Frequently seen, there doesn’t seem to be any malevolent stories. There is the ghostly worker often seen in the basement pushing a wheelbarrow. There seems to be innumerable ghost stories attached to the house. Escher, whose artwork features such things as “impossible objects”. It has been compared to Dutch artist, M.C. Even a door that opens into a solid wall. There are large doors that lead to small rooms. An example was a stairway of seven flights and forty-four steps which only rose nine feet. Stairs built in this manner allowed her access throughout the house. Sarah, suffering from debilitating arthritis, could only lift her foot a few inches. Stairs with different sized risers, called “easy risers”. Skylights in the floor of a second-story room. Other oddities include doors and stairs that lead to nowhere. Why she chose these specific lines, or the meaning behind it, is unknown. And the left, from Act 5, Scene 5 of “Richard II”.

On the right side is a quote from Act 4, Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida”.

On either side of the ballrooms fireplace, are stained glass windows. Costing around $9000 in a time when a modest was around $1000. She even used 13 different types of wood in the Grand Ballroom. A famous stained glass window has 13 different colored stones set in a spider web motif. One of which was a drop to the kitchen sink a floor below.īuilding on the supernatural legends is Sarah’s obsession with the number “13”. The Seance room itself was peculiar with only one way in and three ways out. Again at 2:00 am, the bell tower would signal the spirits that it was time to leave. Even the maze-like design of the house was to confuse unwanted ghosts. It was to be attractive to friendly spirits, who would, in turn, keep away the evil ones. These spirits would guide her in the construction of the house. The bell tower signaling the spirits it was time. She would wear 13 various colored robes each night for the edification of the spirits. Legend has it that Sarah would go to the Seance room every night at midnight. She responded by boarding up the front 30 rooms. While workers dug her out, she felt it was spirits saying she spent too much on the front of the house. Legends recount the resulting damage that trapped her in her bedroom for several hours. Due to damage incurred during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, it now tops out at four stories. Over the year, the Winchester House became a seven-story mansion and current-day attraction. Whichever claim is true, the result is the same. Sarah’s biographer claims that she dismissed workers for months at a time. Carpenters were soon hired and worked day and night on the house for 38 years. Work began after purchasing an unfinished farmhouse in the Santa Clara Valley in 1884.

Sarah winchester mystery house san jose