#17 - Winchester Mansion

#17- The Winchester House, San Jose, California

              This is the mansion of Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Wirt Winchester. William was the son of the lieutenant governor of Connecticut and manufacturer of the famous Winchester repeating rifle. Now I'm sure Miss Sarah was a charming and lovely woman, but let's face it ...she was nuts. Completely mental. I do feel bad for her, don't get me wrong. She lost her daughter in 1866 and her husband in 1881. She never fully recovered from their deaths. 

              Unable to cope with the losses, she went to a psychic who told her a curse had been put on her family by the ghosts of all the men killed by the rifles. She said the only way to calm the spirits was to build a house to confuse them. Doors leading nowhere. Stairs that go to the ceilings and room upon room had to be built. Sarah believed that if she ever stopped work on the house, the ghosts would come and take her life. She held seances every day to get building instructions from the spirit world. So for the next 38 years, day in and day out, she built the house. What a fruit loop! When she died in 1922, the construction abruptly stopped. Ya think?  How would you like to spend the next 38 years building a house for some crazy lady without so much as a lunch break? As soon as they found out she died, they threw their hammers at her head and passed out from exhaustion. 

                     Footsteps, banging doors, mysterious voices and cold spots are common throughout the house. Even Sarah herself has been seen many times. Oh please. I've heard way worse. This is just a big goofy house built by a goofy woman. If there are any construction workers out there who would be willing to work for the next 38 years to build me house, let me know... I can't pay you, but I'll at least let you have a lunch break...

                 *footnote*

                         Sarah just sat back and let the money roll in. Her share of the hugely successful rifle company brought in $1000 a day. That would be $20,000 a day now. So How do I marry one of these Winchester fellows or at the very least get one to adopt me? And I hate guns....but for $20,00 a day, I'll love them all you want....it's disgustingly unfair...