Despite the Winchester Mystery Houseís cheerful appearance, this massive mansionís history is wrought with tragedy, mystery and even some ghosts. The Winchester Mystery House has even inspired a horror movie. Before you watch this movie, which exploits the mystery surrounding this house you might want to learn some of the more infamous facts regarding it. The story of the Winchester Mystery House is considered fascinating by Sugar Land Chiropractors.
The Winchester Mystery House, as it is called is named after Sarah Lockwood Winchester. Sarah was the wife of the gun magnate William Wirt Winchester. William Winchesterís family created the Winchester rifle which is known as the ìgun that won the westî. Sarah Winchester is known to have designed and overseen the construction of the huge Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion that bears her name. It is considered an oddity by Sugar Land Chiropractors that Sarah was the one to build the Winchester Mystery House.
Construction on the 24,000 square foot home which is located at South Winchester Boulevard in California began in 1886. It is difficult for Sugar Land Chiropractors to imagine a house that is 24,000 square feet. Many people believe that Sarah built the house out of fear. When her husband died of tuberculosis in 1881, folklore states that Sarah sought out a spiritualist who could commune with the dead. While she was presumably looking for solace or closure, the story goes that she received instead a chilling warning.
According to history, through the medium, William told his widow that their tragedies (the couple had only on child which was a daughter named Annie, who had died when she was only six weeks old, was a result of the blood money the family made from the sale of Winchester rifles. Whether William actual spoke to his widow from the grave is disconcerting to Sugar Land Chiropractors. William warned his widow that vengeful ghosts would seek her out. William also warned his widow that she would need to build a home for herself and for the ghosts who had died from the powerful Winchester rifles.
Sarah was advised to leave their home in New Haven, Connecticut and move west, where she was to build mansion for the spirits. There was one caveat and that was construction on the house was to never stop. William supposedly warned her that as long as she continues building the house she would live and not die. However, is she being to stop building the house she would die. It is unimaginable to Sugar Land Chiropractors that someone could actually believe if they stopped building, they would die.
The house was under construction for 38 years. In 1886, Sarah purchased an eight-room farmhouse in San Jose, California and began building. She employed a crew of carpenters who worked in shifts and construction continued on the house day and night, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year for 38 years. It is difficult for Sugar Land Chiropractors to grasp the logic behind the constant construction of the Winchester Mystery House. The work stopped on September 5, 1922 because the Sarah died of heart failure in her sleep. History has it that because Sarah died so suddenly that the carpenters quit working on the house so abruptly as to leave half-hammered nails protruding from the walls.
The Winchester Mystery House is full of architectural oddities. Sarah issued many bizarre demands to the carpenters. Some of these demands included trap doors, secret passages, a skylight in the floor, spider web windows and staircases that let nowhere. There are also doors that open to blank walls, and a dangerous door on the second floor that opens out into nothing except for an alarming drop to the yard below. The uniqueness of the house is amazing to Sugar Land Chiropractors.
An earthquake once rattled the house and trapped Sarah inside. In 1906, the great San Francisco Earthquake cause three floors of the then seven-story house to cave in. A postcard published in 1900 shows a tower that was later toppled by the natural disaster. There also were several rooms destroyed in this disaster. It is a curiosity to Sugar Land Chiropractors why none of these rooms were ever rebuilt. Instead these rooms were cordoned off. Although Sarah was trapped in the Daisy Bedroom she was not injured. However, she had to be dug out by the staff because the entrance was blocked by rubble.
The house was designed like a labyrinth. History has it that the labyrinth layout of the house was meant to confuse the ghosts and allowing Sarah some peace and a means to escape the ghosts. Sarah was the only architect of this house and no master building plan has ever been uncovered. Sarah may well be the only person who ever truly will know all of the secrets of the Winchester Mystery House. The staff at Sugar Land Chiropractors agree that Sarah will probably be the only person to ever understand the construction of the Winchester Mystery House. When movers were called in after her death, one stated that is was a house where downstairs lead neither to the cellar nor upstairs to the roof.
Some say the symbols in the house point not to ghosts but to Francis Bacon. An alternate theory on the Winchester Mystery Houseís unique and confusing design is that Sarah was creating a puzzle full of encryptions inspired by the work of Francis Bacon. There is speculation that clues to the houseís true meaning are hidden in the ballroom. This theory suggests that Sarah was a member of a mystic society or a secret society or possibly both.
There are other theories and one such theory is that Sarah simply was crazy. History states that Sarah was coping with her grief of losing her husband with a flurry of activity or she was crazy. However, Winchester Mystery House historian Janan Boehm paints a different picture of Sarah. She believes that the continual renovations reminded Sarah of the good times when she and William built their New Haven house together. She also thinks that Sarah was just and are not philanthropist who used her family fortune to purposefully employ the San Jose community. Sarah was thought to have a social conscience.
Once in Winchester Mystery House Sarah was reclusive but not alone. There is only one know photo of Sarah which was taken surreptitiously. Though she was reclusive, she was never alone. She had 18 servants, 18 gardeners and the ever-present construction team working on the grounds. Each day Sarah would meet with the foreman to discuss the ever-evolving building plans. It is also thought that each night she visited the SÈance Room which was located in the center of the house.