Winchester House
September 10, 2016
I had heard about the Winchester House while growing up. A reclusive wealthy woman who had carpenters working around the clock continually adding to the estate? The folklore goes that in a séance, she was told that there were evil spirits who were killed by the hands of people using Winchester guns. The evil spirits had cursed her. To keep them happy she had to move west and to build a house and never stop building. She did exactly that. Carpenters worked on her house 24 hours a day, 365 days a year until the moment she died.
If that wasn’t enough, there were staircases that went nowhere, hallways that just ended, doors that opened up with nothing but a wall behind it, and doors that opened up to nothing but a two-story drop. This was all done to throw of the spirits. It was said that at midnight every night, she conducted a séance where she would receive the building plans for the next day. A great story to tell around the campfire or at a sleepover.
Great story and one that I knew from my childhood. I had the Winchester House just to see how this measured up to what was left to my imagination! As a child, I heard plenty of haunted house stories, but this one always stood out due to the amount of money spent and how large the house was. It was a fun morning and the tour did not disappoint me. The stories that I had read and heard as a child were recounted while we went from room to room. My only disappointment was that I didn’t book the night tour!
Although it was interesting and entertaining, I wasn’t buying the folklore. Eccentric, reclusive and wealthy leads to a lot of rumors and gossip. Sarah Winchester was also well educated who spoke several languages and attended school at Yale University. Were the stairs leading to nowhere trying to throw the spirits or was it due to a change in plans or a lack of planning? We will never know but it is still fun to see the house and wonder, what was she thinking?
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