It’s not strange, not weird, just not built for ableds. Her mansion may be extravagant and eccentric, unfinished in many places but there’s also a lot to be said about how so many of the “mysteries” of the house are simply conveniences and comforts for an old woman. Many other places have written about Sarah Winchester’s other properties (all of which are very “normal” in their design) as well as her love for architecture, being a subscriber to multiple journals on the subject.īut I’m most interested in the aspect of design itself of the mansion and how its features have been othered over time. And after thirty years of breathless, prying speculation from the tabloid presses, the very private Sarah Winchester was a ready cipher for them to project their great money-spinning myth onto. Because only the sounds of constant construction could keep the ghosts at bay.īut it’s notable that the Winchester Mystery House experience opened within five months of Sarah Winchester’s death, shortly after the house was deemed worthless and sold off (for a still tidy sum) to an entrepreneur who ran theme parks. She started building in 1884 and as popular legend would have it, didn’t stop for the next thirty eight years. Winchester Mystery House (as it is now titled) was built by Sarah Winchester following the death of her husband and infant child. The words haunted house conjures up certain images in the popular imagination, a sort of amalgum of Scooby Do episodes and halloween attractions wrapped up in a sprawling Victorian exterior. The Archetype of the Haunted House, Winchester Mystery House and Crimson Peak
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