![]() Sarah was left with half of the company and over $20 million (over $500 million in 2019) in the inheritance of the Winchester arms company, which provided her with a daily income of $1000 for the rest of her life, making her one of the richest women alive. Sarah traveled to California and purchased an 8-room farmhouse in San Jose, where she began the work that would continue until the day she died. 1884 Last know portrait of Sarah Winchester. William died of tuberculosis at the age of 43, shortly after his father’s death, in March 1881. Oliver Winchester died, leaving his only son William in charge of the Winchester repeating arms. In the same year, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company was founded. Sarah and William had their first child, Annie Pardee Winchester, but she died 40 days later from Marasmus, or malnourishment caused by calorie and protein deficiency. Winchester rifles undoubtedly influenced the outcome of many wars. On September 30, 1862, Sarah Lockwood Pardee, then in her early twenties, married William Winchester, the only son of Oliver Winchester, who founded the company that made the Winchester rifle and the best one, the Winchester 73, also known as the “Gun that Won the West,” because it didn’t require reloading like other rifles. Sarah was intelligent and well-educated, and she spoke four languages and played three instruments. Her birth year is unknown, but based on available records, she was born between 18. Sarah Lockwood Pardee was the fifth of Leonard Pardee and Sarah Burns’s seven children. Sarah Winchester and Story of Winchester House Over the course of nearly four decades, the mysterious house never stopped building. The mansion has been said to be haunted by the ghosts of those killed with Winchester rifles since it was built in 1884. ![]() Winchester House, which spans over 24000 square feet and has over 161 rooms (it used to have 500). Sarah Winchester designed and built Winchester House, a perplexing mansion with over 161 rooms. Get out of my head! ΔĬalendar Editor Caleb Wiseblood misses the well-intentioned ghosts of his youth, like Casper and Space Ghost. The overalls aren't what make this unfortunate, rather the tour guide's anecdote about various sightings of the man over the years by staff members and guests. Unfortunately, the image I remember most is a framed photo of one of Sarah's workers, an elderly gardener in overalls. Photography is prohibited inside the mansion, so I take a ton of mental snapshots. Every architectural peculiarity is bubble gum to the eyes. Luckily for me, there's just way too much to admire. Some of the oddities were meant to serve as secret entrances and exits for good spirits, she says, while others were intended to confuse and mislead evil spirits. The results of the continual building and remodeling of the mansion are beautiful to behold, and I'm far more fascinated than afraid, even as I hear our guide explain a theory about why so many of the doors and staircases in the mansion go straight into brick walls or gaps seven stories high. And it never stopped, not until Sarah's death in 1922. According to tabloids at the time, a spiritual medium gave Sarah very specific instructions after William's death in 1881-to continuously build a home for herself and the ghosts of Winchester rifle victims to reside in.Īfter purchasing an unfinished farmhouse in 1884, construction of the mansion began without an architect or blueprints. Throughout the tour, she tells the tale of Sarah Winchester, widow of rifle manufacturer William Winchester, in bits and pieces. The tour guide leads our group, made up of 35 or so, down a hallway to a staircase, only the first of many. The tour begins shortly and we make our way to the front of the mansion. I fill my head with snarky jabs at consumerism to keep the apparition apprehension at bay. The amount of knick-knacks available at outrageous prices calms my initial fear even more. "I ain't afraid of no ghost!"Ī gift shop serves as the portal to the outdoor patio where the house tour begins. become my mantra as we approach the front entrance. The mentality is: If they can handle this, then so can I. How scary can this really be, right? I always get that same feeling when I see young children waiting in line for the same roller coaster as me. Even the parking lot helps a bit seeing touristy couples and families scurry out of their vehicles like they're heading into Disneyland gives me hope. My trepidation about visiting a supposedly haunted house subsides as I realize there's a Veggie Grill and other suppliers of serenity less than a mile away. SILLY SOUVENIR The Home Alone face was my gut reaction to Chris and Alli pointing rifles at me.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |