The Story (part two)
Some historians believe Sarah isolated herself because it became too confounding shuttling between the company of mortals and spirits and her commitment left her only one choice. But others feel her withdrawal from society was simply a reaction to the treatment accorded her by townsfolk unsympathetic to the erratic construction taking place on the Winchester property.
It certainly was enough to promote unease. The two-story house began to rise to seven stories and was sprouting out in all directions like some creeping tumor. Even worse, its form was in continual state of flux. What was finished one day was apt to be torn down the next or engulfed in additional layers of wood and glass.
The fluidity of design reflected a mindlessness to beighbors. And there were those who had seen the interior who swore it confirmed the owner's daffiness. With winding, twisting corridors snaking in and out of such a maze of rooms, servants needed maps to find their way around. There were bizarre stairways leading up to ceilings, doors that opened onto blank walls or fifty-foot drops; spiderweb patterns incorporated into most walls and windows; and an absolute preoccupation with the number thirteen. There were 13 bathrooms, 13 panels in the walls of most rooms, 13 lights on chandeliers, and even 13 hooks for robes in the seance room where it was alleged the demented woman went every night for conferences with her other-worldly architects.
The seance room in itself indicated madness. Who in her right mind would spend each night listening to "good-guy ghosts" discuss how to baffle the bad guys with tomorrow's blueprints?
Sarah's actions generated even more gossip during the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The tremor toppled the upper three stories of the house and it was feared she had been killed by the wreckage. Nobody knew for sure where she had been sleeping because it was her habit to retire to a different one of the forty bedrooms each night to elude the evil spirits. She was found at last, unharmed, but trapped by a wall which had shifted, jamming a door.
Earthquake damage once again caused the contour of the house to change, for Sarah believed that the devastation occurred because she had misinterpreted orders and built too high, and that she had been overly extravagant with that part of the house which contained a grand ballroom and Tiffany stained glass doors and windows. So, she issued orders that the front thirty rooms were to be closed off and that the height never again exceed four stories.
Sarah remains an anomaly to this day. There's plenty of reason to doubt her sanity, and yet, attesting t a sound mind are several household innovations she introduced which were hailed by contractors in many parts of the country. Beside installing an intercom system in every room (the result of her earthquake entrapment), she had magnifying glass inserts placed in many windows facing the gardens, enabling her to see plants an dtrees in detail. She initiated the use of cranks to control outside shutters and hinged fireplace drops to catch ashes. And she held the patent for porcelain scrub board molded into a laundry sink.
The Winchester Mystery House is located at the intersection of Winchester Boulevard and I-880 in San Jose, California. Hours of operation are 9a.m. until 8p.m. daily, rain or shine.
Guilded tours of 110 rooms of the Winchester mansion are given every ten minutes, with each tour lasting just over an hour. The mansion also offers a guided "flashlight" tour of the grounds during the evenings. Admission prices are $12.95 for adults; $9.95 for seniors; $6.95 for children ages five to twelve years; and children under five are admitted for free.
For more information, call (408)247-2101.
Information borrowed from True West, October 1997 issue.