The history of the Winchester House, built at the end of the 19th century in California by Sarah Winchester, daughter-in-law of the famous gunsmith, is shrouded in secrets and mysteries. They made horror films about him, Stephen King wrote about him. However, reality, as is often the case, is much richer than artistic fiction …
Do no evil
The name of Oliver Winchester, the creator of the famous rifle, is still associated with his brainchild, which claimed the lives of many people. The production of weapons brought huge income to Winchester. He was one of the richest people. And his son William, who continued his father's work, had to pay for the evil caused to mankind.
At first, as usually happens, everything went well: Winchester Jr. married Sarah Purdy, a sweet and kind girl. Soon they had a daughter, Annie, everyone's favorite of the family. All the more terrible was the grief of the Winchesters when 4-year-old Annie fell ill and died. Sarah experienced the loss so hard that she stopped eating, sleeping and talking. And as a result, she ended up in a psychiatric clinic, from where she left only a few years later. However, as soon as she returned home in 1881, William fell ill with tuberculosis and died. After his death, Sarah inherited a huge inheritance: $ 20 million and weapons production, bringing in a thousand dollars a day. The wealthy widow was respected in New Haven. She was engaged in charity work, participated in political life, enjoyed the attention of men, but despite all this, she was deeply unhappy.
To understand the cause of her troubles, she turned to the medium Adam Kuhn, who lived in Boston. Kuhn informed Sarah that he had managed to receive a message from her late husband. And he put the widow's last doubts to sleep, describing in detail what William looked like, although he had never seen him during his lifetime. The spirit of the deceased allegedly told the medium that the Winchesters were cursed by those who died from their weapons. And in order to avoid death, Sarah needs to go to California, in San Jose, and start building a house there for the spirits of the killed people. At the same time, the construction should not end: "As soon as the knocking of hammers dies down, you will die."
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Life-long construction
Sarah wore several dresses at the same time to be able to quickly change her look by removing one of them.
Sarah followed the advice of the medium and in 1884 bought a cottage in the indicated place. She took it down and started building a "ghost house." This construction lasted 38 years, until the last days of Sarah: 22 carpenters worked around the clock, building a house according to the widow's sketches. She would sketch on napkins during breakfast, and the engineer in charge would receive a list of the day's work from her every morning. At the same time, Sarah did not have any plan for the future house, although much was done in it for the convenience of the hostess: the steps are low so that it would be convenient for an elderly person to climb the stairs, the railings are low, the corridors are narrow - after all, Mrs. Winchester was a thin physique and short.
Paradoxically, while purposefully building a house for ghosts, Sarah was very afraid of them. And she did everything so that they could not get to her. She wore several dresses at the same time so that she could quickly change her look by removing one of them. But most importantly, she deliberately built a maze house in which there was no logic whatsoever. The stairs rested against the ceilings. Narrow corridors twisting like snakes led to dead ends. Behind some doors there were walls, behind others - an exit to the street, and even on the upper floors, and without knowing this, one could fall out of them and break. In addition, some doors were designed so that whoever decided to open them would fall into the kitchen sink on the floor below.
Knowing that the ghosts are afraid of their reflection, Sarah ordered many mirrors to be installed throughout the house. And in order to confuse the spirits even more, the widow ordered the construction of many secret passages, thanks to which it was possible to quietly leave one room and just as imperceptibly end up in another.
He's here
Ghosts were rumored to have visited Sarah Winchester every night. Allegedly, a special servant at midnight walked the labyrinth known to him into the belfry in order to invite the "guests" to the "blue room" with a bell ringing. The hostess communicated with the spirits for 2 hours - until the next bell ringing. During this "session", according to the servants, the sounds of the organ came from the room. But Sarah herself could not play music because of arthritis.
All this mystical surroundings frightened the workers, moreover, ghosts also began to appear to them. People were also nervous because none of them could say exactly how many rooms there are in the mansion.
It felt as if the rooms appeared and disappeared by themselves.
Once the Austrian Schultz Reicherd proposed to draw up a plan of the house. And in 1905, with Sarah's permission, of course, he started counting rooms. His work aroused great interest in the press. So there was news about him every day. To begin with, Schultz decided to write a number in chalk on each door. However, the next day he found that there were no rooms behind some of the numbered doors, although they had been on the previous day! He thought that someone was making fun of him, and asked everyone to leave the house for a few days. Sarah allowed the construction to stop for one day. But to keep the hammer going, one carpenter was busy with the fence. The ghosts should have heard the work going on. When the hostess and the builders returned, they did not find Schultz. To search for him, Sarah hired a medium, Eusapia Palladino, who delivered the verdict: “He is here. This house swallowed him up. Sarah herself was advised by the medium to leave the mansion, since, in her opinion, such a high concentration of ghosts was dangerous to humans. But the widow did not listen to her.
How many rooms are there?
In 1906, the house was already six floors. However, the top three floors were soon damaged by an earthquake.
In 1906, the house was already six floors. However, the top three floors were soon damaged by an earthquake. Since Sarah, fearing unauthorized visits by ghosts, spent each night in different rooms, the servants had to try to find her under the rubble. She attributed the earthquake to the invasion of spirits, so she ordered 30 unfinished rooms from the façade to be boarded up. Meanwhile, construction continued …
To confuse the spirits even more, the widow ordered the construction of many secret passages, thanks to which it was possible to discreetly leave one room and just as imperceptibly end up in another.
The rooms were counted only after the death of Sarah, who died at the age of 83 in 1922. There were 160 of them. And in the three-story mansion there were 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, 40 staircases, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows and 47 fireplaces. It took Sarah Winchester 38 years to build this splendor, and all her money: $ 70 million at the modern rate.
For many years, the Winchester house stood in desolation, but then excursions began to be led there. And before that, the mansion decided to renovate a little. So the people involved in the restoration of the house saw the ghost of Sarah so often that they had a desire to say hello to him.
Today the Winchester mansion is extremely popular with tourists. There are even night excursions. True, visitors are allowed into the house only in groups and are counted at the entrance and exit. You never know what …
Triangular room
The ghosts not only came to visit Sarah Winchester, they took part in the planning of the premises. For example, the spirit of the architect Quentin Orwell, assassinated in 1877 from a Winchester, wanted to dwell in a triangular room. Sarah could not refuse him, and such a room was built.
Round 13
Another weakness of Sarah Winchester was the number 13. Vaulted windows consisted of 13 panes, parquetry of 13 sections, stained-glass windows of 13 segments, stairs of 13 steps, and the roof was crowned with 13 domes. To this day, every time the 13th falls on Friday, a bell rings 13 times in the house.
Magazine: All the riddles of the world №4. Author: Alexandra Orlova