0:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back, friend, to hometown history, and today I have a bizarre one for you. 0:12 [SPEAKER_00]: Settle in and by the time we're done, you will either book your tickets to tour this mansion or never want to go within 100 feet of it. 0:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Lights flicker in the dead of night, casting eerie shadows on a mansion frozen in time, 0:31 [SPEAKER_00]: The air hangs heavy, with an overworldly stillness, as if the very walls are holding their breath, concealing the mysteries within. 0:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Each step on the worn floorboards echoes like a distant whisper, and the moonlight barely dares to reveal the secrets hidden behind the windows. 0:56 [SPEAKER_00]: In San Jose, California admits the quiet night, lies one of the largest and most peculiar private residences in the United States, the Winchester Mystery House. 1:10 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a Victorian-style mansion with a massive 24,000 square feet, a labyrinth of 160 rooms, 17 chimneys, and 47 fireplaces, with two massive basements, three elevators, 1:29 [SPEAKER_00]: and over 10,000 pains of glass, you're probably imagining and a state that is a marble of architecture, a study in beautiful lines, elegant gardens, and monolithic walls, hiding regular, predictable secrets of old money people. 1:50 [SPEAKER_00]: But there's far more to it. 1:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, this house is an architecture 2:00 [SPEAKER_00]: visit this property today, and you'll see some interesting choices, like several different types of buildings glued together in the most haphazard way, but things get crazier when you step inside. 2:16 [SPEAKER_00]: There are doors leading to 12-foot drops outside in mysterious entrances that once crossed, 2:23 [SPEAKER_00]: Drop you into a kitchen sink on the floor below. 2:28 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a structure that defies logic. 2:31 [SPEAKER_00]: One where reality twists and turns in unexpected ways. 2:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Doors that lead nowhere, windows that open into other rooms. 2:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Balconies you can never access from the inside. 2:48 [SPEAKER_00]: Even today, people are still discovering new rooms 2:55 [SPEAKER_00]: I've toured this mysterious mansion myself, and trust me when I say, one could easily get lost, and not be found for days, if not weeks, or months. 3:08 [SPEAKER_00]: And I kept wondering, when hiking through the home of these many rooms and passages, why anyone would ever build a home like this? 3:21 [SPEAKER_00]: The center of this jigsaw puzzle was a woman named Sarah Winchester and to understand this estate we need to understand Sarah. 3:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Wart Winchester, was born around 1840 and lived a life of privilege. 3:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Growing up in a world of comfort, she spoke four languages, went to the best schools, and of course, married rich, no shame in the game, missed Winchester. 3:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Up to that point, she had seen a comfortable life. 3:59 [SPEAKER_00]: In her mid-20s, tragedy struck. 4:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Her newborn daughter, Annie, 4:11 [SPEAKER_00]: and following that, one after another, for another 10 years, Sarah's mother, father-in-law, and husband all passed away. 4:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Now after her husband William's death in 1881, Sarah inherited a massive fortune of roughly $20 million, and half of his weapons manufacturing company, 4:39 [SPEAKER_00]: The Winchester repeating arms company started in 1866 in New Haven, Connecticut, and was founded by Oliver Winchester, Sarah's father-in-law. 4:51 [SPEAKER_00]: It had its roots in the partnership of Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, who acquired the improved version of the volition repeating rifle, and its caseless rocketball ammunition. 5:05 [SPEAKER_00]: The venture initially struggled and went through reorganization, leading to the establishment of the New Haven Arms Company in 1857, with Oliver Winchester becoming a major investor. 5:19 [SPEAKER_00]: He later reorganized the company again in 1866 as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, 5:31 [SPEAKER_00]: This firearm, along with the later model 1873, chambered for the 4440 Winchester Center Fire Cartridge, earned the nickname, the gun that won the West. 5:46 [SPEAKER_00]: After Oliver Winchester's death in 1880, his son William Wurt Winchester took over. 5:53 [SPEAKER_00]: But so come to Tuporquillosis, just one year later. 5:58 [SPEAKER_00]: So with a daily income equal to $1,000, and responsibilities she had never had before, Sarah needed guidance, be it financial, emotional, or anything else. 6:12 [SPEAKER_00]: She needed someone. 6:15 [SPEAKER_00]: And in her search for answers, she consulted a medium, 6:20 [SPEAKER_00]: This medium claim to connect with the spirit of her departed husband, William, and she advised Sarah to leave her home in New Haven and move west in California. 6:34 [SPEAKER_00]: And as for her fortune, William, or rather the spirit of William, told her to build her very own home, but with some added features, 6:46 [SPEAKER_00]: See, the Winchester rifles were used to kill thousands upon thousands of people, and it's easy to imagine that at some point those deaths began to haunt some in the family. 7:00 [SPEAKER_00]: And so while your Winchester suggested Sarah make a home that would confuse the spirits, so they could never get to her. 7:12 [SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward to 1884, Sarah moved to California and purchased what would become the Winchester Mystery House. 7:22 [SPEAKER_00]: Sarah originally named it, La Nata Villa, after La Nata, Alaveza, and Spain, and she purchased it for $12,570 from John Ham. 7:35 [SPEAKER_00]: That money amounts to $393,448 in 2024. 7:43 [SPEAKER_00]: It's located on a 45-acre ranch in Santa Clara Valley. 7:48 [SPEAKER_00]: And in its original state, it included an eight-room farmhouse. 7:53 [SPEAKER_00]: But within the first six months, the house grew to 26 rooms. 7:59 [SPEAKER_00]: The home featured elaborate decorations, patterned wood floors, embossed wall coverings, or neat ceilings, chandeliers, art glass, Asian furnishings, and French paintings. 8:14 [SPEAKER_00]: The gardens boasted a variety of ornamental trees and plants from over 110 countries 8:22 [SPEAKER_00]: And Sarah started getting into the groove of things. 8:26 [SPEAKER_00]: She started taking a keen interest in architecture, subscribing to journals, and taking charge of the construction projects. 8:34 [SPEAKER_00]: She worked room by room, tearing down and rebuilding sections if she wasn't happy with them. 8:43 [SPEAKER_00]: The resulting mansion became a rambling maze. 8:46 [SPEAKER_00]: With pastel colored, asymmetrical, beveled windows, 8:52 [SPEAKER_00]: After 1896, when there was no room left to expand, Sarah started adding floors. 8:59 [SPEAKER_00]: In some spots, the home is five stories high, and in others there is full fledged towers. 9:09 [SPEAKER_00]: State of the art plumbing and electrical systems were installed, along with an indoor garden with an irrigation system. 9:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Over time, she expanded the property to 160 acres in higher carpenters to work day-end and day out. 9:28 [SPEAKER_00]: But without a clear plan or architect, the house took on an odd shape. 9:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Rooms were added haphazardly. 9:38 [SPEAKER_00]: resulting in windows overlooking other rooms. 9:42 [SPEAKER_00]: And staircases took on a distorted appearance with different sized risers. 9:48 [SPEAKER_00]: The altercations seemed purposeless. 9:51 [SPEAKER_00]: Staircases lied to nowhere, doors opened into solid walls, and hallways twisted and turned without rhyme or reason. 10:02 [SPEAKER_00]: And it wasn't until 38 years later that Sarah was finally satisfied and stopped. 10:09 [SPEAKER_00]: This ghostly mansion had seven stories, and bizarre, disjointed, and tears. 10:16 [SPEAKER_00]: luxurious fixtures, adorned the mansion, from gold and silver chandeliers, to hand-in-lade parquet flooring. 10:26 [SPEAKER_00]: beautiful stained-glass windows added to the overall luxurious feel. 10:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Even if some didn't achieve their attended effects due to odd placement, in 1906 part of the mansion suffered some damage after an earthquake. 10:44 [SPEAKER_00]: But because of its floating foundation, the entire house avoided collapse. 10:50 [SPEAKER_00]: The only real loss was the top three floors, which had to be removed for safety reasons, leaving the mansion with its current four-story structure. 11:04 [SPEAKER_00]: But here's the question people asked when they visited the mansion. 11:08 [SPEAKER_00]: With Sarah Winchester, a mad woman, or a genius, 11:14 [SPEAKER_00]: It's obvious that these changes to the Lannada Villa were intentional, even if they weren't planned. 11:21 [SPEAKER_00]: And she was trying to make it like a puzzle so that the spirits she believed were after her would not be able to get to her. 11:30 [SPEAKER_00]: And whether or not spirits were after her, the house does the job. 11:35 [SPEAKER_00]: It is incredibly confusing to navigate. 11:39 [SPEAKER_00]: As you wander through the mansion, you won't encounter the infamous door to nowhere, which was yet another of Sarah's attempts to confuse the spirits and ward off their vengeance. 11:51 [SPEAKER_00]: Room after room, confusing staircases, trap doors, all designed to escape the wrath of vengeful spirits. 12:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Even the shape and layout of some of the rooms are a regular, further adding an element of confusion, for anyone or anything that tries to navigate their way around the house, 12:17 [SPEAKER_00]: and the true heart stopper comes in the form of the 13th bedroom. 12:23 [SPEAKER_00]: It seems Sarah believed that the number 13 had mystical properties that could keep evil away, so she incorporated it into her designs. 12:34 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you pay enough attention, you'll see a windows with exactly 13 pains, and staircases with exactly 13 steps. 12:43 [SPEAKER_00]: This was done to keep the spirits away from her, which is why you see the number so many times throughout the house. 12:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Another intriguing place is the sails room. 12:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Found on the second floor of this mystery house. 13:00 [SPEAKER_00]: It contains a door that, when you open it, leads to an unexpected eight-foot drop down to the kitchen sink below. 13:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Sarah Winchester used this room for her nightly sayances. 13:15 [SPEAKER_00]: During these gatherings, she sought guidance for the ongoing construction of the mansion. 13:21 [SPEAKER_00]: The purpose of these sayances was to receive other worldly insights, probably from her family that had passed. 13:30 [SPEAKER_00]: and to ensure that the construction met the approval of the spirits. 13:36 [SPEAKER_00]: This eight foot drop feature is probably the most popular one in the house. 13:43 [SPEAKER_00]: And these are just the overt features of the home. 13:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Adding to these, there are some fascinating features that make this house all the more mysterious. 13:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Within the Winchester Mystery House, there are a number of secret passages and concealed doors. 14:02 [SPEAKER_00]: All of them only came to light after Sarah passed, and when people were allowed to tour the property. 14:09 [SPEAKER_00]: While the existence of these elements add to the overall sense of mystery, in fascination, associated with the house, the purpose behind these secret passages is not clear, 14:22 [SPEAKER_00]: wasn't another way to confuse the spirits, or wasn't actually a getaway, for Sarah, if those spirits ever caught up to her. 14:33 [SPEAKER_00]: All of this points to a chaotic mind, but this is also considerable evidence that Sarah was, in fact, an intelligent woman. 14:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Even if she was a little paranoid, to be able to design a house like this, and live in this chaos every single day, it's no easy task. 14:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Now as time marched on, Sarah went chester faced a decline in health. 15:02 [SPEAKER_00]: By 1903, rheumatoid arthritis had taken its toll, distorting her hands and feet, and making 15:12 [SPEAKER_00]: and perhaps also navigating her already confusing house. 15:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Her teeth also decayed, prompting the need for dentures. 15:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Riding became a pain and she soon needed to hire a stenographer. 15:28 [SPEAKER_00]: And so her knees daisy was the perfect woman for the job. 15:35 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1911, a slight improvement in her health allowed her to start sewing. 15:41 [SPEAKER_00]: with the newspapers reported her imminent death. 15:45 [SPEAKER_00]: That same year, Sarah hired Henrietta Savara as a nurse and secretary. 15:51 [SPEAKER_00]: By 1920, Sarah rarely ventured outside, relying on male orders or store staff to bring necessities to her. 16:02 [SPEAKER_00]: She died on September 5, 1922, and found her resting place in New Havens Evergreen Cemetery, beside her husband and daughter. 16:14 [SPEAKER_00]: Her lawyer lib managed her requests, estimating her estate between $3 and $4 million, considerably less than it was believed. 16:25 [SPEAKER_00]: She left a home in Palo Alto, for Daisy, and trusts for the family were designated for the William Wart Winchester Hospital, upon the death of husband and wife. 16:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Most of the properties owned by the family were eventually sold 16:43 [SPEAKER_00]: but never the Winchester mansion. 16:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Rumor's surfaced about angry spirits who would kill anyone who tried to sell the house. 16:53 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it sits there now in attraction for fans of horror, mystery, and of course, mystery. 17:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Over the years, the story of Sarah Wenchester, and her peculiar mansion, has been entangled in a web of rumors, hyperbole, and myths. 17:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone loves a good story, and new instances were added on top of old ones, folding in on themselves, at one point, much like Sarah's complicated mansion. 17:36 [SPEAKER_00]: and her perpetual construction project. 17:39 [SPEAKER_00]: San Jose Daily News published an article on March 29, 1895, titled Strange Story, a woman who thinks she'll die when her house is built. 17:51 [SPEAKER_00]: The article said, 10 years ago, the handsome residence was apparently ready for occupancy, but improvements in additions are constantly being made. 18:02 [SPEAKER_00]: For the reason, it is said that the owner of the house believes that when it is entirely completed, she will die. 18:11 [SPEAKER_00]: So with this, urban legends grew around Sarah. 18:16 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes visitors and guides report hauntings. 18:21 [SPEAKER_00]: from cold spots to whispering sounds. 18:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Now it is possible that people are seeing freaky things because they are expecting or hoping to see freaky things. 18:33 [SPEAKER_00]: But these experiences could also be rooted in publicity, rumors and imaginations. 18:42 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1922, nine months after Sarah Winchester's passing, the Winchester Mystery House transformed into a tourist attraction. 18:52 [SPEAKER_00]: A group of investors seeing no monetary value in the dilapidated house, purchased the land and leased it to John and Maine Brown, who turned the house into a draw for visitors, eventually acquiring it in 1931. 19:09 [SPEAKER_00]: and even more changes were made to the home, with rooms added and removed after Sarah's death. 19:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, main brown, the first tour guide, navigated guests through the odd layout. 19:24 [SPEAKER_00]: But the guiding commentary wasn't exactly supportive of Sarah. 19:30 [SPEAKER_00]: They called her a mad woman who wasted her inheritance on superstitious nonsense. 19:36 [SPEAKER_00]: And this obviously upset the past neighbors, friends, and Sarah's workers. 19:43 [SPEAKER_00]: They weren't happy about the Browns profiting from this narrative, asserting that Sarah Wenchester was intelligent, kind, clear headed, and far more financially savvy than most men. 19:57 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is exactly consistent with what Sarah's nurse said about her. 20:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Sarah didn't spend her days ringing her wrists over her inevitable death. 20:13 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1924, the legendary Houdini briefly visited the house, though unable to thoroughly investigate due to other commitments, he was pretty impressed with unique layout. 20:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Some say Houdini was the first, who suggested the name Winchester Mystery House, for promotional purposes. 20:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Then in 1973, Keith Kittle, a former Disneyland and Frontier Village employee, took charge. 20:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Finding the house and disrepair, he oversaw renovations in the 1970s and 80s, 20:54 [SPEAKER_00]: He tried to get the historical landmark status for the mansion and launched an advertising campaign with attention grabbing billboards along highways. 21:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Playing on the existing history and superstitions, more and more people came to visit the odd mansion. 21:13 [SPEAKER_00]: As of September 2022, the house is owned and operated by Winchester Mystery House LLC, representing 21:24 [SPEAKER_00]: And with this growing promotion, the mystery around this house became increasingly intriguing. 21:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Various movies, TV shows, novels, and even documentaries were being produced, and the most notable one came in 2018. 21:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Winchester, or Winchester, the house that Ghost built, was a supernatural 21:55 [SPEAKER_00]: The script focused on the life of Eris Sarah Winchester, with Helen Mirren taking on that role. 22:02 [SPEAKER_00]: The plot was set in 1906 and focused on Winchester's encounters with lingering spirits within her San Jose mansion. 22:13 [SPEAKER_00]: This joint-American Australian film hit screens in the U.S. of February 2, 2018, followed by an Australian release on February 22, 2018. 22:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Even though some critics deemed it dull and pointless, 22:30 [SPEAKER_00]: The movie did prove to be a financial success, pulling in around $44 million worldwide against a modest budget of around $3.5 million. 22:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Today, this house stands as a popular tourist attraction with its own website where you can book your tour. 22:52 [SPEAKER_00]: The website lists information about the tours that are happening along with upcoming events associated with the house and even a blog. 23:02 [SPEAKER_00]: And there have also been countless TV episodes, podcasts and books that have been created on the home. 23:11 [SPEAKER_00]: There is even an online store listing merchandise associated with the brand, including a souvenir book titled Winchester Mystery House. 23:21 [SPEAKER_00]: It explores the wonders of this house and detail. 23:25 [SPEAKER_00]: so maybe Sarah was a genius after all, because now many of us hear the name Winchester, and first connected to a mysterious historical mansion, you can now tour in San Jose. 23:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Every day of the year, except Thanksgiving and Christmas, 23:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, friend, for joining me on this episode of Home Town History. 23:49 [SPEAKER_00]: For photos for my visit at Sarah's Winchester Mystery House, follow me on Instagram at hhistorypod, or on patreon.com slash it's home town history. 24:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
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