Spirit Mansion: The Winchester Mystery House

There was a house located in San Jose, California that is known for its interesting construction. It was purchased by the owner when it was only a small farmhouse, a place that was still unfinished. The construction project had no end in sight, perhaps literally for the owner, because ever since it was bought in eighteen eighty four, carpenters were hired to work day and night. The project required no architects and no plan. Workers kept adding to the place until they ended up with an enormous mansion with staircases with different size risers, exterior windows that would peer inside the mansion, and lots of quirky additions. Eventually it turned into a gigantic seventh story mansion with doors that led to drops and stairs that led to nowhere. The place had forty staircases, thirteen bathrooms, forty seven fireplaces, ten thousand windows. Did the owner want to confuse or what entities was she hiding from? Well, it didn't take long for the public to take note on this place and then to begin murmuring about the strange things that would happen inside that house, Tales of ghosts and recurring apparitions that haunt the place. Tragic events surrounded the owner and her morning led her to seek guidance from spirits. In fact, much of her fortune had been made through the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Let's find out what makes the Winchester Mystery House one of the most haunted places in America. My name is Edwin. Here's a dark man. William Wirt Winchester had inherited a company, a business called the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, a rifle company where a fortune had been founded by Oliver Winchester. These were the same rifles that were used in wars and responsible for the deaths of countless young people. This company was the first to mass produce firearms that could fire multiple rounds without needing to reload. At the time, these were popular killing machines that were used during the American Indian Wars. Sarah was a well rounded woman, speaking four languages and well educated. Was married to William Winchester in eighteen sixty two, and four years later they had their daughter, Annie party Winchester. But just like anyone else, Sarah was not immune to tragedy. Just forty days after being born, little Annie died from a rare disease. Sarah unfortunately would never recover from grief. In eighteen eighty one, her husband died and she inherited twenty million dollars from his death, along with fifty percent of the company. Her thoughts would lead her to strange places, often wondering how her family would make money off the death of others, monthly revenue increasing, just like the pile of dead bodies around the world. The medium was helping her with this, and she was able to communicate with her dead husband that way. The medium had channeled mister Winchester. Her dead husband told her spirits were going to haunt her forever unless she built them a place to reside. The spirits would go after her or from the people that were shot and killed by her company's rifles. Being haunted by spirits and with good reason, terrified Sarah, and she decided it would be her duty to create a place for them to roam. Sarah never remarried. Her first set of instructions was to move from New Haven, Connecticut, to California. She would use her money to build a house there. She would begin her new life mission as a caretaker and builder of a house of spirits In eighteen eighty four, she bought that small farmhouse and began expanding it, and she had her own particular ways of doing so. If she wanted a new staircase, she would ask for it. The hammers and assemblies would continue day and night. At one point she insisted that the house be built completely out of redwood, but upon completion and she changed her mind. Not that big of a deal for her, though, She simply asked for it to be covered, using twenty thousand gallons of paint to make a look how she wanted. It was during the nineteen four San Jose earthquake that caused him to remove the top three floors of this mystery house, which is what we are able to see still standing today. Now you can visit this house for yourself and take a tour walking through its long hallways along with the tour guide. Inside that house, you can see for yourself those doors that open and lead straight to a painful drop into nothingness, or, in the best case scenario, he opened the door and see a wall with no way to move forward. The normal tour will take you through one hundred and ten rooms in just over an hour, but there is another tour that shows you even more rooms and includes creepy true stories directly from the tour guide. After all, that is why people visit the mystery of the house itself and to meet its many ghosts. Sarah Winchester was obsessed with the number thirteen. Rooms have thirteen windows, staircases have thirteen steps, thirteen rails in a railing, and thirteen panels and floors and walls. Unsurprisingly, thirteen lights on a chandelier. But the number thirteen is far from being the only mystery of the Winchester House. There are rumors of a secret storage room containing very valuable objects that she treasured. In fact, in twenty sixteen, a secret attic was discovered. Rooms are still being found inside that house, and considering it was under construction for thirty eight years, doesn't seem that unusual. The Winchester Street House, as it was publicized, took part in the movie called Winchester that was released in twenty eighteen, which was filmed in the actual house. Despite this, we don't know much about Sarah. Sarah never gave any interviews nor left behind any journals about her decisions. None of her family speaks about her either. But what about the ghost is that Sarah was building the house for was she trying to hide from them. There have been lots of people claiming to see apparitions show up in pictures. The mysterious bushy haired woman is one of them, along with small orbs floating around the stables. Ghosts don't limit themselves to inside the house, however, as it can also be seen in the gardens. One documented experience is that of a person who was in Sarah's room when they heard cabinets opening. When they checked it out, they saw that all three cabinets have been opened when there was nobody else around. There are some recurring ghosts, however, a de tale of Clyde the handyman, who is usually seen pushing around a wheelbarrow in the basement. Other times he can be seen trying to repair the ballroom's fireplace. His appearance, though, does not last very long. Sarah herself is seen by a number of guests. She can be seen in her favorite bedroom, which is a master bedroom of the house where she lived. Visitors also claim to see her roaming through the halls. The staff of the house also report feeling that someone is tugging at their clothing or even hear the ghostly sounds of builders working day and night. With such a large amount of attention, the place has gathered a healthy amount of skepticism, even explored by Harry Houdini himself in nineteen twenty four, who did not believe that the place was haunted. But even if you don't believe in ghosts that rom inside the walls of the Winchester Mystery House, you're still bound to be amazed by the unique style of it. The story of Sarah just adds to the mystery. There is only one known portrait of Sarah Winchester in existence, and when she died, she left everything she owned to her niece except for the house, which had no name attached to it, no records, no more known information about her. Only theories behind her actions remain, and those are the ones that circulate. But it is easy to determine who the house was for. That's a difficult thing for the rest of us to understand. If we ignore some of the idols and recognition of the house as one of the most haunted places in America, and instead of focus on Sarah and her story, we might realize that the house is the result of a tragedy of a person searching to make up for the guilts she felt of her profiting over the deaths of those killed by the weapons or company made. You see, the house was made for spirits. It's the only thing that remains from an owner haunted by her memories. This episode of A Dark Memory was written and produced by me Edwin ko Arujas with research for a Metalinguer. We have gotten several responses on topics for future episodes and we will be including them very soon. If you have your own something dark that has faded into time and would like me to talk about it, visit a Dark Memory dot com and use the contact for don't forget to tap, follow, and search for a Dark Memory on social media. Until next time, Thank you very much for listening.