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Today's post we're gonna go back to talking about houses. In particular a very odd house, with odd fixtures, odd rooms, and odd architecture. I'm talking about, of course, my hometown's historical monument, The Winchester Mystery House.
The Winchester Mystery House. For over 30 years, the constant sounds of construction were heard in the house, never stopping, even during holidays; constant remodeling and shifting of floor plans, thousands of dollars spent, all for the whim of a single woman. Known as "the house built by spirits, the Winchester House has been long purported as being haunted by not only the owner herself, Sarah Winchester, but the spirits of all those who died at the end of the famous Winchester Rifle, the gun that "won the West".
Is it true? Who can say? Nonetheless, the Winchester House's reputation is renowned for not only its lonely tragic history, or its whimsical opulence, but for its beautiful and bizarre architecture, and of course its purported haunting.
(image scanned from postcard collection, photo by Ken Glaser Jr)
A more thorough history and background of the stately home can be found on the website and wikipedia, so I won't exhaust you too much with the history. But for a brief sampling, Sarah married into the Winchester family, but after the tragic loss of both her husband and her daughter, she moved to San Jose and bought a modest farm house. From there, without formal floor plans or architecture, she began the construction of the mansion in 1884, under the idea from a medium that the spirits from those killed by the rifle were out for revenge. Its said that the odd and bizarre details of the home, from its twisting labyrinths of halls (sound familiar), to rooms with no obvious exit, to doors that lead into drops into the garden, to even staircases that lead to nowhere but the ceiling, were constructed to fool the spirits and keep them busy.
(photo of construction before the 1906 Earthquake, image scanned from postcard)
Whatever the reason, be it appeasing the spirits or Sarah's' own whimsical tastes, the mansion boasts rooms that put video game dungeons to shame, as well as beautiful details such as grand parquet floors, stained glass windows, and beautiful gardens. Originally the home was roughly 7 stories tall, until the devastating 1906 earthquake destroyed parts of the construction (and actually trapped Sarah in one of her many bedrooms). Now, the house stands at 4 stories, with roughly 160 rooms still intact. In fact, Mrs. Winchester felt the earthquake was a signal she was spending too much time and money at the front of the house and following her rescue and repairs, she sealed up many of the beautiful front rooms, never to be used again. Many rooms of the mansion are inaccessible due to the constant remodeling and construction, buried behind walls and other rooms.
Construction finally ceased after her death in 1922, where the final tally of her house of spirits would come to roughly $5.5 mil, which, adjusted for inflation now, would be a whopping $71 million. Thousands of dollars of glasswork and fixtures were never used, and sit in a storeroom, gathering dust. Of course, with her large inheritance, money was never any worry for Sarah, and as such, the mansion's many halls, staircases, and rooms are numerous and plentiful, as well as beautiful and arresting, with no expense spared.
(image scanned from postcard, photo by Ken Glaser Jr.)
As a resident of San Jose, and a consumate ghost nut, I've visited the house a few times over my life, each time finding something new to be interested in, be it the art and style of the home, to the ghost stories, to even its inspiration for me in my own work. I've taken a few pics of the house, so we can take a couple views of the mansion that one can only see if they take the tours. Every pic after this jump will be photos I've taken on tours.
The number 13 was, of course, pretty significant to Sarah, with her obsession with the spirit world, so 13 was a motif in many of her details, from windows with 13 panes of glass, to chandeliers with 13 candles. I love these little spiderweb windows. I totally love the craft put into them, but then again, I come from a family where we have about 8 storage tubs full of Halloween decorations compaired to the 4 tubs we have for Christmas.
Ah, that doesn't matter. Halloween is the only holiday where you can dress up and threaten people with minor property damage and get candy in return. Jesus sure don't offer that to me. Holla.
There are plenty of these windows and much more elaborate ones in the $25,000 Storeroom, full of material Sarah purchased in her lifetime but never got to install.
But my favorite window would be this one here at right. Its this gorgeous Tiffany glass window installation, with intricate patterns and probably thousands of dollars worth of colored glass. It was meant to catch the sun and glitter and shine into the hall.
Unfortunately, Sarah had it installed on the wrong side of the house, where the sun never reaches at any point in its trek across the sky. It sits in the constant shadow of the house, completely useless, and rendered even more useless by the fact its also been built around by other rooms and staircases.
One would call it a waste, and you wouldn't be wrong in thinking so. I could buy a like a dozen Wiis and X-boxes with the scratch the window cost, but at the same time, I'm not that surprised. I mean, this house is bizarre as it is, with its doorways opening out 2 stories off the ground, not unlike a Tom and Jerry house trap. There's probably no way to see this window illuminated the way it was intended, but nonetheless, its actually still a very pretty window.
Other oddities of the house are the stairs that go straight into the ceiling. Unfortunatley, in recent years, the staircase has been roped off, so that it preserves the integrity of the stairs. Sadly, you can't really see where it leads, as its been roped off short of a corner, where it turns into the rest of the stairs up to the top. The best I could get was the following pic, below at left. I do remember when I was younger, probably in middle or elementary school, where you could actually have access to the stairs themselves.
Also of note are the itty-bitty shorty stairs that are installed around the house. They're wide stairs, about twice as wide/deep as normal ones, but only maybe 2-3 inches tall. These stairs were for Sarah, whom had arthritis severely, and needed shallow stairs to climb. I've tripped on them a few times because you end up overestimating the distance and depth, but I'm not always the only ones. Its usually amusing to watch people climb them.
In addition to being very short, they also have to take longer paths to go up levels. Where a single staircase could take you up half a flight, the smaller stairs would require 3 flights to cover the same distance.
There are also plenty of windows and holes in the floors that look down upon other rooms like the kitchen. Its rumored that Sarah liked to spy on her servants and built the house in such a way to keep watch over all the people working in it. This pic shows a hole that goes straight down a whole story, right into a kitchen sink.
There once was a play here in San Jose years ago, call The Haunting of Sarah Winchester. It was a play about her life, when she moves to San Jose to build her famous mansion. It gives a fictional account of why she built the home (to appease the spirits), but also angles the story that she was an underrated architech, and she eventually falls in love with one of the spirits that come to occupy the home, a rough and blunt cowboy type character whom learns to love. Its a silly little play, of course, with its shipping and the music (it was an excellent musical), but of great note was the set, a huge and elaborate setting that included some of the most famous details of the house, that were used as plot points (and actually were moveable, so that the set would open up and show other rooms for other scenes), such as the hole into the kitchen sink, that many of the spirits, confused by the weird architecture, would fall into. However, once a spirit was able to come to terms with their unfinished business, the door would allow them access to the afterlife, and allow them to leave the house (a sort of purgatory).
Weirdly enough, I enjoyed the play. Go figure. ^^
The house, I learned later, was made from a redwood frame; additionally, the original title for House of Leaves was Redwood. Coincidence? No, just some inspiration.
This floor here actually helped me in a project a couple years ago. I had a set of twins by the name of Ashley and Oakley, and heavens to betsy, no surname! The parquet floor here was made from 4 kinds of wood: Maple, Birch, Ash, and Oak. Well, I took it as a sign, so Winchester became the twins' last name. 8D And now you know. The rest of. The Story. GOOD DAY.
In any case, I found the floors were really pretty, since they had these awesome patterns. I totally want those in my house one day.
Pft. AS IF. I don't got that kinda scratch, I work for a living. 8D
This pic here is in the lobby of the gift shop. Its a giant gingerbread replica of the entire house, preserved under glass. Its quite a few years old, and is adorned with candies and frosting. I have never seen a more tastier haunt. XD This piece of work definently puts many other pastry houses to shame. Got to fullview. LOOK AT THE DETAIL. I'm pretty sure Sarah would be more than plased about the effort that went into it. Easily one of my fav exhibits on the property (next to the gun museum).
Unfortunately, static and still pictures don't really do the house justice. There are plenty of other features I haven't gone over (such as her innovative garden greenhouse room, which had removable floors for watering, and a primitive but then-technologically advanced shower), as well as bits of historical facts that you could hear when on tour. If you're ever in San Jose, I totally, heartily and wholeheartedly recommend visiting the Winchester House. You will probably not see a wisp of a spirit or have any sort of supernatural encounter, but the home itself is a true joy to experience. Highly recommended.
--Dio (10/15/10)
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