![]() ![]() It is a labyrinth filled with features that were sure to disorient anyone exploring it. The Winchester Mystery House is perhaps the oddest home ever constructed in the United States. It never again grew taller, but it did grow wider. The great earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906 damaged the home, reducing it to four stories. ![]() At one time the house reached a height of seven stories in some places. The crew of approximately 20 worked in rotating shifts 24 hours a day, every day of the year. She immediately hired a crew of carpenters and started building the house we know today as the Winchester Mystery House. ![]() In 1884, Sarah purchased an eight-room farmhouse on 161 acres of farmland from a local doctor. Three years later, she settled in the San Jose area of California, near where many of her relatives resettled during the Gold Rush of 1849. She was one of the wealthiest women in the world. When William died in 1881, Sarah inherited $20 million and nearly 50% of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company stock. Perhaps, none as much as the home she built after her husband died. The influences of her early years followed her throughout her life. Both she and her husband had family members who were Freemasons. She traveled in the social circles that included many of Yale’s progressive thinkers. Sarah (Pardee) Winchester grew up in New Haven, Connecticut and attended Yale’s Young Ladies Collegiate Institute (please see part one of this series for more on Sarah’s life). ![]()
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