![]() ![]() San Jose Historical Society The last known portrait of Sarah Winchester.Īlthough Sarah is best known for building what would come to be known as the Winchester Mystery House, she also left other marks on the world. Perhaps she hoped these ghostly apparitions would simply get lost on their way to haunting her. In an effort to “confuse” any ghosts hoping to contact her directly, Sarah Winchester added several unusual touches: staircases that ended abruptly, windows that opened to interior rooms, doorways that opened to several-story drops, and hallways that appeared to go nowhere before circling back onto themselves. Whatever the answer from these spiritualists was, Winchester never ceased construction on her mansion, continuously making additions and adjustments for the sake of its spectral inhabitants. According to local legend, Winchester invited these spiritualists to direct her on how to best appease the spirits (still, it would seem, fearing a life of endless haunting). 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.īefore long the rundown farmhouse was a seven-story mansion, built by a team working round the clock while Winchester was also regularly visited by spiritualists and mediums from across the city. In 1884, Sarah Winchester purchased an unfinished farmhouse in the Santa Clara Valley. Library of Congress Sarah Winchester’s bedroom in her mystery mansion. Now the only question was what to do with it. In a short period of time, Sarah Winchester lost her daughter, husband, and her father-in-law, and gained a fortune capable of keeping a small country afloat. Though she never took up a position in the business, her stake left her with a continuous income of $1,000 a day (or about $26,000 a day in 2019 dollars). Suddenly, Sarah Winchester was in possession of a $20 million fortune (equivalent to about $500 million in the present day) as well as a 50 percent stake in the Winchester Arms company. Then, just a year later, William himself suddenly fell ill and died from tuberculosis, leaving everything to Sarah. To further complicate matters, William’s father Oliver died in 1880, leaving the company in the hands of his only son. In her eyes, the Winchester family business profited from death, something she couldn’t cope with. Though she and William remained married, Sarah became increasingly distressed, often over the source of the company’s - and thus her own - wealth. San Jose Historical Society William Wirt Winchester, Sarah’s ill-fated husband.īy some accounts, Sarah never quite recovered from the death of her infant daughter. ![]() 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. Unfortunately, the Winchesters’ joy would be short-lived. Four years into the marriage, Sarah bore a daughter named Annie Pardee Winchester. During the marriage, William worked as treasurer for his family’s company alongside his father. ![]() William and Sarah Winchester married in September 1862. When Tragedy Struck Sarah Winchester’s Family In particular, the 1873 model was incredibly popular with settlers and was widely used during the American Indian wars.īetween the massive sales and increasing popularity, the Winchester family amassed quite a fortune - a fortune that would one day become the foundation of Sarah Winchester’s strange obsession. The company had made a name for itself as one of the first to mass-produce firearms with the ability to fire multiple rounds without reloading. The only son of firearms manufacturer Oliver Winchester, William was heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. By the time Sarah was of age to marry, her parents already had someone in mind - a man who would ensure their daughter would be taken care of for her entire life. To make matters easier, the Pardee family was acquainted with several other affluent families through their church. Her high position in society put Sarah in an excellent position for marriage to an equally-privileged man. The family ensured that their seven children were well rounded: Sarah learned four languages as a child and was admitted to the “Young Ladies Collegiate Institute” at Yale College. Her father, Leonard Pardee, was a successful carriage manufacturer, and her mother was popular in the upper echelons of New Haven’s society. Prior to the building of the Winchester Mystery House - and perhaps to the dismay of horror buffs - Sarah Winchester was an ordinary, albeit wealthy, woman.īorn in New Haven, Connecticut to upper-class parents around 1840, Sarah Winchester enjoyed the spoils of a luxurious life. Wikimedia Commons A young Sarah Winchester. ![]()
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