Thank You

Thank you so much for your utterly delightful website and information! I have always been fascinated by Sarah Winchester and feel that she has always been sadly misrepresented. I do have a question: I don’t know if it was told only on my particular tour, but I remember hearing a great story about how she chose and hired her head gardener. Allegedly, she had three to choose from and as a test, she asked each of them to plant some cabbages upside-down. The first one got disgusted with the crazy lady and walked off, the second just did as he was told, and the third, a Japanese man whose name I can’t remember, replied that he would do so because she asked it of him, but that he felt compelled to inform her that cabbages grew much better when planted root-down. The story continues that Mrs. Winchester hired the third candidate because he was willing to give his honest opinion, but in the end would do as she asked anyway. Or something like that. (My sincere apologies to the original storyteller if I have messed up his story in any way!) Can you deny/confirm/debunk this story? Also, do you remember the name of her Japanese gardener? Thank you again for all the fantastic information!!

The “Spiderweb” window that Mrs. Winchester designed actually WAS installed in the house. It used to be where the “Most Expensive Window” is now, though I’m not sure if - like the MEW - it opened up to the room behind it.

There are two basements and one of the basements is open for tours on the Behind the Scenes tour, but even there then are a few areas blocked off. The areas that are blocked off are mainly just to hide some electrical stuff, prevent the tour from wondering everywhere and to prevent the need to have to retrace your steps because you reach a dead end. The other basement not open is basically just locked off because they use it for a lot of storage and there’s not much down there to show.

As for the doors. Many of them lead to walls because Mrs. Winchester had a tendency to just build a wall on top of a wall which is why the walls are so thick in some places. What this means is doors that used to have a purpose stopped having one because she build a wall over it. The door with the drop outside was probably there because there was a room or something attached to a room but was torn down. Mrs. Winchester did a lot of remolding as she got older instead of building.

Finally, most of the blocked off areas you encounter on tour, you see again from a different angle later on tour and you just don’t realize it. Other areas are just locked because a lot of it is used for storage for things like old signs, gift shop stuff, cleaning supply, construction items, etc. If you ever do go there for a tour the other areas that aren’t holding items or you see from other angles are really blocked off for safety reasons. Like doors that are locked because there is a drop there’s bound to be some kid who opens it and falls. Or on the third floor the ceilings are extremely low and there’s sprinkler pipes everywhere that someone is bound to hit their head on or areas where the floor is unfinished you have to walk on beams. There are even a few areas just locked off because they’ve been turned into offices for the staff.

Sorry, but many of the “strange” oddities in the house normally have a logical purpose. On a side note, if you ever do visit the place, I’d recommend going when the weather isn’t hot or cold. The house has no heating, or a/c which makes sense because it is a historical land mark and adding those things would note only damage the house more than the sprinklers did but would also cost a fortune to run.