When I took my tour of this famous house the tour guide emphasized repeatedly the love of the occult that Sarah Winchester possessed, (pun intended) and how this devotion motivated her architectural decisions when building and expanding her home. Stories were weaved about rooms designed to trap or repel ghosts, staircases with mysterious numbers of steps, bells that were used to summon spirits, and many more stories designed to highlight the mystery about the house and its construction.
The truth, however, is found in none of these sayings.
The truth of the Winchester House, which I researched upon returning home, was that Sarah Winchester was a creative artist, a generous and charitable woman, who upon the death of her husband inherited great riches which she wisely invested and ended up substantially increasing her capital worth. She had always had a love of architecture but due to the restraints of the times (women were not thought of as being capable of building and designing buildings) was not allowed to pursue her passions. That all changed after she became sole heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune. Free to act upon her creative desires, she started building on the house and continued her creative vision for the mansion until her death.
But how do you explain doors that go nowhere, staircases that are dead-ends and all of the other quirks that reside in the mansion? As usual, the facts are far less interesting than the fiction. After the great San Francisco earthquake in 1906, Sarah found herself to tired and old to expend the efforts needed to repair the damage caused by the quake. She instructed her staff to simply cease construction in the damaged parts of the house, and to board up the areas that were not finished.
She was also known to rebuild and abandon construction if the progress did not meet her expectations, which resulted in a maze-like design. In the San Jose News of 1897, it was reported that a seven-story tower was torn down and rebuilt sixteen times. As a result of her expansions, there are walled-off exterior windows and doors that were not removed as the house grew in size. The strange staircases were the result of Sarah's height of four feet ten inches and health issues, so multiple stairways that only have 44 steps and only rise ten feet were built.
Winchester would take breaks from construction on a regular basis to rest, sometimes for months, since she tired easily. It slowed construction considerably and is counter to the claims made in articles and by tour guides that she had the house under construction around the clock for thirty-eight years, until her death in 1922. The true reason for her continued construction of her house was to keep her many staff and workers employed and to fulfill her artistic vision.
After 1910, due to failing health, Winchester did not work on her home except for odd maintenance jobs and adding an elevator in 1916. At this time she returned her focus toward her finances and building an investment portfolio, which she did with great success.
So where did the "mystery" angle originate?
After Sarah's death in 1922, she willed her assets to her niece and her beloved staff. The house was in disrepair because of the fact that the last twelve years or so of her life she had spent virtually no time overseeing its maintenance due to her poor health. Yet, because she continued to fund her staff and workers, construction had continued using her previous designs but unfortunately, without her oversight.
The house was regarded to be of no monetary value. Nine months after her death, a group of investors purchased the property and made the decision to turn it into an tourist attraction. There were many room additions and deletions made to the home after this purchase, most of which were designed to amplify the "mystery" angle that the owners had decided to use to promote their new investment.
The first tour guide of the house was Mayme Brown, who decided that since there appeared to be little interest in the truth, than fiction was the path to take. Thus became the origin of many of the stories that even today tour guides are required to emphasize while leading tourist throughout the house. Past neighbors, friends, and workers for Winchester were distressed when they heard about superstitious claims being made about the house and Winchester, and were upset that the Browns, who were part of the group of investors, were making money off of such falsehoods.
In 1924, Harry Houdini briefly visited the house and was reportedly impressed by its unusual layout and architectural novelties. Ever the promoter, Houdini was said to suggest that tour operators employ "Winchester Mystery House" as a promotional name for the property.
When Keith Kittle, a past Disneyland and Frontier Village employee, became the general manager in 1973, the house was in poor shape. He had the house renovated in the 1970s and 1980s and added a Winchester rifle museum. He also sought historical landmark status and began an advertising campaign that included large billboards along the highways. The billboards feature a silhouetted house with implications that a ghost encounter was possible. Attendance increased as he played off these false claims of superstition that was had been circulating since Sarah's death. [NOTE: I visited the house in 1982.]
As of September 2022, the house was owned and operated by Winchester Mystery House, LLC, which is a private company that represents the descendants of the Browns. Tour guides are required to follow a script emphasizing fabrications and inaccuracies. Yet on more than one occasion, social media posts of past tour guides have lamented this script saying, "We feel so torn because we have to tell people untruths! Every time we give a tour of the house . . . our hearts break a little for Sarah . . . it is horrible to hear guests comment on Sarah's quirkiness and love of the occult when the truth is far less juicy."
So the lesson here, if there is one to be observed, is that if you tell twelve million people, the number of guests who have toured the mansion since 1922 a lie, it will eventually become reality. Few people have heard of about the true character of Sarah Winchester and as the years flow by that truth will become even harder to discover. In these days of "Deep Fakes", AI hallucinations, and information overload, it might be wise to heed the lesson of the Winchester House and not grant all everything that is uttered with the authority of truth.
And maybe someday, that can become Sarah Winchester's true legacy.
