Caitlind L. Alexander - The House Built By Ghosts: The Strange Tale of the Winchester Mystery House

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The House Built by Ghosts / Caitlind L.Alexander

Summary: A brief look at the strange housebuilt by ghosts, the Winchester Mystery House of San Jose,California.

1. Winchester Mystery House. JuvenileLiterature. 2. Winchester, Sarah Pardee Juvenile Literature.

Words: 2540

Reading Level: 6.9

Ages 8 and up

It has over 160 rooms, 40 bedrooms, 13bathrooms, but only one shower. It has stairs that lead to theceiling, and doors that, when stepped through, will drop you astory or more. It has 10,000 windows, a number of which are placedon inside walls, including a stained glass window made by one ofthe most expensive companies in the world, Tiffany.

This is the Winchester Mystery House, thehouse built by spirits; and here is the story of how it came tobe.

Wax figure of Sarah Winchester

Sarah Pardee Winchester

Sarah Lockwood Pardee was born in September1839 in New Haven, Connecticut. She grew up the child of richparents. Her father, Leonard Pardee was a wealthy carriage maker.Sarah had five sisters and one brother, though one sister, alsonamed Sarah, died in infancy. In those days it was common to name alater child after a sibling that had previously died.

Sarah went to school, learned to sew, anddid many of the things that a young girl her age would do. Sheattended society functions and led a life similar to other girls ofher class.

She was known as the "Belle of new Haven"and her education included learning to speak four languages andplay the piano.

In fact, the first half of Sarah's life waspretty unremarkable. It was during the second half of her life thatthings began to change.

An early ad for Winchester Rifles

In September, 1862 Sarah married WilliamWirt Winchester. William's father, Oliver, was president of theWinchester Arms Company. This was the company that made theWinchester Rifle. In 1860 Benjamin Tyler Henry had created a newrifle. In 1873, Oliver Winchester changed the rifle and made itbetter. He also got a patent on it so that no one else could makethe rifle he was making.

This gun was among the first "repeatingrifles". Prior to this time, each rifle only held a single shot.You had to eject the shell of the shot that had just been fired,then load your next shell before you could re-aim the gun and takeyour next shot. The repeating rifle could fire multiple shotsbefore you had to stop and reload.

The Winchester rifle was called the "Gunthat won the West" because so many pioneers used it when theysettled the western frontier. Unfortunately the gun was used asmuch against Native Americans as it was to shoot animals forfood.

The Winchester family became millionaires.In the same year he was married, William became the new presidentof the Winchester Arms Company.

Sarah's marriage to William Winchester was ahappy one, at least at first. Within four years, Sarah had givenbirth to a little baby girl. Little Annie Pardee Winchester wasborn on June 15, 1866.

But Annie wouldn't eat. And the food she dideat didn't seem to stick to her bones. She got thinner and thinner.When she was five weeks old, Annie died.

Sarah was heartbroken. She was even moreheartbroken when, four months later, her beloved husband wasdiagnosed with tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis is a disease that infects thelungs. People who catch it often cough a lot, have night sweats,fevers and weight loss. It can take years to kill someone, oftenmaking their last years of life completely miserable.

At this time there was no cure for thedisease. Sarah faced years of caring for a man who would changefrom a strong provider to a man unable to feed himself.

Sarah watched her husband get sicker andsicker. However, William Winchester was not the next family memberto die. William's father, Oliver Winchester, died suddenly of aheart attack in December, 1880.

Oliver Winchester

Since William had been the only son in hisfamily, he inherited his father's half interest in the WinchesterRepeating Arms Company. This was an inheritance worth millions, andthe royalties on the company's patents kept the money pouringin.

As Sarah watched her husband get weaker andweaker, she spent more and more time thinking about what would meether husband on the other side.

In March of 1881, William passed away, justfour months after his father.

With his passing, Sarah inherited 50%interest in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, a $20 millionfortune, and a continuing royalty of $1,000 a day. Those weredifferent times, and that amount would be over $25,000 dollars aday in today's money.

But all this money did not make Sarah happy.She was depressed and, legend has it, she believed that her familywas cursed.

Finally Sarah visited a spiritual medium forhelp. Legend says that she was told by the medium that her familywas indeed cursed. The spirits of the Native Americans and soldierswho had been killed by the Winchester Rifle had taken her husbandand daughter. Sarah would be next.

Sarah was told there was a way to beat thecurse. She should move out west and build a home for the spirits.As long as she continued building, she would be safe from thespirit's revenge. This meant she would not die.

In 1884 Sarah went to visit a niece wholived in Menlo Park, California. While she was there, she bought anunfinished farm house. The house originally had eight rooms and saton 160 acres of land.

Sarah moved into the house and immediatelystarted changing it.