“Do I believe in ghosts?... I am prepared to consider evidence and accept it if it satisfies me.” - M R. James
The Winchester mansion was built by Sarah Winchester with the proceeds of what she considered 'blood money' with the sole purpose of housing the ghosts of dead people, she believed were haunting her. Sarah Winchester was the wife of William Winchester the owner of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The producer of the famous Winchester Rifle. Due to a very peculiar series of events that happened in quick succession, very abruptly Sarah became heiress to the entire Winchester fortune with a 50% shareholding in the biggest and greatest gun and ammunition manufacturing company that had ever existed. Prior to her husband's death she began to feel uncomfortable with the way in which the family was earning their money. The Winchester family had accumulated enormous wealth and benefitted greatly because of the deaths of what would become millions of people throughout the world. This began to weigh on Sarah and on her husband's death she inherited 500 million dollars as well as a majority shareholding in the company. Even though she never took up a position within the company, her stake afforded her an income of the equivalent of 26,000 dollars a day. This wealth had come from what she deemed as disreputable means and the guilt of having this fortune, knowing that it came from the profits of guns and ammunition that her company had sold, became an increasingly heavy burden on Sarah and it led to possibly the most bizarre and extraordinary house ever built, the Winchester Mansion.
The Winchester rifle had many iterations before it became the gun we know today. It was first named the Hunt rifle. In 1848, Walter Hunt of New York patented his "Volition Repeating Rifle" incorporating a tubular magazine, which was operated by two levers and complex linkages. The Hunt rifle fired what he called the "Rocket Ball", an early form of caseless ammunition in which the powder charge was contained in the bullet's hollow base. Hunt's design was fragile and unworkable, but in 1849, Lewis Jennings purchased the Hunt patents and developed a functioning, if still complex version. Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson of Norwich, Connecticut, you may have heard of them, bought the Jennings patent. They then offered shop foreman Benjamin Tyler Henry a new job. Smith made several improvements to the Jennings design, and in 1855 Smith and Wesson together with several investors formed a corporation, the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, to manufacture Smith's modification of the Hunt-Jennings, the Volcanic lever-action pistol and rifle. Its largest stockholder was Oliver Winchester. Williams father. The Volcanic Rifle had very limited success and both Smith and Wesson left the company to set up their own business, the Smith & Wesson Revolver company, which we know had much greater success. The Volcanic Repeating Arms Company went insolvent shortly after Smith and Wesson left. Oliver Winchester bought the ruins of the company and eventually named it the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The first actual Winchester rifle was built in 1866 and there were many variations of it with many variations of success but it wasn’t until 1873 that the Oliver and his company made their name.
The Model 1873 was one of the most successful Winchester rifles of its day, with Winchester marketing it as "The Gun That Won the West". Still an icon in the modern day, it was manufactured between 1873 and 1923. The company had made a name for themselves as one of the first to mass-produce firearms with the ability to fire multiple rounds without reloading. In particular, the 1873 model was incredibly popular with settlers and was widely used during the American/Indian wars. Which is why it went on to be known as 'The Gun that Won the West' and was used in movies featuring John Wayne, it became a huge success and a cultural icon. The Model 1873 went on to sell 720,000 units, being used in wars all over the world. At the same time, making Oliver Winchester exorbitantly rich.
The only son of firearms manufacturer Oliver Winchester, William was heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. William and Sarah Winchester married in September 1862. During the marriage, William worked as treasurer for his family’s company alongside his father. Four years into the marriage, Sarah bore a daughter named Annie Pardee Winchester. Unfortunately, the Winchesters’ joy would be short-lived. Just 40 days after her birth, young Annie would die of marasmus, a rare disease in which the body suffers malnutrition due to an inability to metabolize proteins. By some accounts, Sarah never quite recovered from the death of her infant daughter. Though she and William remained married, Sarah became increasingly distressed, often over the source of the company’s — and thus her own — wealth. In her eyes, the Winchester family business profited from death, something she couldn’t cope with. To further complicate matters, William’s father Oliver died in 1880, leaving the company in the hands of his only son. Then, just a year later, William himself suddenly fell ill and died from tuberculosis, leaving everything to Sarah.
Meaning she was now majority shareholder in a company that she despised and inherited a 500 million dollar fortune which was amassed through war and death, something that she simply couldn't comprehend. Her shareholding alone afforded her an income of 26,000 dollars every day, she had become rich beyond comprehension through the deaths of men, women and children caused by the guns her company sold. Because of the death of her own child, this had a very profound effect on Sarah. She began to believe that the ghosts of everyone killed by a Winchester rifle were haunting her. In an attempt to understand what to do with the money she had inherited as well as advice on what she believed was happening to her, she decided to visit a medium.
The medium told Sarah that she would continue to be haunted by the spirits of the dead unless she did something to appease them. His advice was to build a home for the lost souls so that they could roam freely and such a gesture would satisfy them. If she didn't she would be haunted forever and be eternally damned. Sarah believed that when the house was fully built the spirits would enter and live there. Meaning, that as long as the house was under construction, the spirits could not enter, as they would only live in a completed house. This is how the Winchester Mansion became what it is today. She decided she would purchase a house, but continually improve and add on annexes and different rooms to it. Therefore, the house would be continually under construction and this would keep her safe as no spirit could enter.
In 1884, Sarah Winchester purchased an unfinished farmhouse in the Santa Clara Valley. Instead of hiring an architect, she enlisted the services of a team of carpenters and directed them to build directly onto the farmhouse as she saw fit. Before long, the house was seven stories high. There was an earthquake in 1906, the house had been seven stories high and after carpenters were brought in to repair damage the reduced the levels. Today it is only four stories. The house is predominantly made of redwood, as Mrs. Winchester preferred the wood; however, she disliked the look of it. She, therefore, demanded that a faux grain and stain be applied. This is why almost all the wood in the home is covered. Approximately 78,000 litres of paint were required to paint the house. The home itself is built using a floating foundation that is believed to have saved it from total collapse in the 1906 earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. This type of construction allows the home to shift freely, as it is not completely attached to its brick base. There are 161 rooms, including 40 bedrooms, two ballrooms, as well as 47 fireplaces, over 10,000 panes of glass, 17 chimneys two basement levels and three elevators. The whole of Sarah Winchester's property was 162 acres. She requested the carpenters to install false entrances, doors that didn’t open into a room but instead led to a four story drop, stairways that led to nowhere and hidden rooms, the ghosts, if they were able to enter would be in a consistent state of confusion and not be able to find her.
In addition to making these strange modifications, she made quite a few additions for herself. Luxury fixtures adorned the mansion, including parquet flooring, crystal chandeliers, gilded doorways, and even stained glass windows handcrafted by Tiffany & Co.’s first design director Louis Comfort Tiffany. Mrs. Winchester never skimped on the many adornments that she believed contributed to its architectural beauty. Many of the stained glass windows were created by the Pacific American Decorative Company. Some were designed specifically for her, and others by her, including a "spider web" window that featured her favorite web design and the repetition of the number 13, another of her preoccupations. This window was never installed but exists in the so-called "$25,000 storage room" – so named because its contents were originally appraised at a value of $25,000. The value today is inestimable, but $25,000 would be equivalent to $387,000 in 2020. A second window was designed by Tiffany himself so that when sunlight strikes the prismatic crystals, a rainbow is cast across the room. The window was installed in an interior wall in a room with no light exposure, preventing the effect from being seen. From the time she moved to San Jose in the late 1800s, Sarah Winchester made quite the name for herself thanks to her fixation with the afterlife.
Then, in September 1922, Sarah Winchester passed away peacefully in her sleep. Immediately on her death, construction stopped at the house and it was bequeathed to her secretary and niece, who sold it at auction. It was bought at auction and subsequently leased for ten years to John and Mayme Brown, who eventually purchased the house. In February 1923, five months after Winchester's death, the house was opened to the public, with Mayme Brown serving as the first tour guide. Today the home is owned by Winchester Investments LLC, a privately held company representing the descendants of John and Mayme Brown. The home retains unique touches that reflect Mrs. Winchester's beliefs and her reported preoccupation with warding off malevolent spirits. These spirits are said to have directly inspired her as to the way the house should be built. The number 13 and spider web motifs, which carried spiritual significance for her, occur throughout the house. It is still open to the public as a tourist attraction.
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