An Introduction to the Winchester Home


The history of this maze of a home (that sits in California) began at the height of the civil war with the marriage of Sarah Pardee and William Wirt Winchester (the son of the manufacturer of Winchester repeating rifles). The couple had one daughter together (Annie) who unfortunately died after one month of life... A mere fifteen years later Mr. Winchester died of tuberculosis leaving Sarah alone.

Disturbed by these deaths, Mrs. Winchester consulted a medium who explained to her that the spirits of those who had been killed by the repeating rifles, had sought revenge by taking those lives and placing a curse to forever haunt her. The medium went on to say, she (Sarah) could take action and escape this curse by moving west, buying a house, and continually building on it as the spirits directed. If she followed their instructions to the word she could escape them, and possibly find the key to eternal life. Mrs. Winchester listened to the medium, and soon began the never ceasing construction on her mansion, under the constant supervision of the ghosts (whom she would meet with, every night, at midnight in her seance room). Sarah would emerge from her bedroom in the morning and greet the workers with the new architectural plans for the day. The blueprints were occasionally decipherable, but always unusually drawn, and went against most architectural laws.

After 38 years of construction and a reported $5 million in expenses- the spirits obviously not granting her eternal life- Mrs. Winchester died leaving behind an amazing, 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 13 bathrooms, 10,000 windows, 47 fireplaces, 40 staircases, many sets of objects in thirteens, and an intriguing chimney that rises four stories only to stop 1 1/2 feet short of the roof.

Here are a few questions to test your knowledge:
1. What did mr. Winchester die of? ..............................

2. How many years was the house under construction?
........................................

3. How much money was spent on the house?
a) 2.5 million
b) 5 million
c) 2 bucks ..............................

Here is a link to another Winchester Page

Last updated on November 22 1999, by: Allison Cameron.