Like the house, legend of bizarre Winchester mansion grows and grows

A reclusive heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, haunted by the angry spirits of those killed by her family’s famed firearms, is at the center of the ghost story “Winchester,” in theaters Friday.

Helen Mirren plays the widowed Sarah Winchester, thought to be insane as she orders constant expansion and renovation of her bizarre Victorian mansion.

“There are many things about the movie that are absolutely real,” says Peter Spierig, who directed “Winchester” with his brother, Michael. “But were ghosts haunting Sarah Winchester, as people said at the time? There’s nothing to confirm that — or deny it, either.”

Here’s what we know to be true:

Sarah was real

The socialite heiress made a splash when she moved to San Jose from Connecticut in 1884 following the death of her husband, William (and their baby 15 years prior).

Winchester was a highly discussed celebrity even before she began drastically overhauling the home that became known as the Winchester Mystery House.

“She was Bill Gates-rich from this famous family, so people watched her, talked about her, and speculated,” says Janan Boehme, official historian at Winchester Mystery House, now a preserved tourist attraction.

The house is a marvel

The home started with eight rooms. By 1906, it was seven stories high with an estimated 90 rooms.

The movie (which was not screened for review) riffs on the oft-repeated legend that Winchester had been instructed by a spiritual medium to keep building to ward off the spirits haunting the house. But there’s no indication of that in Winchester’s letters or those of her confidantes, Boehme says.

An alternative theory: Winchester was occupying her mind as a way of dealing with her personal grief.

“We may never know why she built like she did,” says Boehme. “But people do certainly conjecture.”

A door goes nowhere

The Winchester Mystery House includes fascinating features. Stairways go straight into a ceiling, a doorway opens to a two-story drop, there’s a design preoccupation with the number 13 (closets with 13 hanger pegs, halls with 13 ceiling panels).

Possible explanations vary from an attempt to confuse haunting spirits to design miscues resulting from constant construction.

“But there’s nothing definitive. This really is a perplexing house,” says Boehme.

A quake rocked it

The infamous 1906 San Francisco earthquake, rather than the film’s rampaging spirits, did severely damage Winchester’s home, trapping her in a room. “They had to free her with a crowbar,” Boehme says.

The terrified Winchester tore down the top three damaged floors and spent more time on her nearby houseboat, but continued building out. In 1922, she died of heart failure in her bedroom at Winchester House at age 82.

Ghost stories persist

While Winchester herself never mentioned hauntings and friends denied them, speculation was rampant. Harry Houdini himself visited after Winchester’s death to debunk spiritualists. But the ghost stories continue today.

Some visitors have sworn to have seen the “wheelbarrow ghost,” a kindly apparation in white overalls who apparently works on the house.

“There is a good energy here,” says Boehme. “Even if none of the ghost stories are true, Sarah Winchester was a truly fascinating person.”

Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY