House on Blood. History of the Winchester family

In life, all sorts of strange things happen. For example, the Winchester house. It is located in San Jose (California, USA) at 525 South Winchester Blvd. This is not even a house, but a huge mansion built in the Victorian style. It is noteworthy that the construction was carried out without any architectural plan. It was just that other rooms were chaotically added to the original building and new floors were erected. The structure is now privately owned, serves as a tourist attraction, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the history of the famous house? It began in 1884 and is inextricably linked with a woman named Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Winchester. The latter was the son of Oliver Winchester, the inventor of the world famous rifle.

William died of tuberculosis in 1881, and Sarah inherited more than $20.5 million. She also received 50% ownership of the Winchester Arms Company, which gave her an income of $1 thousand per day. This is equivalent to $23 thousand in 2013. All this enormous wealth woman and invested in the construction of a house. And her communication with a medium in Boston prompted her to do this.

He said that the death of his daughter almost immediately after birth and the early death of his husband are inextricably linked with the souls of people who died from a rifle invented by Oliver Winchester. A curse has fallen on the family, from which there is only one way to get rid of it: it is necessary to start building a house for the souls of the murdered. While the construction continues, the souls will not dare to disturb the widow.

Sarah took the medium's words extremely seriously. In 1884, she moved to California and bought an unfinished 8-room house in the Santa Clara Valley. Construction began immediately after the purchase was completed. The widow hired carpenters, and they began to work around the clock. The woman did not invite architects, so extensions to the building were erected without any system.

This is what the Winchester house looks like today

Over the years, the Winchester house has turned out to contain many oddities. It has doors and stairs that lead nowhere, windows overlooking other rooms, and extremely narrow corridors. Sarah considered the number 13 to be magical, so most of the stairs in the house have 13 steps, and the 13th bathroom has 13 mirrors. The 13th sink has 13 drain holes. In addition, many rooms have 13 windows. There are 13 palm trees along the access road to the main entrance. The woman divided her posthumous will into 13 chapters and signed it 13 times.

A bell tower was erected near the house. It was possible to get into it only by a ladder. During the widow's lifetime, the bell rang every midnight. With its ringing, it summoned the spirits of people killed by hard drives. After 2 hours, the bell rang again, inviting the spirits to leave the gathering place. All this, naturally, aroused great interest among both local residents and visitors. At the same time, there was a very high turnover among builders, despite high earnings. The people's psyche simply could not withstand the gloomy mystical component that was constantly present around.

By 1906, the mansion became 6-story. But an earthquake occurred, and the building was saved only by the floating foundation. Only the top 3 floors collapsed. However, this did not stop Sarah. Construction work continued, and the house became 3-story. This is how he remains to this day.

Inside the Winchester house

In total, construction lasted 38 years until the death of the widow on September 5, 1922. The work was carried out around the clock, without stopping for a minute. As soon as the woman died, work immediately stopped. After Sarah, the house remained with 160 rooms, 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, 40 staircases, 47 fireplaces, 2 thousand doors, 450 doorways and approximately 10 thousand windows. It should also be taken into account that during the widow’s lifetime the house was not only destroyed, but also constantly rebuilt. More than 600 rooms were built and destroyed.

Sarah Winchester bequeathed all his property, except the house, to his niece, who served as his personal secretary. The heiress took out all the furniture and belongings and sold them at auction. The Winchester house itself was valued at $135,000 and sold at auction to a local investor. He leased it for 10 years to the Brown husband and wife. They opened it to the public in February 1923, 5 months after the death of the widow. In 1924, Harry Houdini visited the mansion. When the lease expired, the Brown family bought the house. These days, the famous mansion belongs to a private company representing the interests of the Brown family.

The home retains unique touches that reflect Sarah's belief in evil spirits and her desire to avoid contact with them. For example, an expensive chandelier that previously had 12 candlesticks now has 13. There are exactly 13 hooks on clothes hangers. A stained glass window with patterns contains 13 color stones. The drain covers on the sinks have 13 holes. Every Friday the 13th the bell rings 13 times at exactly 13:00. So the tribute to the strange lady is fully paid.

This story began in 1855, when Oliver Winchester, the owner of the manufactory, bought the Smith-Wessen arms factory. Financial success allowed him two years later, in 1857, to buy the New Haven Volcanic Repairing Arms Company, which he successfully reorganized into the New Haven Arms Company, and in 1867, into the Winchester Self-Loading Weapons Company.Oliver designed a rifle that used a lever mechanism to load bullets into the breech. The new weapon had the ability, unique at that time, to fire one shot every three seconds, becoming the first repeating rifle for a long time who knew no equal. Winchester soon became the owner of a huge fortune thanks to a government arms contract and other lucrative deals.

His father's fortune was inherited by his son William. Since 1857, William Wirt Winchester became one of the leaders of the company, reorganized it, applied technical innovations, and began to produce the same carbines and rifles that “conquered the West,” namely Winchesters with a Henry bracket. This weapon turned out to be the fastest and most popular in the Army of the North during the Civil War.war, so the Winchester family prospered.

In 1862, at the height of the American Civil War, William Winchester married Sarah Lockwood Purdy.

Sarah was born in 1839 in Connecticut. The best private schools, four languages, piano and violin. Petite (only 147 cm) Sarah was considered one of the beauties of Connecticut and, of course, the courtship of such a prominent groom in society as William Winchester was received favorably.The family quickly grew rich from military orders, the newlyweds lived in love and prosperity, but soon numerous inexplicable misfortunes began to haunt the Winchester family

In 1866, Sarah and William had a daughter, Annie, who died at the age of two weeks. The mother's grief knew no bounds, and for seven days she did not eat anything or speak to anyone, sitting over the body of the deceased child. The woman fell into a deep depression and spent several years in the hospital, still remaining silent.

Sarah almost went crazy, and only ten years later, as they say, she came to her senses. The Winchester couple had no other children. Soon a new misfortune befell the family. William fell ill with tuberculosis and died in 1881. Sarah turned out to be the owner of a twenty million dollar fortune, which at that time was fabulous.

In addition, the widow owned 50% of the shares of the company, Winchester Repeating Arms Company (“blood money,” Sarah later said about her capital), producing weapon, bringing in an income of about $1,000 a day. This was enormous wealth, because the dollar in those years was worth twenty times more than it is now. There are many widows who will not grieve for long under such circumstances, but Sarah was inconsolable.

Despite her enormous wealth, the heiress felt like the most unhappy person in the world. A friend advised Sarah to consult a Boston medium who was said to have the ability to communicate with the spirits of deceased relatives. The woman was very pious and at first flatly refused to turn to mystical powers, but in the end she decided to take a risky step.

During a seance, the medium said: “Your husband is here” and accurately described William’s appearance. Spirit had never met the deceased and could not know what he looked like during life, so Sarah unconditionally believed him. The medium said that the spirit of Winchester said that there was a curse on the family that caused the death of Annie and William. The curse is the result of invention and production by Oliver Winchester lethal weapons, which, as they say, decided the outcome of the Civil War.

Tens of thousands of people in different parts of the world have died from bullets fired from a rifle, and their souls thirst for revenge. Sarah was told by the spirit of her deceased husband to sell all her property in Connecticut and move towards the setting sun (Sarah decided that this meant the Pacific coast).

Her husband will be her guide on this journey, and when she reaches her new home, William will let her know. A woman must build a home. The logic here was somewhat strange: all the disembodied spirits of the murdered needed a roof over their heads. The Spirit warned that construction should never be completed. If the sound of hammers stops, Sarah will die immediately.

The Winchester heiress followed the advice, sold the property and house in New Haven, and went to California, sincerely believing that all her actions were guided by the spirit of her husband. Sarah stopped in Santa Jose in 1884, where she took a liking to a small six-room house that belonged to Dr. Caldwell (where she claimed her husband's spirit told her to stay). The estate area was 166 acres; Caldwell had no intention of selling the property, but Mrs. Winchester offered an amount that he simply could not refuse.

Sarah hired workers to demolish the old house and began building a new one. She intended to never finish building. The work did not stop for a minute. Twenty-two hired carpenters worked all year round, 365 days, twenty-four hours a day, and so on for 38 years.

The construction of the house was not carried out according to a specific plan, as is usually done, but was completely disorderly and chaotic. Every morning she gathered the workers and announced to them the work plan, and since they were well paid, and it was clear that they would be provided with work as long as the owner was alive, they carefully followed her instructions. Even if it was necessary to destroy everything that they had been building for a week.

Work stopped on the day of her death, the workers abandoned everything and walked away, leaving half-driven nails, because Sarah paid them at the end of the day.

The house was built to confuse the spirits that would come after Mrs. Winchester. Therefore, the house was replete with doors, behind which there was often a blank wall, and the stairs rested on the ceilings.

The corridors are narrow and winding, like snake loops.

Some doors on the upper floors open outward, so that an inattentive guest will fall straight into the courtyard, onto the lawn; others are designed so that, after passing the flight, the guest must fall into the kitchen sink on the floor below or break through a window built into the floor of the lower floor.

Many bathroom doors are transparent. Secret doors and windows open in the walls, through which you can quietly observe what is happening in the neighboring rooms.

Rooms were added to rooms, gradually turning into another wing of the building, awkwardly connected to the rest of the house.

Some bedrooms had fireplaces, a total of 47. Elevators were built inside the house, and hatches opened onto the roof, opening directly from the rooms.

False chimneys decorated the roof. As Sarah believed, in this way it is possible to deceive ghosts, because it is through pipes, according to legend, that the latter enter houses.

Dozens of fire escapes were attached to the outer walls. Year after year, a floor was built on top of a floor, a wing was attached to a wing, which looked completely unnatural, various parts of the house had different number floors, from one to seven. Real architectural madness.

Before the famous San Francisco earthquake in 1906, the house had seven floors, after which four remained: three floors collapsed into the garden and it was decided not to restore them.

Sarah saw in the cataclysm a signal that the spirits did not like the finished façade. She boarded up the 30 rooms at the front of the house and never returned to them.

Sarah was literally obsessed with the number 13. Luxurious stained glass windows from Tiffany consisted of 13 segments, the windows had 13 glasses, the parquet floors contained 13 sections, the walls consisted of 13 panels, the staircases had 13 steps, the roof of the building was crowned with 13 domes. In expensive foreign chandeliers, the number of candlesticks changed from 12 to 13, and the number of coat hooks on the walls was always a multiple of 13.

There were many mirrors installed inside the house and even outside, because Sarah believed that ghosts and spirits of evil were afraid of their reflection.

She ordered secret passages to be built in the house, so that she could disappear unnoticed in one room and suddenly appear in another at the opposite end of the building. In addition, the matron had the habit of putting on several dresses at once, one on top of another, in order to quickly change her appearance. All these tricks pursued one goal - to deceive the forces of evil.

In general, Sarah was quite inconsistent in her relationships with spirits. It seems that she invited them herself, and then ran away from them. The widow, for example, hid from them in different rooms every night, and none of the 18 servants knew which of the 40 bedrooms she slept in.

Sarah dedicated the rest of her life to Winchester House until her death on September 4, 1922, when she died quietly at the age of 83.

Mrs. Winchester left all the property to her niece Frances Marriott. Frances believed that somewhere in the house there was a safe filled with gold that belonged to the Winchester family, but it was never found. The bank account was not as large as it once was; Sarah spent too much money on the construction and improvement of the estate. If the amount of the construction estimate is converted into modern money, it will be 70 million US dollars.

Over time, the heirs sold the house to a group of entrepreneurs who wanted to turn the building into a tourist attraction. They wanted to draw up a plan for the building, but it turned out to be not so easy to do.

At first, 148 rooms were counted in the house, but with each new attempt to find out the exact number of rooms, their number turned out to be new. This was mainly due to the different heights of the floors in different parts the buildings, corridors, stairs and rooms had such a complex layout that even the engineer and architect who took part in the construction sometimes got lost and had difficulty finding the exit.

Currently, the Winchester estate is declared a historical landmark. Many people believe that the house is haunted. In any case, Sarah's ghost was seen several times.

Now Winchester House has three floors. It has approximately 160 rooms, but there is no complete certainty about this (including 40 bedrooms), 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, 40 stairs. The rooms have 2,000 doors, 450 doorways, 10,000 windows, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 2 basements and 3 elevators.

Every Friday the 13th at 13:00 the large bell rings 13 times in memory of Sarah Winchester.

The name Winchester has long been associated with mysticism and secrets. The creator of the famous rifle left behind a rich legacy and a history written in blood.

Everyone knows that money does not make a person happier. This happened with Sarah, the only heir to the huge Winchester fortune. Her difficult fate will be discussed in this article!

Winchester couple

We should start with the head of this famous family, Oliver Winchester. It was his invention, the famous rifle, that in the second half of the 19th century turned out to be the decisive link in Civil War. The repeating shotgun, which was then a novelty, became an indispensable attribute of the Wild West and the times when all disputes were resolved through shootouts.

Oliver and his wife had several children, but the heir to his company was The only son William. The young man married Sarah Purdy at the age of 25 and spent his entire life as treasurer of the company founded by his father. But his name became known only after his death.

In 1866, the Winchester couple had a daughter, Annie, who did not even live a month. The girl's death broke Sarah, and she spent several years in the hospital. Returning home after treatment, the woman was waited serious tests- first her father-in-law Oliver dies, then her husband William. The husband suffered from tuberculosis and died in March 1881 at the age of 43.

Winchester Widow

From that time on, Sarah became the heir to a huge fortune. On that moment, late XIX century, she had an inheritance of $20 million (the modern equivalent of $500 million). The woman also received daily income from sales of $1,000 ($25,000) and half of the shares of the Winchester company. This made her one of the richest women of that time. However, this did not make her happy; on the contrary, Sarah was inspired by a strange idea.

She was sure that her family was being persecuted evil rock, and turned to mediums. Before marriage, she was devout, but a series of deaths broke her, and Sarah decided to seek answers from the other world. In those years, mediums were very popular, so she had no difficulty finding someone who told her the truth. The medium Alan Kuhn from Boston told the widow that he had communicated with her husband and accurately described him. This reassured Sarah that she was doing the right thing.

The medium, on behalf of William, stated that there was indeed a curse on the family. The reason for this is the souls of those who died from the deadly rifle created by his father. Sarah had to build a house for them and for herself, where the spirits would indicate. There was one more condition - the sound of hammers should not stop in the house.

Sarah, inspired by Alan, traveled west and in 1884 reached a small Santa Clara Valley mansion. There she heard her husband’s voice saying “Here,” and the widow immediately began construction. This house is still known to this day as the most mystical and mansion in the world.

House of Winchester

Sarah devoted the rest of her life, namely 37 years, to construction. She spent all her fortune for this cause and went down in history as the strangest widow. The sound of hammers did not stop for a single day until the woman’s death in 1922.

From an unfinished mansion, she made a seven-story structure based on her personal drawings. Sarah did not use the services of an architect and gave all instructions to the foreman directly in the morning. There was no construction plan, which is not surprising, because this house is absolutely not like the others.

Sarah did everything possible to prevent the spirits coming to the mansion from reaching her. That is why the house was filled with traps and had many connections with the number 13.

The seven-story building had hundreds of rooms that were connected to each other by secret passages. Stairs led to the ceiling, corridors ended in dead ends, and some doors opened onto the street, so a guest could easily fall to his death. There were 13 fake chimneys on the roof, and many of the rooms had tiny secret windows for observation. Sarah ordered the construction of secret passages, thanks to which she found herself in another part of the house in a couple of minutes.

In 1906, the building was damaged by a powerful earthquake, which destroyed several floors. Four floors of this mysterious house have survived to this day. Even during the life of the widow Winchester, this house attracted the attention of the press and lovers of the paranormal. According to one story, the Austrian Schultz Reicherd decided to count how many rooms there were. After days of drawing chalk signs on doors, he realized it was no use. In the morning it turned out that the doors with numbers led to a dead end. Therefore, Schultz agreed with the widow and asked to leave him alone for a couple of days to personally check everything.

Surprisingly, all the workers and Sarah herself left the mansion, only the carpenter who made the fence remained (remember the sound of the hammer?). A few days later it turned out that Schultz had disappeared from the house without a trace and was never seen again. After this story, mediums became interested in the building and strongly advised the widow to leave it - it was full of spirits.

The builders said that at night Sarah encounters hordes of spirits who come here and stay until dawn. Carpenters left work because they saw ghosts and strange phenomena. Of course, this all grew into legends that scare lovers of mysticism.

However, Sarah did not leave her brainchild until her death in 1922. She died at the age of 82 and left her inheritance to her niece. The Winchester mansion still stands today and is popular. By the way, not all of its mysteries have yet been revealed; for example, in 2016 a secret room with paintings and sewing machine. Many rooms remained unfinished.

The story of Sarah Winchester is full of mysteries; it is still unknown what actually inspired her to build such a mystical mansion. She probably herself believed in the curse of the Winchester family...

We know almost nothing about a girl named Sarah Lockwood Purdy, except that she was born in 1840 and at the age of 22 she married William Winchester - the son of “that same” Oliver Winchester, inventor of the “gun that will defeat the West”, owner the American weapons company Winchester Repeating Arms Company and a very rich man.

We don't know how Sarah grew up, whether she had a good relationship with family or husband. Only two photographs of Sarah survive. In one photo there is a young, round-faced and rosy-cheeked girl with dark eyebrows and a hairstyle that was fashionable at that time. It leaves a strange impression. The look seems distant, the lips are compressed, and the tight stand-up collar creates an almost monastic image.

In the year of Sarah's wedding to William, William's father founded the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, a company that quickly and faithfully led him and the Winchester family to untold wealth.

Popular

Probably, the couple tried to have children for a long time, but for some reason they were unable to do so; Sarah and William’s first daughter was born only four years later. The baby did not live even two months - she died from protein deficiency. The couple had no more children. Oliver Winchester died in 1880, and a year later - after 19 years of marriage - Sarah's husband William also died of tuberculosis.

Sarah became the heir to a huge fortune. But, left alone, without children and her husband, with whom she lived most of her life, Sarah was at a loss.

"Until the hammers stop talking, you'll be alive"

Everything that concerns later life Sarah Winchester, surrounded by secrets. According to legend, Sarah sincerely believed that her family was cursed. This idea was given to her (or, perhaps, Mrs. Winchester’s speculations were only confirmed) by the then famous Boston medium Adam Koons. He convinced her that the culprit was the souls of those who were shot with a gun designed by her father-in-law. If they overtake her, the woman will suffer the same fate as her relatives.

“What should I do to avoid this?” - the widow probably asked, to which she received the answer that she needed to please the ghosts. Or hide from them. Or make them admire. In general, many versions have survived to this day: according to some, the ghosts had to be confused, while others recommended resorting to the afterlife sense of beauty.

History has not recorded how much money the Boston medium asked for such valuable advice, but Sarah listened to him. Although more prosaic versions say that the widow was simply looking for a new hobby due to prolonged depression. In addition, she and her husband had already invested in construction. One of the house's caretakers, Janan Boehme, who has been working in the mysterious mansion for almost forty years, suggested that Sarah simply wanted to do something familiar, something that had once brought pleasure to both her and her husband.

In 1884, she went to California with her sister and niece and bought a small farmhouse on 6,500 acres. To improve it, she had to spend $20 million of her inheritance. However, as we have already said, Sarah was very rich and could afford any whim. She received income from her husband's company, which then amounted to a thousand dollars a day. Nowadays, it’s the same as if she received $23 thousand.

Sarah refused the services of an architect and took on the matter herself, hiring carpenters who would work day and night - so that “the hammers would not stop talking.” They worked like this for 38 years, creating an amazing seven-story mansion. However, they say that this is an exaggeration; no one worked on the construction site day and night to please the generous employer.

True or not, but on the site of an old farmhouse, a huge monstrous house with 161 rooms (including 40 bedrooms and 2 ballrooms), 47 fireplaces, two storage rooms and three elevators has grown.

If Sarah really wanted to confuse the spirits who were hunting her, she probably succeeded. Many of the doors in the house did not lead anywhere - as soon as you opened them, you ran into a blank wall. Stairs led to the ceiling, small rooms were built into larger rooms, like a nesting doll. Some balconies face inward rather than outward. Chimneys are interrupted before reaching the ceiling. The door leading into one room is of normal size, but the other is tiny, as if made for Alice to drink from a bottle.

The house is full of allusions and symbols. Some people believe that there are so many “architectural mistakes” in the house because Sarah had a poor understanding of how houses should be built, and therefore made many mistakes in the drawings. But looking at some of the details, it's hard to believe it.

It seems that she was inspired by Alice in Wonderland, no less. For example, in one of the ballrooms parquet board changes color depending on the lighting: if the sun falls in a particular way, dark pieces of parquet become light, and light pieces become dark.

One of the windows turns the picture upside down, so it seems as if you are looking at an upside-down world.

Sarah Winchester is an eminent widow who inherited her husband's vast fortune and squandered it on building a huge estate designed to protect the woman from ghosts. At the same time, she dreamed of peace, recognition, and once sought to help the poor. Sarah Winchester's house in San Jose, California, still attracts tourists from all over the world as a mystical and mysterious building. A new owner does not forget to make money from it.

At the same time, the real Sarah Winchester was just an unfortunate victim of her belief in the curse hanging over her, and therefore tried to find peace in flight when she should have fought back her “ghosts.” However, who knows for sure? Perhaps Sarah Winchester actually had something to fear.

Biographical excerpts and early years

She was born Sarah Lockwood Purdy around 1840. Exact date, as well as the place where this woman was born, no one knows. Presumably, the girl was born in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. On September 30, 1862, she married the founder and head of Winchester & Co. William Wirt Winchester. At that time, his father was at the helm of the trust, and therefore the newlyweds could enjoy life without worrying about their future. The profession of Sarah Winchester's parents is unknown, presumably farming. Despite some weakness in the position of a woman, albeit from high society, being married, the heroine sought not only to spend, but also to increase her husband’s wealth.

Birth of a daughter

It should be noted that the absence of children for 4 years life together at that time it was considered, if not shameful, then quite strange. On June 15, 1866, the couple had a daughter named Annie Purdy Winchester. The girl lived until July 25, after which she died. The cause of death is unknown; it is quite possible that the child was already born rather weak. The couple never had children again and, as is known, did not even try to have them. The loss of her daughter hit the heroine hard, and for the first time her health deteriorated quite noticeably. It is not known for certain how Sarah Winchester managed to survive the tragedy, but in the end she closed herself off and practically did not speak. long time. Later, when she had already gained fame as a “crazy woman,” people around her noted how sad the woman’s eyes were.

Death of loved ones

In 1880, Oliver Winchester, the heroine's father-in-law, died. At that time, this became an even stronger blow, since Sarah’s husband was forced to take over the reins of the company. Combining grief over the loss of his father, concern for his wife and company, he was exhausted, looking tired and sick. In March 1881, William died of tuberculosis, suffering greatly before his death. At that time, Sarah Winchester, whose biography was actually concentrated in New Haven, decides to move. It was then that she had her first suspicions about the “curse” that hung over her. She believed that she was guilty of the death of her loved ones and was forced to live on, paying an unknown debt to mystical forces.

Approximate condition assessment

After the death of her husband, Sarah Winchester received not only his fortune, but also more than 50% in the family's arms company. At that time, the approximate estimate of Sarah Winchester's assets was $20 million, which in 2017, for example, would have amounted to 0.5 billion bucks. The company brought in an income of 1 thousand per day, which in terms of equivalent amounted to 25 thousand dollars per day. modern world. This should also include Sarah Winchester’s first house, a photo of which has not survived, as well as her car. In 1888, the lady acquired another 140 acres of land in California and organized a ranch there. She tried to support her family, her sister and brother, and bought a farm for them.

In the 1920s, Sarah Winchester purchased a boat marina and her workshop in Burlingame, California. There was also a ship called the Ark of Sarah. At the same time, family and friends began to suspect that the girl was crazy. Gossips were more merciless towards Mrs. Winchester. She was accused of going crazy. They claimed that Sarah was preparing for another flood, and that is why she bought a boat. If before that she tried to manage the company’s affairs and keep track of the money, now she was exclusively concerned with her own protection, in order to ensure which Sarah Winchester’s mansion was later built, which became a trap for her mistress.

Death and fate of the estate

The heroine died on September 5, 1922 from a heart attack in her sleep. After the body was discovered, a note about the deceased's last wishes was also found. There were 13 sheets in total, which the hostess also signed thirteen times. The house itself went to Mrs. Merian L. Marriott, who took what she wanted and sold the rest. According to unconfirmed reports, it took 6 and a half weeks to move all the furniture and personal belongings from the house, with movers removing several fully loaded cars every day. Sarah Winchester's house was so huge that it was not possible to find absolutely everything right away. At one time the lady was the most rich woman in the world, and she built her mansion for almost 38 years.

Sarah Winchester's house went under the hammer for an unknown price, after which the new owner turned it into entertainment for tourists, surrounded by rumors and hoaxes. The remains were buried in a local cemetery, but later relatives moved them to Connecticut, where Sarah found peace next to her husband and young daughter. On this moment photos of Sarah Winchester's mansion serve as bait for coming to California. The owners claim that this “gloomy and seedy” place can terrify even the strongest and most resilient. In fact, this is just entertainment for tourists for a considerable amount of money.

Heritage and history

Sarah herself appeared as a protagonist in the 2018 film Winchester. She was performed by actress Helen Mirren. Despite external differences, the image fit perfectly, and the picture itself turned out to be more tragic than frightening. Most experts believe that the story of Sarah Winchester is a classic example of hypertrophied persecution mania with obsessive and psychologically destructive ideas. And the woman herself became a victim of the disorder, but not of mystical forces. However, those who like horror will also find something of their own in the film. Scientifically, Sarah Winchester's house is just an attraction, although research has been conducted there to discover paranormal manifestations of the otherworldly.

Description of the mansion

The owner put everything she had into her project. At first, the house was conceived as a seven-story building, becoming the first skyscraper in the area. But in 1906 there was an earthquake, as a result of which the construction had to be frozen first and then significantly changed. Ultimately, Sarah Winchester's mansion appeared as a grotesque four-story building. Since the lady did not use the services of architects, but relied on her understanding of the essence of the house, construction lasted a very long time and was extremely problematic. So, for example, the owner could demand that an entire wing be rebuilt, simply because she did not like it for far-fetched reasons. Several times the workers tried to take up arms, but the lady dutifully paid. The original mansion is considered unfinished. It was repaired several times due to subsidence, but no one knows Sarah Winchester’s true construction plans to this day.

Reasons for construction

According to unconfirmed reports, the owner was thinking about a new house because of a medium from Boston. No one is certain about the actual words spoken to the widow at that time. It is believed that Sarah left the clairvoyant as pale as a sheet. According to the medium, her family was haunted by the curse of every soul that was taken by a rifle designed by the Winchesters. The ghosts allegedly took away first the daughter, and then Sarah’s husband. The frightened and apathetic woman took this statement on faith, after which she invested everything without a trace in the construction of her “fortress.” Her house was intended to be a spirit trap. It would take the souls forever to find the owner of the mansion. Constant reconstruction, changing projects, room layouts - all this cost a lot of money, and Sarah spent it recklessly. Only in her home could she sleep peacefully.

Presumably the medium who gave the widow this idea was named Adam Kuhn. At that time, people of his profession turned from just jesters and clowns into serious, supposedly specialists. They deceived and fooled the wealthy public with the help of special tricks. Devout Sarah would never have gone to see a medium, but she wanted to “hear” her husband too much. The deceiver took advantage of the woman's weakness and simply made up a ghost story to make it more convincing. Who would have imagined that Sarah would take this seriously. In addition, a specialist in communications with the paranormal stated that “the sound of hammers should not subside even for a minute,” and therefore construction was carried out constantly, and also very chaotically.

The Legend of the "Visitors"

There is an opinion that the medium told Sarah something else. “You must repent, ask them for forgiveness, give them something as a gift” - this is what that same phrase supposedly sounded like. For this purpose, the owner allocated a special “blue” room in the mansion. Every day a servant in black livery climbed to the very top high tower in the building, after which he rang the bell once exactly at midnight. At the same time, Mrs. Winchester received her visitors. Who they really were, no one knows. It is quite possible that the woman simply went crazy and began to see hallucinations, or that friends of spiritualism came to her. In any case, visitors were still seen. The conversations continued until 2 am, until the next bell rang, then the lady went to bed.

The Oddities of Sarah Winchester

The widow was an extremely extraordinary person during her lifetime. She abandoned the plans, and the builders complied with her demands, drawn on napkins at breakfast. Serving in the house was considered perhaps the most ordeal For a servant, it was difficult to learn the entire route to the mistress’s new bedroom. The woman was literally obsessed with the number 13. Most of the stairs in the house contained exactly this number of steps. Sarah wore 2-3 sets of clothes at a time in order to change her look and rush away at any second, even in the middle of a conversation, because she considered unpredictability her main defense against ghosts.

"Requests" from the other world

One day, Sarah demanded the creation of a triangular room for the sake of Sir Quentin Orwell, who died because of the famous rifle. Often empty rooms appeared in the house, in which there was only 1 chair among the furniture. All this was part of the constant demands from the "ghosts". Mrs. Winchester was so unusual that she could disperse a team during the construction process or force it to destroy everything at its roots and start again. Soon the workers began to leave the project, as they themselves became eyewitnesses of the manifestation of the otherworldly. Although it seems more likely that the widow simply ran out of money. Latest photos Sarah Winchester shows a tormented and sick person for whom life has become a burden.

Winchester Mansion today

At the moment, the mystical house has become one of the most popular attractions in California. It is huge, the number of rooms is 160. At the same time, it is very easy to get lost in the house, since many stairs lead into the walls, and doors open, for example, into the same room. Some tourists note that when they stay in the mansion for a long time, their heads begin to hurt, hallucinations and obsessions appear, and their perception and understanding of the essence of things suffers. Even now, when each room is located on the plan and painted in a light shade, the house evokes gloomy thoughts, and visitors feel as if they will never be able to find a way out.