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Just think how stupid I am, to go to my night’s rest before dark!” No hint there of all night sessions with mediums, appeasing the ghosts of those slaughtered by the Winchester Rifle. They are practical and banal: “I have been looking into the matter of sanitary plumbing and find that my system has some glaring deficiencies.” And Sarah’s life is quiet: “The first thing I do after dinner is go to bed. Sarah’s letters never mention spirits, ghosts, guns, or guilt. “Houdini claimed he saw the ghost of Sarah surrounded by spirits, and the myth became legend.” I have tried different plasterers… I tried adamant and had two rooms done with it… I shall have it all removed from the walls and re-plastered, and this is about the way I progress.” “I have had such dreadful luck with plaster. She explained her constant construction in letters to family back in New Haven. Sarah pioneered the use of household laundry tubs with built-in washboards and developed an inside crank to open and close shutters. It was a distraction from her overwhelming grief. She enjoyed building, ordering expensive materials from around the world, and experimenting. Meanwhile Sarah, who was intelligent and interested in architecture, while also frail and reclusive, had found a purpose in life. By 1895, the first newspaper article appeared linking the construction to Sarah’s supposed superstitious views: “The belief exists when work of construction ends disaster will result.” Since the workmen continued to work on Sarah’s sprawling mansion for almost four decades, it’s not surprising that the entire Santa Clara Valley chattered incessantly. Why did Sarah spend her fortune on building this gigantic house? Her gossipy neighbors needed to find a reason. Winchester! Gossip would be a more fitting word, gossip no one claimed to like, but everyone enjoyed.” Here was fair game for all! We talked about Mrs.

Immediately, the gossiping began.Īs Ralph Rambo, nephew of Sarah’s financial adviser, recalled, “Our valley was thrilled by this dramatic entry of a millionairess by those freight cars sidetracked in Santa Clara, unloading rich, imported furnishings by building activity that mushroomed an eight-room house into a 28-room mansion, in the first six months. There she bought land and began building what is now known as the Winchester Mystery House. Stricken by ill-health, she followed the advice of her doctor and moved West to California’s Santa Clara Valley to begin a new life. Then William died of consumption, aged only 44. Their baby daughter Annie died after only a few weeks. Yet tragedy struck the young couple early. Sarah was clever, thoughtful, and accomplished in music and languages. Since Sarah is long dead and cannot defend her reputation, let me tell you who she really was.īorn into a wealthy family in New Haven, Connecticut, Sarah Pardee married William Winchester, son of the founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, in 1862. She was a fabulously wealthy widow, and she did build a gigantic house continuously, but there the facts end and the fiction begins. There is no evidence that Sarah consulted occultists, held séances, or was obsessed by ghosts, guilt. So she built a gargantuan, sprawling house in California, because a medium told her that as long as she kept building, the spirits would leave her alone. In fact, the celluloid version of my great-great aunt Sarah Winchester is simply another fantasy version of the life of a much maligned and misunderstood woman.įirst, the legend: Sarah Winchester, heiress to the fortune of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, was haunted by the spirits of those killed by the Winchester Rifle in the conquering of the American West.

“The spirits killed by the rifle-we must lock them in.” So goes the trailer for Mirren’s new movie Winchester-The House That Ghosts Built, based on supposed “real life events” at the Winchester Mystery House in California’s Santa Clara Valley. “Ghosts, I feel their presence,” declares the actress Helen Mirren in her new role as Sarah Winchester.

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