Celebrating Halloween: The Winchester House
The Statue of Hebe, the goddess of youth, in front of the Winchester House
At COUPAR, we take holidays seriously, especially Halloween. We love our local haunted mansion, the Winchester Mystery House, in San Jose. Firearms and ammunition heiress Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester built the Queen Anne-style estate from 1886 to 1922. Along with its 24,000-square-foot labyrinth of 160 rooms, it has stairs, doors, and windows that lead nowhere. Was Winchester hiding a monstrous Minotaur? No, the death of her infant daughter, Annie, followed fifteen years later by her husband, William Winchester, haunted her. Legend has it that the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles also disturbed the widow.
The Winchester House, photo taken before 1906
To escape her demons, Winchester took her inherited wealth from the "gun that won the West" and left her New Haven, Connecticut home. After purchasing a two-story, eight-room farmhouse on bucolic Santa Clara Valley ranch land, she renovated and built the property until she died at 82. Since Winchester grew up with a master craftsman father who owned a mill and wood shop, which produced fenestration and architectural carvings, it was natural for her to oversee the construction. She was a well-educated woman, accomplished in math, science, and music, and spoke four languages.
Mrs. Winchester Starts for a Drive, 1900-1910
How much of the Winchester House's story is accurate, and how much is embellished folklore? Did its mistress consult a medium who advised her that the victims of gun violence haunted her and she must build a meandering maze of rooms to appease them? We might never know the why, but along with eccentricities, Winchester installed innovative construction elements into the home she called Llanada Villa. She built her mansion on an earthquake-resistant floating foundation. Llanada Villa also featured indoor plumbing and push-button lights. When Winchester wanted to communicate with the spirits, she retreated to a private séance room.
