the other three were adjacent to the fireplace rooms, which were heated hotly. Streams of hot air from these fireplaces were discharged into special vents into the Hall of Fires. I hope Mrs. Sarah had a good time there.

By the way, many even see magical signs in the address of a house. The house is located in San Jose on Winchester Boulevard. House number 525.

Sarah Winchester died on the night of 4/5 September 1922 at the age of 82. Her death was not painful. After communicating, as usual, with the spirits at a nightly seance, she went to bed in her favorite bedroom and never woke up. “Cardiac arrest,” the doctors stated. No one saw her alive again. And inanimate - as much as you like! Mrs Winchester was buried in the cemetery Evergreen in New Haven, Connecticut next to her beloved husband.
The builders of her house. Having learned about the death of the hostess, holding back tears, they scratched the boards so that their nails broke off and bled.
The bedroom where Sarah Winchester spent her last night

After the death of Mrs. Winchester, 6 hectares of land were left on which her unfinished house is located, full storerooms of gold and silver interior items that were never installed in the places planned for them, jewelry and a will consisting of 13 clauses, according to which part of the rooms became her property to my sister, part to my niece, a substantial amount of money to my beloved assistant and faithful employees, the Winchester clinic and the orphanage.
When Mrs. Winchester's safe was opened, to everyone's surprise, no money was found in it. There were only two locks of hair - children's and men's, some personal belongings of the late husband and daughter and a will. It is possible that the mysterious house still contains treasures in its unexplored hiding places. One of the treasuries has long been known, but to this day has not been opened. This is a large wine cellar, which stores many bottles of expensive cognacs and liqueurs, which were preferred by the eccentric hostess. Once Mrs. Winchester discovered a dirty hand mark left on the wall of the stairs. leading to the wine cellar. One of the workers must have sneaked in there for obvious reasons. Mrs. Winchester ordered the door to the cellar to be boarded up, and no one ever set foot there again. Now the cost of the contents of this cellar can amount to a very impressive amount.
Strangely, none of Sarah Winchester’s many relatives have shown or are showing interest in the House of Winchester. No one has ever tried to find the treasures hidden there, and yet, by law, they belong to them!

After the announcement of the will, Sarah's sister hastily began to remove her share of the property. Loading valuables took a week; 6 trucks of furniture, valuables and interior items were removed, which were soon sold at auction. The niece also auctioned off her share of the inheritance. These items are now being sought by the museum, but most of them will never return to the Winchester House.

The main part of the house belongs board of trustees and is not funded by anyone.

Many who have been on an excursion to the Winchester House leave from there in a depressed mood. Some people experience increased heart rate, migraines, and increased nervousness. Children cannot stay inside the house for a long time - they start crying and asking to come out. The staff of the house-museum do not complain about their health, and attribute the deterioration of the condition of some of its visitors to suspiciousness and rich imagination. It is also believed that in a house whose rooms are built chaotically, the passages between them are narrow and confusing, a person feels discomfort and a mild form of claustrophobia. This corresponds to the design of the structure - after all, the house was not originally intended for visits by living people and was planned so that they would feel uncomfortable in it and feel a strong desire to leave its walls. In this way, the house fulfills its functions, protecting the peace of its ghosts.

The House of Winchester is called an example of bad taste, a stupid whim of a crazy rich woman, an example of lack of culture. But this does not reduce the flow of people wanting to see him.
The proceeds from the cafe and excursions and souvenir shop are used to repair dilapidated premises and repair work not visible - while some rooms are being restored, others are falling into disrepair, and so on endlessly


The knocking of hammers does not stop even after the death of Sarah Winchester. The words of a medium from Boston came true 100%, because the spirits promised Mrs. Winchester eternal life until construction of the house stopped. The death of Mrs. Sarah was simply a transition to another state and a meeting with her beloved husband and daughter, but her spirit remained to live in her strange house.

Pulled from here.