At the beginning of the last century, while touring the United States, the famous medium Eusapia Palladino visited the Winchester House and called it “an inn for souls traveling from the other world to this one” …
The construction of a house in Santa Clara Valley south of San Francisco began in the 19th century. Oliver Fischer Winchester, the creator of the rifle of the same name, had nothing to do with the construction. The house appeared after his death by a strange whim of his daughter-in-law Sarah.
She built it as "an unusual place to entertain ghosts." The very history of building the house is also very unusual.
In New Haven, Connecticut, she married William, son and heir to all of Winchester's wealth. But the happiness was short-lived, she soon lost both her husband and her only child. In her grief, she constantly began to dream nightmares, and soon, perhaps due to lack of sleep, and in the daytime she saw the ghosts of strangers who demanded something from her.
Sarah, trying to find comfort, tried with the help of spiritualists to establish communication with the spirit of William, her late husband. She has invited the most famous mediums to conduct communication sessions. Contact for a long time did not work out, but, in the end, Boston medium Adam Kuhn said that he managed to get a message from her husband. William reported that the ghosts of those killed from the rifle of Winchester, his father, would appear to her. And Sarah must "repay them for the lost life." Let her sell her New Haven property and move to the West, where he, William, will help her choose a house and then rebuild it for the ghosts.
The woman later assured that when she examined the eight-room cottage in Santa Clara Valley, she clearly heard William's voice: "This one!" She bought the cottage and began its renovation, which lasted thirty-six years, until the end of her life.
Sarah Winchester inherited a fortune of $ 20 million and, in addition, had a steady income of $ 1,000 a day. The money was huge at that time, so she could fulfill any of her whims.
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The builders, working seven days a week, followed all her orders, which she gave, guided by the "fantasies of the late husband." Contact with him was maintained regularly, and the house erected in this way was soon an architectural nightmare.
There was no general project, each specific work was carried out without the slightest idea of how it would end. None of the builders, and Sarah herself, could not say in advance how many corners there would be in the next room. In addition, she forced to redo what had already been built, if the number 13 did not appear in one of the parameters of the new room. By this, she constantly panicked the engineers who changed one after another. None of them could work with this woman for a long time, listening every day to demands to dismantle what was built yesterday. Sarah did not want to listen to any arguments regarding the technical inconsistency of this or that idea, arguing that now not only the deceased husband, but also other ghosts are taking an active part in the construction of their home. For example, the ghost of the architect Quentin Orwell,in 1877, shot with a Winchester rifle, wished to have a triangular room. He is an architect, he knows better. How can Sarah refuse? And, having listened to such arguments, another engineer left the construction site.
However, the workers also left, to whom ghosts began to appear. For example, plasterer Michael Fletcher told a local newspaper reporter how on a dark staircase he suddenly met a translucent figure with his hands folded behind his back, busily examining the finish completed the day before. And the plasterer showed off a lock of gray hair. Former ship carpenter George Hegley met the ghost of an acquaintance boatswain killed in a shootout with a customs ship off Yokohama.
Asara became more and more obsessed with the number 13. She demanded that the stairs, regardless of length, had 13 steps, so that the rooms had 13 windows. However, the house had rooms without them at all - for seances. And also the living room where the woman arranged "receptions" for the ghosts. At midnight, she put on a dress made for such occasions and called the ghostly guests with a bell. Dinners for them consisted of 13 courses. Cooked by chefs from Vienna or Paris. The table was served for 13 people, including Sarah.
Already six acres of this house occupied: rooms with walls of unequal length, many outbuildings, stairs leading to nowhere, secret passages and doors that opened into the walls. The house already had more than 2,000 doors, four dozen stairs, many corridors and, as it was written in tourist guides, “about 160 rooms,” which is of particular interest - no one was able to accurately count their number, although attempts were repeated several times. Since the house did not have a project, and indeed any technical documentation, any calculation could be carried out only during a detour, which was difficult due to the lack of consistency in the location of the premises.
A certain Schultz Reicherd from Austria set about the task with particular meticulousness, even hoping to draw up a plan of the house. His actions were followed by newspapermen, thanks to which this story became known. It ended strangely. So, in the spring of 1905, Schultz Reicherd began his "calculus". With Sarah's permission, he began to number the rooms with chalk. Since it was impossible to climb the whole house in a day or two, the work was delayed. After a week, he decided that someone was constantly bothering him. Before putting the next number on the door, Schultz looked inside each time to make sure there was a room behind the door. But another time, passing by the already marked doors, he suddenly discovered that there was no room behind the door.
It happened the other way around. For example, in the order of the marked doors along the corridor, one was unmarked, which meant that the last time there was a wall behind the door. However, having opened the door, Schultz entered the room, which he had previously been unable to miss. According to him, one of these "emerged" premises was so dusty and so neglected that it seemed as if it had not been entered for many years. I had to start all over again.
Schultz was angry: there was a story about Ali Baba, where the doors were marked with a cross, and later the cross was erased and other doors were marked. Schultz thought that someone was doing similar things to him. He asked to be left alone in the house for several days, as he wanted to be sure that no one was touching the numbering. And Sarah Winchester agreed. Construction work has been suspended. The workers, the hostess herself and all the servants left the house, leaving Reicher - "yes, alone. After the agreed period, Schultz did not leave the house - he disappeared without a trace. Newspapers wrote that perhaps this was a publicity stunt of the owner (although it is not clear why she might need an advertisement, with such a state.) It was assumed that Reicherd, not wanting to suddenly participate in the experiment, “disappeared in advance.” One journalist, probably wishing to increase circulation, even wrote that Schultz seemed to beand he himself became a ghost, "passing into the astral state."
The House of Winchester was repeatedly visited by powerful mediums, including Eusapius Palladino. Recall that Eusapia was born on January 21, 1854 in the village of Miner-true-Mypro in southern Italy into a peasant family. One day she was invited to participate in a seance. The table, on which the girl rested her elbows, rose into the air. Palladino's capabilities caught the attention of Professor Ercole Chiaia. In 1888, psychiatrist Cesaro Lombro-zo was invited to take part in a session. He always expressed skepticism about mediums, but this time he accepted the invitation. One session was enough to convince the scientist of the reality of the phenomenon. Palladino's abilities have been studied by various scientific communities. And upon careful examination, it always turned out that she was really capable of such phenomena as levitation or materialization of spirits.
Published in 1909 by the Society for Psychical Research, the book "Sessions with Eusapia Palladino" is recognized as one of the most significant in the literature on mediums.
From November 1909 to June 1910, Eusapia Palladino toured the United States. The famous illusionist and stuntman Howard Thurston once attended her session and set a $ 1,000 prize for anyone who can prove that Palladino's levitation is a trick. But $ 1,000 remained unclaimed.
And in March 1910, the medium visited the house of Sarah Winchester. It should be mentioned that Eusapia never learned to read, write, did not have good manners and was unrestrained in expression.
“This house is stuffed with ghosts. Stop building it, there won't be enough for everyone. Some kind of transmigration of souls - from the other world to this one! I do not understand why someone needed to collect the poor fellows in this place! But living people in such a hotel for ghosts have nothing to do. The guests are demanding something from me … Every idiot who got a bullet at one time tries to get in touch with me: "Look, a medium!" And he asks me to tell some of his brother Bill exactly where he buried the trunk with the stolen money."
The medium also spoke about the missing Schultz Reicherd:
“Yes, here is your Schultz!.. Stick into such a place with calculations! He was devoured by this house. So he still counts."
Meanwhile, the Winchester house was being completed until Sarah's death in 1922. Then it went to her niece, according to the will, on the condition that she still welcome ghosts.
Now in the House of Winchester they conduct guided tours, not letting in one at a time, and visitors are counted twice - at the entrance and exit. Most of the rooms are closed. Their exact number is still unknown.