Episode 8: The Winchester Mystery House
Hello, again, and welcome! On this episode, we're diving into history and mystery with a discussion about one of the most famous paranormal sites in the world: The Winchester Mystery House. Let's get into it!
STOP! INSIDE JOKES AHEAD! If you haven’t gotten to listen to the episode yet, spoiler alert! This post contains lots of stuff that will make waaay more sense if you listen to the episode before or while reading. So if you haven’t already, pump the brakes and listen to the episode or just click above to play so that you can be in on all the shenanigans to follow!
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Produced by Peter Woodward
LISTENER STORY ALERT!!
This week, we welcome another Jeremy into the fold for an awesome listener story about his personal experiences with a friendly ghost at a haunted mall movie theater!
“Jeeerrrreeemyyyyyy?”
“Aaaaaaaaaaank…whaketa whaketa whaketa!!”
Aaaaand a ghostly face print!
Okay! Let's get into the episode!
The Winchester Repeating Rifle: The Gun that Won the West
This is the Winchester repeating rifle: the foundation of the fortune that funded the location that is the topic of this episode. It was invented by Oliver Winchester in 1866 and was the first reliable lever-action repeating rifle of its kind. It allowed the shooter to unload several rounds without having to stop to reload, hence “repeating.” It was known as the “Gun That Won the West” because it was so widely used at that time. Native Americans, settlers, cowboys, gunfighters, and even President Theodore Roosevelt loved this here gun! Quite the pew-pew.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Repeating_Arms_Company
https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech//SciRefGuides/winchester-rifle.html#:~:text=Famous%20for%20its%20rugged%20construction,to%20New%20Haven%20in%201871.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/15/the-winchester-rifle-my-familys-part-in-shaping-the-wild-west#:~:text=As%20the%20settlers%20went%20steadily,and%20the%20youthful%20Jimmy%20Stewart.
Meet the Lady of the House...
Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester was the wife of William Wirt Winchester, the son of the inventor. When William died very soon after inheriting the Winchester fortune, the entire thing passed to Sarah, who was now alone due to the passing of her husband as well their infant daughter. The most popular version of the story states that a visit to a spiritual advisor following these tragic losses prompted Sarah to begin the unending task of constructing what is today known as the Winchester Mystery House. She moved from her home in Connecticut to San Jose, CA and purchased what was at that time an 8-room farmhouse and just started adding allllll kinds of stuff to that sucker.
Winchester Mystery House
So, here we go.
The house itself is a marvel. Continuous construction lasted from roughly 1884 up until Sarah Winchester’s death in 1922, a total of 38 years. Featuring an astounding 2,000 doors, 160 rooms, 10,000 windows, 7 stories, and approx 24, 000 sq ft of space, it would be amazing even if it had no spooky backstory. But it do…
The biggest mystery of the house seems to be the ‘why’: WHY did Sarah do what she did? There are some theories:
She was told by a spiritualist that the Winchesters were cursed because of the death caused by their product: the repeating rifle. As penance, she built rooms for the ghosts of the victims to protect herself from their wrath until she died. So maybe she did it because she was constantly running from retribution or maybe it was because of guilt.
Or maybe not. Sarah was known to be incredibly independent, intelligent, and self-sufficient. She spoke several languages, was well-educated, and grew up in a very progressive home. Maybe she was an eccentric with lots of cash who just wanted to build crazy crap in her big ol’ mansion.
It is known that much of the strange construction in the house was the result of hasty repairs that were made following an earthquake that occurred in 1906.
But regardless of the reason why these bizarre and interesting additions and features were constructed, there’s some super cool stuff in there! It was way ahead of it’s time in terms of design and architecture, much of which was from plans drawn by Sarah herself.
Winchester Mystery House in Modern Times
Today, the Winchester Mystery House is a popular tourist attraction and paranormal investigation site. It served as the inspiration for the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World and inspired Stephen King to write the story “Rose Red”. It has been investigated multiple times by multiple sources, including Ghost Adventures and Mythbusters. There was even a 2018 movie called Winchester starring Helen Mirren.
https://www.sftravel.com/article/everything-you-need-know-about-winchester-mystery-house
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/winchester-mystery-house
https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/sarahs-story/https://allthatsinteresting.com/sarah-winchester
https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/gallery/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House
Some extras...
In case you were wondering about some of the other things we referenced in this episode:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/nyregion/what-is-that-spot-on-the-ceiling-of-grand-central-terminal.html
The Livermore Centennial Light Bulb: burning since 1901! Located at the Livermore-Pleasonton Fire Station in Livermore, CA, this bulb has been burning steadily for over 120 years and is noted in Guiness Book of World Records and Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Cool!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light
Alright, everybody! That’s another one in the books. We’ve learned a lot today. And we’ve learned that Peter and Jeremy are way too serious about their light bulb preferences. Geez. I mean they talked way too long about Kelvin…Jonathan just seemed confused. And who is Kelvin? He’s apparently hot and belongs in the cute room.
Thanks for stopping by as always! Visit us on the socials and let us know what you think! We’ll catch you guys on the flippety-flop. And don’t forget to stay strange!
Peter’s wife. Registered nurse. Uber-fan of The Strange Woods Podcast.
