Winchester Mystery House: Fact Vs. Fancy

^ • INVESTIGATIVE FILES VT) JOE NICKELL Winchester Mystery House: Fact vs. Fancy t is the work of an eccentric widow, obsession. Here is some of what I found. supposedly guided by spirits, and a • Fancy: The story begins in 1862 in Iconstruction project that lasted New Haven, Connecticut, with Sarah L. thirty-eight years. It began in 1884 with Pardee's marriage to William Wirt Win- an existing but unfinished eight-room chester. He was the son and heir of farmhouse near San Jose, California, Oliver Fisher Winchester whose repeat- and culminated in a seven-story, tur- ing firearm became famous as "The Gun reted, Gothic Victorian mansion that That Won the West" (Winchester 1997, once contained an estimated 500 rooms. 46). However, according to one tale, The 1906 San Francisco earthquake sig- "During a Connecticut thunder storm, nificantly reduced the stacked and Mrs. Winchester's husband and baby sprawling architectural wonder, but lost their lives in a tragic fire" (quoted in when Sarah Winchester died in 1922 it Rambo 1967, 6). But wait: Another still "contained 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, source (Smith 1967) states, "When trag- 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fire- edy struck this woman, it pulled no places, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens" punches. Her husband died a lingering (Winchester 1997). death from tuberculosis, and her litde Even more remarkable, the round- girl passed away almost immediately the-clock construction yielded "an inter- Figure I, View of Winchester Mystery House, with afterward." Again, in his The National author standing in front, fails to convey the immensity minable labyrinth" of "miles of twisting of the mansion. Directory of Haunted Places, Hauck hallways" (Winchester 1997, 14). Indeed (1996) separates the deaths with a bit it became "an architectural nightmare," is elusive because she was never inter- more time, stating that "her husband featuring rooms with odd angles, stair- viewed and left no diary or other written and only child died within months of ways leading to nowhere, secret passage- record. Moreover, "wild stories" about each other." ways, doors and windows opening onto her proliferated in her lifetime as well as Fact: Actually, the Winchesters' blank walls, and railing posts set upside after her death, and popular writers gar- infant daughter Annie died first, in down (Guiley 2000; Murray 1998). bled—and invented—details to suit 1866, and it was not until fifteen years Fascinating in its own right, Sarah their purposes (Winchester 1997, 11). later, in 1881, that Sarah's husband Winchester's remarkable story has been In an attempt to sort truth from fic- passed away (Winchester 1997, 8). embellished—rather like her strange tion, I toured Winchester Mystery • Fancy: Mrs. Winchester, grief- mansion itself—with implausible inci- House (accompanied by Vaughn Rees of stricken but having inherited her hus- dents, ornate details, and "facts" that the Center for Inquiry-West) on Octo- band's fortune, sought out a Boston lead, tortuously, to dead ends. The truth ber 24, 2001, as part of a California medium to contact his spirit. The speaking and investigations tour. Subse- medium, Adam Coons, relayed the mes- Joe Nickell is CSICOP's Senior Research quently I delved into many of the books sage, somehow rediscovered by Susy Fellow and author of numerous investiga- and other sources of lore and legend Smith (1967): "This is a warning. You tive books. about Sarah Winchester and her curious will be haunted forever by the ghosts of 2 0 September/October 2002 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER those who have been killed by Winches- a simple explanation: they were once the spirits, offering them caviar, stuffed ter rifles, unless you make amends to exterior windows, but the constant addi- pheasant, and other dishes served on them." She was instructed to head west, tions to the house relegated them to the gold plates which she otherwise kept guided by her husbands spirit. inside. The doors and stairs that lead to in her safe. Sometimes, late at night, However, another source states it was dead ends are similarly explained. As to "ghostly music" was heard "wafting not a male medium but "a seeress" who the floor with trap doors, those are in a from the dark mansion" (Winchest- provided Mrs. Winchester with the mes- special greenhouse room; they were er 1997; Rambo 1967; Winer and sage (again, somehow rediscovered), designed to open onto a zinc subfloor so Osborn 1979). "There is a curse on your life. It is the same curse that took your child and husband . that has resulted from the terrible weapon that the Winchester The curiously barred interior windows family created. [BJuild a house not only for yourself but also for the spirits have a simple explanation: they were of those who have fallen before that ter- once exterior windows, but the constant rible weapon. As long as you build, you will live. Stop and you will die" (Winer additions to the house relegated and Osborn 1979). them to the inside. Facts Whether the "Boston medium" was a man or woman—or whether Sarah Winchester ever consulted such— has not been proved. One local histori- Fact: According to historical writer cal writer maintains that after her hus- Ralph Rambo (1967, 8-9), whose father band's death, Mrs. Winchester was in- had helped with the ground's landscap- deed grief-stricken. "Doctors and ing, the allegedly sacrosanct "seance" friends urged her to leave the East, seek room "was also utilized as a bedroom at a milder climate and search for some all various times by her foreman, the chauf- consuming hobby. One physician did feur, the head Japanese gardener and his suggest diat she 'build a house and don't wife." As well, the bell was used, not for employ an architect.'" That researcher midnight spirit assembly, but as a call to COnCCCICS) remaps she Wiii a Spiritual- aiiu 11•MIi work aiiu AS an alarm in case ist," but insists, "Miss Henrietta Severs, of fire. There is no evidence Mrs. her constant companion for years, Winchester had thirteen ceremonial always firmly denied she had any Spiri- robes; that fiction was probably inferred tualist leanings" (Rambo 1967, 8). from the total of thirteen hooks in the • Fancy: Sarah Winchester's "curious room's two closets, some of them, how- building techniques" resulted from her ever, placed implausibly low for robes. desire "to control the evil entities and When after her death her safe was keep them from harming her." For opened, there was no solid-gold dinner example, "One stairway, constructed service, only mementos including a lock Figure 2. View from a window shows part of the sprawl- like a maze, has seven flights and re- ing grounds, including the bell tower that, allegedly, of her baby's hair. Acknowledging the quires forty-four steps to go ten feet" was once used to summon spirits. "legend" of the plates supposedly used (Smith 1967, 38). Some interior rooms to serve phantom guests exotic dishes, a have barred windows, a floor is com- that runoff from watered plants could Winchester Mystery House publication prised of trap doors, and there are doors be drained by pipes to the garden be- (Winchester 1997) states: "On the other and stairs that lead nowhere (Rambo neath (Rambo 1967; Winchester 1997; hand, this theory might have come from 1967; Murray 1998, 59). Palomo 2001). rumors about the mansion's well-fed ser- Fact: The winding stair with two- • Fancy: Sarah Winchester's blue vants!" The "ghostly music" has an even inch steps had nothing to do with ghosts stance room, her "secret rendezvous simpler explanation: often when she was and everything to do with Mrs. with the spirits," was off limits to her unable to sleep, Mrs. Winchester played Winchester's severe arthritis and neuri- huge staff of carpenters and servants. the pump organ in the Grand Ballroom. tis. The low steps were built to accom- There, at midnight—while a bell in a • Fancy: Mrs. Winchester was so modate her diminished abilities (just as tower was rung to summon spirits— reclusive that she always wore a black elevators were later installed when she she donned one of thirteen ceremonial veil. She also refused admission to most was forced to use a wheelchair). The robes she wore when communing with visitors, including Mary Baker Eddy, die curiously barred interior windows have the entities. She also held parties for founder of Christian Science. President SKEPTICAL INQUIRER September/October 2002 21 Theodore Roosevelt, a ran of Winchester where she was trapped for several hours, Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits rifles, knocked at the front door but was bemoaning, "Oh, God help me. The (Guiley 2000): "Many visitors are unrecognized by a servant and turned evil spirits have taken over the house." haunted by various phenomena, such as away (or insulted by being sent around After servants rescued her, the terrified phantom footsteps, odd sounds, eerie to die back of die house) {Winchester widow fled to Redwood City and did quiet, whisperings, sounds of a piano 1997; Rambo 1967). However, "One of not return for six years (Rambo 1967; playing, smells of phantom food cook- her few guests was Harry Houdini, who Smith 1967,41^*2). ing, cold spots, doorknobs turning by themselves, and windows and doors slamming shut. The floor of the gift It would be unusual if such a rambling shop has been found mysteriously cov- old house did not have drafts and temperature ered with water and items in disarray." One guide characterized the Daisy variations and fluctuations together with odd Bedroom, where Mrs. Winchester was noises caused by changing temperatures, trapped by the earthquake in 1906, as the room that most frightened him.

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