"Keep Building!" That was the mantra for 38 years in San Jose, California's Winchester House. The house owned by Sarah Winchester has roughly 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 2 ballrooms, 10,000 windows and 13 bathrooms.
Mrs Sarah Winchester was born Sarah Lockwood Pardee in 1839 in New Haven, Connecticut. She married William Winchester the only son and heir of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. They had one child a daughter named Annie. The Winchester's daughter died as an infant and shortly thereafter William Winchester died of tuberculosis. This set Mrs. Winchester into a downward spiral of depression. She came to believe she was cursed, seeking the help of a Boston medium thought to be a psychic. The psychic told her she was cursed by the ghosts of the people killed by Winchester rifles. The only way she could lead a normal life was to move west and build a house for her and the spirits.
Mrs. Winchester bought an eight room farm house on 161 acres of land from a man named John Hamm in what would become San Jose in 1866. Then the building commenced and continued 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the next 38 years until the day of her death. Mrs. Winchester did not hire an architect only builders and would create the plans on her own by entering her seance room and consulting the spirits. This created a chaotic and extremely eccentric floor plan with staircases and doors that lead to nowhere and windows looking onto walls and interior rooms.
After the 1906 Mrs. Winchester was trapped for several hours in her bedroom and took this as a sign that she had spent too much time in decorating the house and not enough in construction. She had the carpenters board up the front of the house without repairing the damage. It was after this the true eccentricity of the construction began. Staircases to ceilings and doors that opened to brick walls were installed it is thought to confuse bad spirits.
When Mrs. Winchester finally died in 1922 all construction stopped. In her will she left the house and its contents to a niece who took what she wanted from the house and then sold off the rest of the contents. It took eight truck loads a day for six weeks to empty the house. It was then sold off to the highest bidder who opened it as a tourist attraction five months after Mrs. Winchester's death.
When you are out late at night and in the moors you may see a will-o'-the-wisp. In Latin they are known as Ignis Fatuus which translates to foolish fire. They are according to legend to be lights in the bogs that attract travelers into the bogs. In Wales and England lore says that they are Will a wicked blacksmith who lead such a bad life he has been forced to wander the bogs at night with only a single coal for light and warmth.
Science says that the lights are igniting marsh gases but that is no fun. Science always ruins a perfectly good scary story.
On the British Isles there are ways to scare off a will-o'-the-wisp. One of the ways is a jack-o-lantern. In England and Scotland turnips and rutabagas were hollowed, carved with faces and lit form within by a candle. When the tradition came to the US pumpkins were used as they are larger and easier to carve and we all know American's are lazy and want things bigger .
In Ireland there is a tale of Drunk Jack or Stingy Jack who offers his soul to the devil in lieu of paying his pub tab. Through a bit of trickery Jack thinks he has out witted the devil but finds that no he has not and must travel the earth at night with a carved turnip with a coal inside.
All of these tales are much more fun than burning marsh gas!
