Visit Winchester mansion
Think you had a home improvement project that seemed to drag on forever? A trip to the Winchester Mystery house in San Jose, California will put your building project into perspective.
Construction on this sprawling 84-acre estate began in 1884 and work didn’t cease until 1922 when the mansion’s owner died. But, the house’s sole occupant Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune wasn’t upset with her contractors with decades-long construction time, in fact she insisted on it.
The death of her husband William in 1881 left her financially rich but emotionally bankrupt Her $20 million inheritance, 48 percent interest in her husband’s company and her $1,000 a day salary did little to ease the pain of her husband’s death, so she consulted a psychic. Claiming she had contacted Sarah’s husband, the physic advised Sarah that the Winchester family was suffering through a curse brought on by the thousands of spirits who died as a result of the rifle-maker’s products. The psychic went on to tell Sarah that she too was cursed, and the only way to escape death was to flee to California and to build a great house for both her and the angry spirits. The psychic warned Sarah this construction project must never cease. “Stop and you will die,” warned the psychic.
Sarah took the psychic’s words to heart. The resulting 160-room mansion is a marvelous, if disorganized site to behold. Many of the features, such as a sewer system, steam heating and switch controlled gas lights were state-of-the-art at the time the house was built. No expense was spared, from the inlaid parquet floors, to the silver and gold chandeliers, or the Tiffany glass windows.
Sarah may have had exquisite tastes, but one thing she lacked was a building plan. In fact, Sarah had no master blueprint of the mansion. Instead, she met daily with the foreman and gave him hand-drawn plans for the day.
This lack of a building plan is entirely evident. Stairs lead to nowhere, bathrooms were built with glass doors, skylights were built above each other, rooms were built around other rooms and outside doorways were built with no adjoining staircase, just a steep drop.
Some have theorized that she purposely designed the mansion so it was difficult to navigate. She hoped the angry ghosts would be unable to find her though the maze. Others suggest she had no master plan, that the only point of the construction was to keep it continuous.
Whatever her method, construction continued until she died at the age of 83 in 1922. Today, the mansion is a California Historic Landmark. It is open to the public, with frequent tours. It is a site to see, especially if your last home renovation went over schedule.
For more information visit http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com or call (408) 247-2101.
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April 10th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
I never realized that the Winchester House was related to Winchester guns. Sounds like a good daytrip.