Winchester Mansion

For my first episode, I wanted to kick off with a location that has always been in the top five of my Spooky Space Bucket List.

Located in San Jose, California, it’s now a museum, but at one point in time, it was home to one of the most mysterious women to ever grace its halls.

This week’s Spooky Space is the Winchester Mystery Mansion.

Let me begin by introducing you to Sarah Lockwood Pardee. Born in New Haven, Connecticut on September 1st, 1839.

While I couldn’t find much on her early life, all accounts say she was a highly educated, well-liked socialite who grew up in a world of privilege. She spoke four languages, attended the best schools, and married into a wealthy family when she wed William Wirt Winchester in 1862.
I’m sure you recognize the name, and you’d be right if your mind automatically went to Rifles. William was the son of Oliver Winchester, founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

The couple had one daughter, Annie, in 1866, but tragedy struck only six weeks later when Annie passed away from Marasmus - a condition that causes severe malnutrition as the body doesn’t absorb and digest food properly.

Sarah claimed she felt herself cursed after William died of Tiberculosis in 1881, leaving her a widow. With all of the tragedy, this is also where a lot of the mystery begins.

Some say Sarah would go on and on about being haunted by the spirits of those who were killed by the Winchester Repeating Arms, and upon visiting a psychic, she was told the only way to evade them would be to move West, buy a home and build.

To never stop building.

With her newfound inheritance of $20 million ($529 million today), 50% ownership of the company, and her $1000 daily income, Sarah picked up and headed West, ending up in San Jose, California where she purchased Lianada Villa - an 8-room farmhouse and began the longest home renovation - stopping only when Sarah died in 1922.
For 36 years, from 1886-1922, it is said that construction went on 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.

What now sits is a 24,000 sq. ft., 160-room mansion showcasing 40 bedrooms, 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 52 skylights, 47 stairways & fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, a seance room where she was advised on how to build the home to appease the spirits.

In 1906, a massive earthquake hit California, causing the top three floors of the house to fall, bringing damage to the other four below. Sarah ended up taking this as a sign that she was getting too close to being finished with her home. She closed off the damaged areas and continued to build.
This area of the home has been re-opened and you can still see the damage.

Sources say she built the home as a maze to keep the spirits from being able to find her while she was sleeping, and she actually slept in a different room every night.

A lot of the designs were ahead of their time, such a cabinet that opens into a hive leading to 30 other rooms. Some designs are wonders in themselves, such as unsuable doors - one opens to a 15-foot drop into the garden below, while another will have you cascade into an 8-foot drop into a kitchen sink.
Marvelous Tiffany stained glass windows placed where they will get no light, and more secret passageways than Hogwarts.

The number 13 also plays a large role in the home - 13 closets with 13 pegs, halls with 13 panels on the walls.

Sarah Winchester passed away in her sleep due to heart failure September 5, 1922.

She’s left no personal journal of her own account, so what caused a social butterfly to move across country, completely cutting herself off from the world, and live her life this way?

Some say that employees who worked directly for Sarah have stayed on after their deaths, there’s much talk about paranormal activity still alive in its halls.

There are many stories, but three stood out to me as I researched this spooky space.

Footsteps can be heard going to and from her room, could it be servants still doing their duties and taking care of Sarah?
An apparition with black hair is frequently seen pushing a wheelbarrow around the garden.

A present day employee encountered an apparition in the Hall of Fires - nicknamed for its many fireplaces. He felt a tap on his shoulder while upon a ladder, only to turn and find no one there.
Turning back to his task, he felt what seemed like a hand put pressure on his back. Needless to say, he got out of there as quickly as he could.

In the 1906 earthquake, Sarah was actually trapped in a room until workers could set her free. Deeply shaken, she had the room sealed.
In 2016, it was opened and added to tours. On one tour, a guide gathered the visitors to tell them the history and show objects found inside after 100 years of being closed up. She heard a sigh from the hallway, thinking a guest had fallen behind, she stepped out to find them, but there was no one there, except a figure turning the corner of the hallway.
The guide followed, no one was there, but the guide heard another sigh.

Perhaps Sarah was using the room to find solace from the visitors to her home?

I can’t show you here, but there is rumors of video surveillance of a spirit on the top floor balcony.
It’s also been said to check your photos with a close eye before deleting them.

What intrigues me the most is why Sarah went through such a major process.

Did she really believe that 24 hour construction would keep the spirits at bay? Did she have such a fear of the spirits that she refused to finish the home?
Did she have a mental break from losing her child and her husband, and become so easily influenced by others?

We’ll never know why she did the things she did, all we know is a magnificent mansion is the outcome of it all.

The Boy in the Box