Build it and live forever

In 1963 I was introduced to one of America's great mystery venues, the Winchester Mansion. Located in San Jose, Calif., it was a destination that as a young boy, I felt would be totally boring. To my utter amazement, what I assumed was going to be another of those tedious adult treks that I was forced to endure became instead one of my all-time favorite historical landmarks.

According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the Winchester Mansion has a history that is unrivaled in our country, or the world for that matter. It remains a popular tourist attraction today, but be warned, once you have been introduced, you will never be quite the same.

In our English language there is a word, "conundrum," that perhaps best defines this mansion for it is most definitely a riddle that remains unanswered, now and forever.

Here are the basic facts and myths regarding this National Historical Landmark. Sarah Winchester was the wife of William Winchester, the owner of the Winchester Rifle Company. They lived in New Haven, Conn. Following his death in 1881, Sarah made a move to the west, and in 1884, she began to build the famous mansion.

For the next 38 years, Mrs. Winchester kept crews working continuously to build this complex home. The house became a rambling collection of various architectural styles jumbled together in a maze that baffles all who enter.

The fanciful story that has been told for decades claims that Sarah was mentally unbalanced. It also relates that following the sudden deaths of her husband and young daughter, she became involved with mediums that influenced her future decisions.

The saga claims that a spiritualist contacted her late husband, and he told Sarah to go west and begin building a home that should never be finished. The reason for this was his anguish over all the people who had been killed by his rifles.

Furthermore, if the house was never finished, none of these "evil spirits," could ever inhabit the mansion. How much of this is fact or fancy will remain unknown, but parts are obvious fabrications.

We do know that the portion of the tale regarding the loss of her family was changed. The daughter died in 1866, her husband in 1881 and neither death was sudden. As to her involvement with mediums or the occult, that was quite common in those days.

At its zenith, the house rambled over several acres and rose to seven stories. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake caused a lot of damage, and the current structure has only four stories that can be safely toured.

Expense was no issue for Mrs. Winchester. Besides her amassed fortune, she received around $1,000 tax-free in royalties, everyday. The materials and workmanship were first rate, and no expense was spared.

In the home you will find numerous oddities. There are grand front door entrances that were finished, then the home continued on, leaving them in the middle of the house. There are stairways that end at blank walls going nowhere.

Speaking of stairs, Sarah was a diminutive 4 feet 11 inches tall. She had the stairs built for her own ease of use, labeled "easy risers," about half the normal height. Even as a kid, I had to be careful climbing and descending these low steps.

She never slept in the same room two nights in a row. She was very fearful of her domestic staff, and had spy windows placed throughout the home so she could keep and eye on the servants.

Following the earthquake, it is claimed that Sarah was trapped in a bedroom when the door would not open and it took the maids a full day to find her. Again, many of these claims are in most cases unsubstantiated, but they do make for great drama.

The home was built on what is called a floating foundation. According to Wikipedia, this is likely the reason it was not destroyed in the 1906 quake, and it also survived a more recent earthquake in 1989.

The original layout had 160 rooms in the home including 40 bedrooms. There were 47 fireplaces, 2 basements and 3 elevators. The windows alone contained more than 10,000 glass panes.

The house was furnished with forced air heating, almost unheard of in that era. Other new conveniences included indoor plumbing and push button gas lights.

I have only listed a fraction of the information about this wonderful mansion. Again, you should definitely put this on your travel or vacation list of places to see if you are ever in the California Bay area. I returned there a few years ago, and it is still fascinating.

Actually, while the subject of mystery and mediums is at hand, many of you have likely missed one of our local legends. Our museum and library are filled with material about the famous Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics.

The Institute was founded by Professor Sidney Abram Weltmer in 1897. Weltmer practiced a kind of "magnetic healing" involving telepathy and hypnosis.

Was it real or voodoo science? Well, that is for another story. Suffice it to say, Weltmer's practices were just as seductive as those that Sarah Winchester followed. At the height of his business, more than 400 patients a day arrived, mostly by train, from all over the globe to receive treatments.

Remember there were no MRI machines or any of the modern day medical devices we have come to trust for our health. Back then, people sought help for all kinds of ailments, both physical and mental, regardless of how bizarre the methods.

As I'm writing this, I have just finished playing in a golf tournament. I could probably use some faith healing. If necessary, I will build a mansion if it will help this sore back!