The Haunted Files explore haunted places, either that are famous or little known. I do some research into the places history and talk about the apparent haunting and the possible reasons for it from research collected on history and background and then make a conclusion.
This shall be a 5-part series with one released each Tuesday.
Winchester Mystery House – Description
The Winchester Mystery House is a giant mansion located in San Jose, California in the United States of America. But it isn’t like any normal mansion you may have ever heard of, sure it’s big and roomy but it is also something you’d likely not witness anywhere else, the makeup of the mansion is something you’d expect to read about in some kind of fantasy novel that is perhaps horror based or based upon magic or maybe a murder mystery.
The features it has within it seem to be the making of a mad person and that may have indeed been the case when legend has it that Sarah Winchester was told something startling by a median, leading to her building this crazy and big personal residence. One who goes in here may be baffled at what they come across, of what seems to be severe architectural error, but one can be assured that oddly enough what is found in it was all intentional and if legend is believed for what Sarah Winchester believed was good reason or perhaps even some intentional puzzle. Although one may not be so put at ease even then.
The most popular legend is that this big mansion was allegedly made for spirits and ghosts, specifically of those that were killed by Winchester rifles, which had been invented by the family she became a part of after marrying William Wirt Winchester. But there are other theories as well which I will delve into further on.
With almost 1,000 doors, 10,000 windows, dozens upon dozens of fireplaces, skylights, stairways, three elevators, six kitchens and things such as electricity, carbide gaslights, wool insulation, indoor shower and sewage draining system it was not only an architectural oddity but also an architectural wonder for its time. Altogether the house has at least 160 rooms although it is said that when trying to count the rooms before turning the house into a tourist attraction, it was a different number each time so they just rounded it to 160, interestingly a new room was discovered in 2016, a space in the attic that had up until that point been boarded up.
Although the house looks strange, there is speculation that at least some of it may have been practical for Mrs. Winchester as she was very short (4ft 10in) and also suffered from severe arthritis, so features such as small and narrow switchback stairs, although looking strange and unpractical, may actually have been useful for Mrs. Winchester. That is of course not to say everything was practical for her, there is clearly much to the house that didn’t have a clear use and was indeed downright strange and baffling.
Looking at the house from above really gives a sense at how crazy the entire thing looks, with just more and more and more constantly having been added and stacked on to it, it really looks like something out of this world, a maze of a residence. It’s worth sits at about a staggering $71 million today but those who own it have chosen for it to serve as a tourist attraction, allowing people to check out the behemoth oddity filled mansion themselves and hear the stories and history… and maybe even, if one believes, have a paranormal encounter or solve the puzzle behind the house.
The History of Winchester Mystery House
Sarah Lockwood Winchester designed and oversaw the construction of what is today called the Winchester Mystery House via the large fortune she inherited from her late husband, with construction starting in 1886 and continuing on until her death in 1922 – although legend claims the construction of the house never ceased at any point during that time period, an autobiography on Sarah Winchester called Captive of the Labyrinth appears to refute this by saying that Mrs. Winchester would regularly dismiss workers for months at a time. But it is fact that the house continued to have more added on to it up until Mrs. Winchester’s death, just not in constant unstopping fashion.
The 2010 autobiography as a whole was rather dismissive of the haunted legend.
Before construction begun Mrs. Winchester’s husband William Wirt Winchester had died from tuberculosis in 1881 and legend has it that in Sarah Winchester’s grief filled days after this she sought out a median, most likely to get some kind of closure from the death of her husband, but instead of simply closure, legend says that she received a horrifying warning from her deceased husband, saying that their misfortune (such as the death of their only daughter at six weeks old) was due to blood money owned from those who had been killed by Winchester Rifles.
Her deceased husband warned her that these spirits would come for her as well and that she must build a residence for herself and for those restless spirits in order for her to be protected from their vengeful wrath. Sarah was then told to leave her home in New Haven, Connecticut and move West to build the home for the spirits. Legend also says that there was also a catch that if she ever stopped building the house at any point she would die, so she must keep construction going in order to live.
And thus, legend claims that this is exactly what happened. In 1886 Sarah purchased a farmhouse that originally had eight-rooms in San Jose, California and from then the expansion begun. Legend says that the carpenters split shifts so that construction could go on and on non-stop, both day and night, for each day, week, month and year, never stopping, that is until September 5th 1922 when Mrs. Winchester died in her sleep from heart failure. Legend claims that when the carpenters heard the news of her death, they instantly ceased work, including leaving areas unfinished and left the premises.
What was built though was far from normal as the house didn’t feature the usual architecture that you would expect, but also included a bunch of strange features that appear to be entirely useless, such as random trapdoors, stairs that lead to dead ends, doors that open to dead ends, even a skylight in the floor as well as a door on the 2nd floor of the house that just leads out to a dangerous drop to the yard below, among other strangeness, some legend claims she held seances to receive building instructions for the house. There were also many hallways that bended and winded about the house and a number of hidden passages, some have theorized that it may have been some sort of way to confuse any vengeful ghosts/spirits in the house. It certainly sounds like something you’d expect out of Hogwarts.
Of course, there are also other theories around why the house was designed in this way, such as it even being some kind of giant puzzle designed by Mrs. Winchester and that it was inspired by English philosopher Francis Bacon, including symbols related to his work and a cypher that identifies him in the ballroom, such as within the Shakespearean windows. Some believe that if one can figure out the puzzle then the true meaning behind the house’s design will be uncovered/realized. There has been much rumour and speculation around Bacon being part of secret societies such as the Freemasons and Rosicrucians and as such many who ascribe to this theory believed that Mrs. Winchester herself was a member of these societies to and constructed much of her house around both groups symbolism and tradition.
Another oddity was the connection the house had to the number 13 for whatever reason, with it symbolized a lot in the house, such as windows having 13 panes, or stairways with 13 steps, 13-paneled ceilings and may even have as many as 13 bathrooms. But this wasn’t only seen in just the house, Mrs. Winchester’s will was also in 13-parts and it was signed by Mrs. Winchester 13 times. To many of us it sounds rather unlucky, but some believe it may again connect to the theorized Francis Bacon and secret society symbolism.
Other theories include Winchester coping with the grief from the death of her husband, such as by building a home that reminded her of the happy times her and her husband had originally building their home back in New Haven, Connecticut and that this could very well have been mistaken for madness, which was even admitted to by Mrs. Winchester in a letter (that the house likely looked crazy, but does not confirm the grief theory), Mrs. Winchester also dressed in black dress, a sign of continued mourning. Another theory is that she was doing all the work so she could employ the San Jose community and, in an essence, continually put money into the community.
In 1906 there was a major earthquake that struck California and did quite a bit of damage to the house as well as trapping Mrs. Winchester in a bedroom. Three floors had caved in leading to a number of rooms being destroyed and never rebuilt and a tower was also destroyed and never rebuilt, but no one was killed or injured at the house. The room Mrs. Winchester was trapped in was apparently the room discovered in 2016.
Throughout its history as a residence for Mrs. Winchester the house had dozens of workers present such as the carpenters, gardeners and servants and legend say that in that essence she was never or often for long periods not alone although she never had another partner again or any children. The workers were said to have been treated very well and were made sure to have comforting accommodation and were even treated as fondly as family would be. It is said that the bond between Mrs. Winchester and her workers was so close that after her death and in respect for Mrs. Winchester none of the workers ever spoke a word on the meaning of the house and why it was built the way it is.
Not long after Mrs. Winchester’s death the house was purchased and was turned into a tourist attraction from December 1923 and remains a tourist attraction till this very day, allowing all those who likely had rumours and gossip of the house, which I am sure there was much of in the locality over the years, finally have a look at it themselves, and I can only imagine the shock and awe at what they got to see.
In 1924, Harry Houdini, an illusionist and stunt performer visited the house in an attempt to debunk the ghost legend but was apparently unable to come to a conclusion and felt that there was something off about the house and apparently him calling it “the Winchester Mystery House” is what popularized the name.
The Haunting of the Winchester Mystery House
So, what are people seeing in the alleged haunting? What is happening and what are visitors and employees alike hearing? Some have had such profound experiences here that the house has been given the most haunted in the country label, although the previous Eastern State Penitentiary would challenge on that count, in fact a number of places would as there is no official most haunted location.
Although if the legends are true and those who have been killed by Winchester rifles are haunting the house – which would be many, many thousands upon thousands of people, then it certainly could qualify as the most haunted place in the US.
The haunted legend has also had a recent horror movie made about it, called Winchester: The House that Ghosts Built.
The official Winchester Mystery House website gives some insight on the haunting, including that of an alleged spirit called Clyde, a man with a moustache that a number of visitors have claimed to see working around the house, such as repairing the ballroom fireplace or pushing a wheelbarrow in the basement, described as having black/dark hair and wearing white overalls and a Victorian boater hat. The website indicates that some visitors mistook the specter as an actor, only to realize to their shock that no such actor had been hired. There is also a photo on the website that includes the man they believe the ghost to be.
Another common report is that of disembodied footsteps about the rooms and hallways of the house, as if someone or some people are nearby, but no one can be found, some believe this to be the ghosts or residual haunting of the former laborer’s of the Winchester Mystery House, still working to this day.
Another one is being touched or tapped by an unseen force, in one such story a maintenance worker at the house on a step ladder claimed to be tapped on the shoulder twice, unable to see anything upon looking behind and soon the worker got out of there.
There have been reports of disembodied sighing as well and another common sighting is that of transparent apparitions floating about the hallways and rooms of the house, often either reported by staff or visitors.
There are some videos and photos out there that have alleged to catch some of the paranormal activity, such as unexplained floating lights and even full on apparitions in the windows.
The Conclusion
So, we come to the big question, is the Winchester Mystery House haunted? Many who believe in the haunting ascribe to the legend that it is haunted by those who have been killed by Winchester rifles throughout history but there are also those who do not believe that the Winchester House is haunted at all.
Those who instead ascribe to the theory that the house was built around freemasonry symbolism and in inspiration of Francis Bacon do not tend to believe that the house is haunted and one of the blogs on it I came across has even claimed that the legend of the haunting was made up by those who run the house as a tourist attraction as a way of attracting more people to the house as it makes it more mysterious, keeps an air of mystery in place and of course the paranormal inspires a lot of popular interest. This blogger indicated that it was an insult to the memory of Mrs. Winchester, a woman of logic and intelligence, to have her house paraded as a ghostly attraction and a legend that makes her seem like a mad-woman.
One thing to note is that no one apart from Mrs. Winchester has ever been reported to have died in the house, which one may think would make a haunting less likely, although that doesn’t have to be a rule as no one truly knows how hauntings work if they do exist, many alleged hauntings appear to be connected to death, misery or dark history, but others may be curses or those long gone who are out for revenge. Who is to say that a haunting cannot work in such a way as it is claimed to have at the Winchester Mystery House?
There is no written proof such as in letters from Mrs. Winchester that ever talked of the reasoning behind the building of the house, either on the symbolism or the paranormal theory, no known or evident reason was ever given for why the house was being built in the way that it was and it would seem that the true reason, whether we have figured it out or not, was taken to the grave with Mrs. Winchester, unless of course there is something that can be solved from figuring out a puzzle, maybe those on the symbolism theory believe that they have already figured it out.
Then of course there is the grief theory, which would appear to make more sense in the fact that Mrs. Winchester may be reluctant to talk about it or give any indication to that and then the generosity theory, that she was pumping her wealth into the community, again if this was the case there is no clear evidence.
Maybe there is no reason at all, perhaps she just decided that’s what she wanted to do. People like to have reasoning for things they don’t understand but one rarely stops to think that maybe things don’t always have to have a reason behind them, it’s that it just is because that’s what they wanted to do and that’s that. Maybe she simply just wanted to be different and construct something unique that would be marveled at for years to come or simply just for her own awe.
My conclusion is that perhaps the belief in the paranormal at Winchester Mystery House, if there is any at all, merely manifested from the legend that is so strongly associated with the house and Mrs. Winchester. Some believe that if enough people think about something such as that, it can possibly conjure such forces into being.
Of course, we also have to think that perhaps a simple residual haunting isn’t so far-fetched, as the workers who did so much to the house and were working on it so often could have left behind some kind of residual imprint, which may explain the Clyde ghost.
People are going to latch on to the theory that to them makes the most sense and to them can put their mind at rest on what the reasoning behind the house is. For myself I find that I lean more towards either the symbolism theory, now that I have read into it, I feel like it makes more sense, or the grief theory. But that doesn’t have to mean the place isn’t haunted, maybe it is but perhaps just not in the way we entirely think.
Bibliography
https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/kt1x0nc9v2/ – Winchester House before 1906 earthquake.
http://thetruthaboutthewinchesterhouse.com/ – Winchester House symbolism theory
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=K2Zp3Tdl3OQC&dq=isbn:9780826219053 – Sarah Winchester autobiography.
https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/sarahs-story/ – Some history on the house (and the paranormal legend)
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/527411/14-haunting-facts-about-winchester-mystery-house – some loose information.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2018/01/30/winchester-house-helen-mirren-true-story/1076785001/ – loose information.
https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/a-haunted-history/ – haunting information and Clyde photo.
https://abc7news.com/news/new-room-found-at-san-joses-winchester-mystery-house/1548352/ – new room discovered
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/02/winchester-helen-mirren-haunted-house-san-jose – Winchester House historical information.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/north-america/united-states/california/articles/haunted-places-san-jose-winchester-mystery-house-helen-mirren-film/ – more Winchester House and Mrs. Winchester information.
https://patch.com/california/milpitas/5-spooky-tales-famous-winchester-mystery-house – alleged haunting activity at the house including some alleged photo/video evidence.
Thank you again for taking your time to read this post, the 2nd part of a 5-part series exploring supposedly haunted places. Next week we shall be checking out the Stanley Hotel! If you have yet to see the first part on the Eastern State Penitentiary you can check it out here.
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