The Madness of Sarah Winchester

A few years ago, I was friends with a boy called Marc.  He was really into paranormal things, which I always like to hear, although never fully believe.  The best story he ever told me was about The Winchester Mystery House.  

I think the reason why I like this story, this true story, is that it can be seen as a paranormal story but it is more about madness, and what it can do.  I don't believe the paranormal element to the story, but I do believe in this woman's very sad descent into madness.

Sarah Winchester was born around 1840.  With her very good upbringing, and keener than usual intellect, she was quite the catch around New Haven.  She married William Wirt Winchester who was the son of Oliver Fisher Winchester, who manufactured the famous Winchester rifle.  They had a happy marriage until their young daughter died of the childhood illness marasmus.  Understandably upset, Sarah fell into a deep depression, which many believe she never quite recovered from.  Fifteen years later, her husband died young from tuberculous, which added to her depression and distress.  It is reported that at this stage, she sought the help from a spiritualist.

This spiritualist told Sarah that her family, and subsequent fortune now that William was dead, were being haunted by the souls of the people who had been killed by Winchester rifles.  She was told that the death of her daughter and husband was because of these spirits, and that Sarah needed to be aware she could be next.  The spiritualist told Sarah that if she wanted to escape this fate, she needed to move west and build a mansion for the spirits.  So long as construction of the house never ceased, Sarah's life would be safe.

Now, honestly.  I am all for 'live and let live', but if a depressed millionaire widow I knew was being fed this bunkum, I would wade in.  

Instead, Sarah found a property in the Santa Clara Valley in California and bought it in 1884.  For the next THIRTY EIGHT years she would pour all of her money and efforts into building this insane house.  She had virtually unheard of financial resource for the project, as she was the sole heiress of the Winchester estate.

She filled the house with architectural oddities- a staircase that goes down seven steps, then up eleven; a winding staircase of seven flights of forty four steps, rising only to about nine feet (as each step is only 2 inches); secret passageways to confuse ghosts.  It is rumoured that Sarah would walk through the house through secret passageways, in weird patterns, so as to confuse any ghosts which might have been following her.  She also slept in a different bedroom each night for the same reason.

And she could have slept in a different bedroom quite easily... At the time of her death in 1922,  the unrelenting construction had rambled over six acres. The Sprawling mansion contained 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens. There's millions of weird things about this house, I guess kind of confirmation biases- where people are finding things to support their paranormal beliefs

Speculation is rife about why Sarah did all these things.  She left no journals, or interviews, so whether it was to wade off spirits, or to cope with the grief of losing a young family.  Who can say?  However, the house that remains today is a fascinating and scary insight to wealth and insanity.