Being a Tourist - Part 1

There are always places in my home town that I never visit.... until someone comes to visit. And this past week, Meredythe was here from Maine. So we became tourists. And in San Jose, one of the more intriguing places to visit is the Winchester House. This Victorian "home" was built and owned by Sarah Winchester, the wife of the guy who sold the Winchester rifle. After her husband died, she became very superstitious. A psychic told her that the spirits of all the people who had been killed by the Winchester rifle were angry with her. To prevent her death, she must move from CT to the West and build a home. As long as she continued working on the home, she would not die. So in 1884, Sarah began construction. The work continued every day for the next 38 years until she died in 1922. The house rambles and has many wierd quirks - like stairs that go up to a ceiling, doors and cupboards that open onto walls, and unfinished spaces. Now, I must explain that Meredythe is a very thorough tourist. She must see what is behind EVERY door and in EVERY cupboard. In a house like this, that can be a problem. We took the Mansion tour - 65 minutes of walking up and down narrow twisty stairs and through rooms and hallways. The Victorian architecture, wallpaper and exquisite Tiffany stained glass windows alone are well worth the tour. Mrs. Winchester, being a superstitious person, had a seance room that only she could enter. At midnight EXACTLY a servant would ring the bell in the tower in the middle of the complex of roofs. The bell's rope could only be reached by climbing over the roofs and using ladders or by a secret tunnel that only the one servant knew about. Mrs. Winchester would don one of thirteen robes kept in her seance room and commune with the spirits. The spirits would then tell her what they wanted her to build in the house next. She would jot the directions down on paper and in the morning give the note to her foreman who would then instruct the building crews. After being trapped in her bedroom in the front of the house after the 1906 earthquake, Mrs, Winchester decided that the spirits didn't want her to work on the front of the house anymore. The front 30+ rooms were shut up and never reopened again. Many elements in the house have 13 parts - chandeliers, windows, ceiling panels. And all the support posts were installed upside down (on the porches). The original estate had acres of fruit orchards and an 18 acre walled garden next to the house. Mrs. Winchester had 2 ballrooms, many guest bedrooms and bathrooms but never had any guests. She did not like visitors and even refused to see President Teddy Roosevelt. After her death, the house was sold and became a tourist attraction. It was almost torn down in the mid-seventies to make way for I-280. But a local family bought it and had it designated as an historical landmark. I'm glad they did. It is an amazing place.