MOAR PICTURES
Today's installment: The Winchester Mystery House!
Now, in case you don't know the story: Sarah Winchester (nee Pardee) was the wife of William Winchester, the heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. They only had one daughter but she was born sick, and died at only 6 weeks. A few years later, William died of consumption tuberculosis. Sarah never stopped mourning them. She went to a spiritual medium who told her to go west and purchase a house, and to never stop building or the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles would kill her. So she came to California and purchased an unfinished eight room farmhouse and hired a bunch of builders. Construction went on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until Sarah's death. (and yes, that was all from memory ^^;)
If I tried to type all the fascinating things there are to know about this house, my fingers would fall off. It's SO fascinating, and I even learned some things on this trip. She did all these really novel things that made life more convenient for her (she had crippling arthritis), and she also did lots of crazy things, ostensibly to try and confuse the spirits (though she claimed it was these same spirits who gave her the building plans for the house). She was also obsessed with spiderwebs and the number 13. As I mentioned, they didn't let you take pictures inside, but I snuck a few with my phone. They're blurry, dark and crappy, but I tried!
Like this. It's really nice carpet.
And this. It's a really nice couch!
This is probably the best of the inside pics, just a creepy fireplace lol. I actually got a weird vibe from this room, but it was probably just because it was so dim and the walls were so rough.
One of the very weird things about the house... the door to nowhere. It just opens into thin air.
The side of the house. You can see the door to nowhere from the outside here.
They sort of have a problem with bees. But they can't exterminate them because honeybees are now an endangered species.
Any places painted black were either not finished at the time of Mrs. Winchester's death, or were damaged in the 1906 earthquake. This door (notice it sits 3ft above the ground) is the only entrance to the bathroom behind it.
An outside view of the North Conservatory. It was hot up there. Kinda felt like my bedroom!
DEERBUTT.
The goddess Demeter. Her companion across the path is Hebe, and I do have a pic of her, but she's not as pretty.
A good, outside shot of the door to nowhere.
Flowers in the garden.
I used to know what these were called. Someone asked about them once at whatwasthatone lol.
The "front doors." These doors only got used once or twice. Mrs. Winchester thought the 1906 earthquake was a sign from the spirits that she was focusing too much on the front of the house, so she had a lot of it boarded up, and it wasn't reopened until after she died. I guess when she wanted to go inside she would use the carriage house. You can see both Demeter and Hebe there.
A rather washed out me in front of the doors. I was in such a hurry to leave the house that I forgot to put on my glasses. Also, my hair is a frizzy mess.
Some palm trees. There used to be 13, in keeping with her obsession with that number, but some of them have died and now there's only... 7?
The uppermost balcony.
Part of the garden. You can't see it, but off to the left there is a crescent-shaped hedge that points toward the bedroom where Mrs. Winchester died.
The end! I wish I'd been sneakier with my phone and gotten a few more inside pictures. I love this house.
Fair warning: I might end up making this post public so I can share it at ontdcreepy, so don't like... put your phone number in the comments or something. XD
Now, in case you don't know the story: Sarah Winchester (nee Pardee) was the wife of William Winchester, the heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. They only had one daughter but she was born sick, and died at only 6 weeks. A few years later, William died of consumption tuberculosis. Sarah never stopped mourning them. She went to a spiritual medium who told her to go west and purchase a house, and to never stop building or the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles would kill her. So she came to California and purchased an unfinished eight room farmhouse and hired a bunch of builders. Construction went on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until Sarah's death. (and yes, that was all from memory ^^;)
If I tried to type all the fascinating things there are to know about this house, my fingers would fall off. It's SO fascinating, and I even learned some things on this trip. She did all these really novel things that made life more convenient for her (she had crippling arthritis), and she also did lots of crazy things, ostensibly to try and confuse the spirits (though she claimed it was these same spirits who gave her the building plans for the house). She was also obsessed with spiderwebs and the number 13. As I mentioned, they didn't let you take pictures inside, but I snuck a few with my phone. They're blurry, dark and crappy, but I tried!
Like this. It's really nice carpet.
And this. It's a really nice couch!
This is probably the best of the inside pics, just a creepy fireplace lol. I actually got a weird vibe from this room, but it was probably just because it was so dim and the walls were so rough.
One of the very weird things about the house... the door to nowhere. It just opens into thin air.
The side of the house. You can see the door to nowhere from the outside here.
They sort of have a problem with bees. But they can't exterminate them because honeybees are now an endangered species.
Any places painted black were either not finished at the time of Mrs. Winchester's death, or were damaged in the 1906 earthquake. This door (notice it sits 3ft above the ground) is the only entrance to the bathroom behind it.
An outside view of the North Conservatory. It was hot up there. Kinda felt like my bedroom!
DEERBUTT.
The goddess Demeter. Her companion across the path is Hebe, and I do have a pic of her, but she's not as pretty.
A good, outside shot of the door to nowhere.
Flowers in the garden.
I used to know what these were called. Someone asked about them once at whatwasthatone lol.
The "front doors." These doors only got used once or twice. Mrs. Winchester thought the 1906 earthquake was a sign from the spirits that she was focusing too much on the front of the house, so she had a lot of it boarded up, and it wasn't reopened until after she died. I guess when she wanted to go inside she would use the carriage house. You can see both Demeter and Hebe there.
A rather washed out me in front of the doors. I was in such a hurry to leave the house that I forgot to put on my glasses. Also, my hair is a frizzy mess.
Some palm trees. There used to be 13, in keeping with her obsession with that number, but some of them have died and now there's only... 7?
The uppermost balcony.
Part of the garden. You can't see it, but off to the left there is a crescent-shaped hedge that points toward the bedroom where Mrs. Winchester died.
The end! I wish I'd been sneakier with my phone and gotten a few more inside pictures. I love this house.
Fair warning: I might end up making this post public so I can share it at ontdcreepy, so don't like... put your phone number in the comments or something. XD