Investigation-Tradition
Winchester Mystery House
Darren and Mike
June 29, 2007

Sarah Pardee was a high society girl from Connecticut and she married William Wirt Winchester 2nd president of the Winchester’s rifle company. She was a very rich popular girl. She was able to talk 4 languages. They had a daughter who died when she was 6 weeks old. After the untimely death of her husband and her baby in New Haven, Connecticut, she was grief stricken and moved to San Jose, CA.

She started with an 8 floor farm house. She was very superstitious and eccentric. Her favorite number was 13 and she loved spider webs. Mrs. Winchester was convinced by a medium that continuous building would appease the evil spirits of those killed by the famous “Gun that Won the West” and help her attain eternal life.

She designed the whole house. The construction started in 1884 and ended in 1922 when she died in her sleep. That was 38 CONTUNOUS years of 24 hours day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year! The cost of construction was $5,500,000. Her house has 160 rooms total with 2,000 doors. It has 10,000 windows, 40 staircases, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 6 kitchens, and it take over 20,000 gallons of paint to paint the house. It has 7 and half miles of pipes. Her house is a private house, not a state house. It also 4 floors too. 40 people lived in her house, mostly servants. Also, it had 13 bathrooms and only one shower. In her house, she has 13 windows in every significant room. The Winchester house had famous china storage. She also has $25,000 window storage; they were Tiffany stain glass windows.

The size of her house was 161 acres with a garden she has planted. The tour goes through 110 rooms out of 160 rooms and includes bizarre features. You will be lead through doors and windows opening onto blank walls; a staircase from the floor to the ceiling; a door opening outward to an 8 foot drop off; and beautifully stained glass windows from New York. United States Government has recognized it as an actual haunted house.

Our tour around the house was very interesting and it just wasn’t a regular house. It was a beautiful Victorian house with lots of creative designs. It was an awesome tour and we learned so much from it.