Talk:Sarah Lockwood Winchester
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] Removed apocryphal information
I removed this section from the last sentence:
- "... firing any worker who saw her face, and never allowing visitors into her 160 room mansion."
This is not true. Once a servant saved her life during a fire and I haven't found any other information to support this fact. Also she had relatives such as nieces visit her in her home from time to time. Note that the tour guides for the house promulgate ficticious facts about her life in order to boost interest in the house. The best facts are found in a short book by John Rambo (not the First Blood John Rambo). It dispells many of the myths which the Winchester house still today dispenses as fact (but is curiously sold in the hosue's gift shop). I don't remember the name of the book, but the two statements above are dispelled in the book. —Frecklefoot 19:28, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Actually, I used to work there. You're wrong, the tour guides don't purposely make up facts. The problem is that so little is actually known about Mrs. Winchester's life that employees have to cobble together stories from what we do know. A lot is based on legend and whenever we find something new about the House (or something that dispels what we've been saying), we adjust the tours to accommodate that new fact. And a lot of the facts found in other books are wrong (what makes the book you mentioned so much better?)...for instance, some books say that Sarah's daughter and husband both died in freak accidents very close to one another, which is patently false.
[edit] "Lady of Mystery (Sarah Winchester)" by Ralph Rambo
I think the book you are referring to is actually "Lady of Mystery" written by Ralph Rambo.
[edit] after math
I personnally ask myself why did she do this to her beautiful house.I mean to me I think that she was kinda off her rocker in creating this fortress with staircases that lead no where and doors with ten foot drops.I have watch programs and read about her and Its just so confusing to me but I dont think that she wasnt haunted by spirits, im not saying she wasnt buit I don't believe in ghost and rathes. Her story makes you wonder why, but it makes you want to know more about Sarah Winchester.
Of course she was off her rocker. She lost her entire family, started "communicating" with ghosts, put references to thirteen everywhere, built sculptures of the supposed victims of the gun, etc. Think of her as a sort of crazy cat lady recluse. AllStarZ 17:40, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Moved from article
The house is without a doubt eccentric. While the "widow preyed upon by ghosts" story is fun, imaginative, and induces goosebumps, the supernatural explanation (mediums told her to build to appease ghosts) have always come from the promoters of the house, who directly benefit from its ghostly reputation. There is no external source by which the supernatural causes cited above can be confirmed, and only the flimsisest citation for the "official story" is ever offered. Almost all the physical details regarded by initiates as "proof" that Sarah was a haunted woman are easily covered by more prosaic explanations. Stairways with tiny steps are for fleeeing ghosts; or because Winchester's diminutive stature and arthritis were eased by them. The strange details in her residence may just as easily be explained by someone whose mental faculty is diminishing as her capital reamains abundant; and the authority over builders that comes with regularly met payrolls. Winchester's quirky home emerges at a time when self-made money felt very comfortable confronting conventionality in residential design (See also the Mark Twain House, the clients of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School period, etc.)
[edit] Siblings
She was the daughter of Leonard Pardee and Sarah W. Burns, and had six siblings:
- Sarah E. Pardee, who died as an infant;
- Mary A. Pardee, who married William Converse;
- Antoinette E. Pardee;
- Leonard M. Pardee;
- Isabelle C. Pardee, who married Lewis Merriman; and
- Estelle L. Pardee.
