In the dead of night, Sarah Pardee Winchester roamed the dim corridors of her mansion, her footsteps muffled by the oppressive silence. But she was not alone. Shadows danced along the walls, twisting and contorting into ghastly shapes.
As she ventured deeper into the labyrinthine maze, whispers filled the air, sinister and mocking. Faces appeared in the darkness, their eyes hollow and accusing, their mouths twisted into grotesque grins.
Desperate to escape the living nightmare, she sought refuge in her never-ending construction, each room a sanctuary from the ghosts that lingered just beyond her reach.
The Winchester House, or the Winchester Mystery House as it is known today, was home to Sarah Pardee Winchester, wife to the late William Winchester who passed away in 1881. William’s father was the founder of The Winchester Repeating Arms Company. When William died, Sarah inherited over 20 million US dollars along with a 50% ownership in the family business.
Death in the Family
Sarah and William had a child together, Annie Pardee Winchester, born June 15th, 1866, and died merely 6 weeks later from marasmus, also known as severe malnutrition. In the span of 12 years, Sarah lost almost all of her closest family.
Sarah’s father died in 1869, at the age of sixty. In 1880, she lost two close family members. Her mother, and her father-in-law. The very next year, in 1881, William passed away due to tuberculosis. He didn’t reach his 44th birthday. In 1884 she lost her sister.
The beginning of the 1880s was especially tough for Sarah and motivated her to seek a fresh start in California.
Llanada Villa
The house in San Jose, California, later known as the Winchester Mystery House, was purchased by Sarah in 1886. The eight-room farmhouse and property reminded her of the Llanada Alavasa, a place in Spain that she and William had visited. And so Sarah gave her new home the name Llanada Villa.
Keep Building, Keep Expanding
Sarah, now one of the most wealthy women in the world thanks to her ownership in her late husband’s family business, immediately starts renovating and expanding Llanada Villa. Over her lifetime, until her death, she grew her home to over 24,000 square feet (2229 m2) and 160 rooms. Sarah originally hired two architects but started drawing up plans herself and eventually dismissed the architects altogether. Her home was built with a mix of styles, such as the Queen Anne Revival, Victorian, Romanesque, and Gothic.
Sarah’s Death
On September 5th, 1922, Sarah died of heart failure. Most of her wealth was donated to charity, while the contents of her home were passed on to her niece, Marian Marriott, who quickly put everything up for auction. A group of investors purchased the home and leased it to John and Mayme Brown, who immediately turned it into a tourist attraction. They finally purchased the property in 1931.
Is the Winchester Mystery House Haunted?
No one quite knew why Sarah insisted on expanding her home. Many non-sensical decisions were being made, such as some of the home’s 2000 doors leading straight into a wall, trap doors in the floor, or walled-off windows facing its interior in strange places and stairways ending up in the ceilings.
According to folklore, a medium told Sarah that she would be haunted by those killed by the Winchester rifle unless she went out west to build a house large enough to house all of them. Other more sinister versions suggest that Sarah was driven west because she was being haunted in the family mansion back in New Haven. As she settled into her new home, she would realize the ghosts had followed her to California. In order to try to outsmart them, she turned her home into a confusing maze. Another version says that she believed she had to keep building or she would experience death.
