160 rooms? you've got to be kidding !

So, here we are again, another entry, with this writing, there is so much information to process along with 90 plus pictures (had 425 to sort through by the way), I have to compress this entry into just a few paragraphs, or you would be reading for quite awhile. I want you to know there is a choice to just tell just the facts of this recent journey, but I believe simply doing that you, the reader would not have the full effect of the similarity of a saltine cracker and this posting.

And you ask, what’s up with the SALTINE CRACKER and this ‘journal entry‘? Well, ok here goes….a saltine cracker (California cracker) is square and has 13 holes, when fresh, it is very brittle and sometimes when you remove it from the packaged, it’s cracked, it’s been ‘stressed’ in the process of being made or being shipped, so it is with the owner of the Winchester Mystery house. “Just the facts man, please…” I can hear you now, you have to run out the door, have a appointment, have to do your hair….and so forth. Ok then, here goes, (your so impatient by the way!)

-162 original acres, now 4.5 acres

-160 rooms (if counted right, they don’t know for sure)

-47 fireplaces (some used for the Spirits to come and go, some never designed for

use, fireplace bricks stop inches from the ceiling)

- Several bathrooms throughout the house (some with glass doors)

-One shower, you need to be 4’ 10” for a good soaking!

- Original 7 floors, now 4 floors, 1906 earthquake shortened the house by 3 floors (depends on where in the house your at as well)

- Windows with 13 glass panes, throughout the house

- Stair cases that go no-where (well, to the ceiling)

- A door that opens from the inside to the outside, (first step is a killer by the way, several floors to the ground)

- 22 Carpenters at work, 38 yrs, 7 days a wk, 24 hr a day, new meaning to 24/7 !

- Took packers 6 weeks, working every day to remove all the furniture

-Cabinets built that once they are opened, contain 1 inch shelves, other cabinets

built, once opened, open up to hugh rooms that would hold dozens of guests

- Three elevators, not approved but still installed and used

- Front door price, $3,000, installed (1800’s) but after the installation, never used.

- Stair cases that contained 47 steps (most only had 13 steps), the 47 steps had

risers that were only TWO INCHES high, you may be on the “second floor” in one part of the house, but actually be on the first floor on another part of the house.

- Secret doors and listening ports installed, to “watch and listen” to the house workers.

- House staff on duty 24/7 paid double the going rate for the day (3.00 a day)

-Tiffany glass windows installed in many locations, so the light WOULD NOT

shine through, or walls built on the oposite side of the glass window or

the window completely covered up for a later find.

- Modern heating and lighting systems throughout the house, push button controls.

- Water systems, at the time, one of a kind, not only did it have a unique design

to supply water throughout the house, but very little water wasted as

the drains were connected through the use of piping, down spouts and

troughs, this water was used for the grass and plant life. Remember this

was in the late 1860’s. The water pump and well located in the side

yard is still used in the case of a city emergency for the city of San Jose, it

will pump 400 gallons a hour for the ‘city people’…by the way, has been used during the 1989 San Francisco earth quake.

Ok, so you want to know just a bit more about this woman and her Victorian House? Is it haunted? Well, ask Donna, she may have first hand experience, I’ll tell you later about that one.

Sarah was born Sept 1839 in New Haven, Conn, she was a short woman, 4’ 10” (remember the shower height?). From what we are told she was a kind woman, giving to her community. She married into the Winchester Rifle family in 1862. The Winchester’s built the Henry Rifle for the Civil War in 1860. Four years into the mariage, Sarah gave birth to a girl, the child died, Sarah was devastated it is told, wasn’t to long after the death of her only child that her husband died, she cracked liked the saltine (finally, you get it!!! you know “what’s the similarity between a cracker and the Winchester Mystery House”). This also explains the mystery behind the “Mystery house”.

Now Sarah inherited 49.5 % of the Winchester Stock and 20 million dollars, that computs to a daily allowance of $1,000.…TAX FREE until the year of 1913. There is no mystery there, a lot of money for one person to spend on things that didn’t make sence at all. As you look at the pictures provided, you will see Tiffany Glass windows and doors. I have described rooms that have exit doors that don’t exit, windows that lead no where and doors that lead to the ground below.

Some rooms still have damage from the 1906 earth quake, Sarah was actually rescued from one of the floors after the earthquake, she had the rooms boarded up and never fixed or completed, she was told the spirits were mad at her, so she “boarded them (spirits) up in this damaged room” (s) I know your asking yourself, ok so she was born in New Haven, so how and why did she leave the grave site of her husband and daughter and end up in California?

Well, after the death of her husband, a friend suggested that she see a “Spiritualist”…this person (was really a cracked cracker….) told her to go west until she couldn’t go any further and build a house, continue building and NEVER stop….so for 38 years (she died in the house in 1922) she employed full time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 22 carpenters to build, no master plan was made, no sketches were done, she instructed the workers to wall up expensive windows and make rooms, build floors on top of floors, secret rooms, stairs to no-where.

The reason for all of this was the “Spiritualist” told her that she is being haunted by the ghosts of those killed by the Winchester Rifle her husband produced, the rooms and doorways to no-where were constructed to confuse and discourage the many spirits that she believed haunted her. The use of the number "13" was also part of the confusion on the behalf of the spirits. I’m not a spirit, I was confused going through this place, but come on 13 is just a number after 12, or is it? 1 - 2 ______10 - 11 - 12 yep ...13

Now as we, (Donna and I) were lagging behind, snapping one of the 425 or so pictures, I was listening to the tour guide talk about one of the bedrooms, this room was Sarah’s room, rather large bed, dressers, table and a organ placed in one corner, Jim the guide told those who were listening that Sarah died in this bed in this room, someone mentioned that there are reports of ghosts in the house, he stated that none have been seen in this room, actually he has never seen a ghost since working here at the house, he had heard of a ghost in the basement “it’s what your mind tells you, what you see or hear”…I whisper to Donna that we have to get going as the group is headed out down the hall, she asks me what this room is as she clicks the camera and takes the same pictures I have already taken (this happens often between the two of us).

I shortened the lecture a bit and tell her that this is “Sarahs room, she died here in 1922 on that bed” “but there are no ghosts here” We turn around to head out to catch up with the waiting group, from behind a “door way” where there isn’t a “door” a figure imerges…dressed in white, looks right at us…Donna “gasps for air”… She‘s startled for sure…” she says a nervous “hi” as she tells the PAINTER .. “you scared me” he laughs and walks back to where he was working, what a opportunity for the both of us to really “take advantage”. I must have spoken out loud as I got pinched!

In the years that the house has been open to the public, employees and visitors alike have had unusual encounters here. There have been footsteps; banging doors; mysterious voices; windows that bang so hard they shatter; cold spots; strange moving lights; doorknobs that turn by themselves.... and don’t forget the scores of psychics who have their own claims of phenomena to report.

Obviously, these are all of the standard reports of a haunted house... but are the stories merely wishful thinking? Reports of ghosts and spirits to continue the tradition of Sarah Winchester’s bizarre legacy? Or could the stories be true? Was the house really built as a monument to the dead? Do phantoms still lurk in the maze-like corridors of the Winchester Mystery House?

I urge you to visit the house if you should ever get the chance. Perhaps that would be the best time to answer the questions for yourself. Just don't take the BASEMENT tour...

wasn't worth the money...come on... the furnance and coal shoot? (that's where the ghost was sighted recently)I video taped the "corner"...haven't watched the video yet..maybe...

Jul 29, 2009

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