An Heiress Was Convinced She Was Being Haunted, So She Built A Massive Mansion To Please The Ghosts

Sarah Winchester simply couldn’t live with her in-laws’ dark history. And when the people closest to her began to die, a heartbroken Sarah was convinced vengeful ghosts were haunting her. Desperate to save herself and those she loved from their seemingly imminent fate, Sarah took a proactive approach. Instead of running away from her demons, she decided to build the ghosts their own spooky mansion.

It started so promisingly

This would be no ordinary mansion, though. It would be full of doors and stairs leading to... absolutely nowhere. The eerie saga began when Sarah fell madly in love with a wealthy man named William Winchester. And despite appearances, money played no part in her romance. Several people who were close to the couple recall a genuinely loving relationship, making what happened next all the more tragic.

Her love had a dark secret

William had his finger in a rather unsavory pie, you see. And despite her love for the suave, bearded businessman, Sarah couldn’t help feeling unsettled by the source of his enormous wealth. It had come at a very high cost — not to him personally, but to other families in the U.S. who were mourning loved ones.

Could he have blood on his hands?

What was the source of William’s riches? The Winchester Rifle Company, of which he was the second owner. William’s father, Oliver, had founded the company in 1866, and much of his fortune had come from the success of the Winchester repeating rifle. Once Sarah understood how this weapon worked, she would have a fateful change of heart.

The truth hits home

At first, Sarah thought nothing of how her love had acquired his money, as William’s earnings were hefty and consistent. But reality eventually struck when she saw the repeating rifle in action. Soon, she would become haunted by thoughts of ghosts — and she would blame them for the tragedy that would fall upon her family.

She became overcome by guilt

The repeating rifle could shoot multiple rounds in a matter of seconds, and that frightened Sarah. She even began to feel guilty about becoming a Winchester. When she found out she was pregnant, however, she thought her child’s success would make up for these feelings. Unfortunately, her reality turned out to be far more gruesome.

Little Annie’s awful fate

Six weeks after the birth of their child, the newly married Winchesters were struck with heartbreak. Their baby daughter, Annie, contracted marasmus — a disorder preventing her body from digesting food. And after little Annie passed away, the grieving Sarah became obsessed with superstitions. It would lead her on the path to creating a bizarre — and somewhat supernatural — mansion.

Ghosts were getting their revenge

Sarah blamed the ghosts of those murdered by Winchester rifles for the tragic loss of her child. William, on the other hand? Tasked with running his father’s business, he had no time to humor such ridiculous claims. He probably would never have agreed to build a mansion for the ghosts, either. But perhaps there was something in Sarah’s strange beliefs, as soon the Winchesters would suffer another awful blow...

Goodbye, Mr. Winchester

Not long after the death of her only daughter, Sarah had to say goodbye to her one true love. William passed away from tuberculosis in 1881, leaving Sarah widowed and devastated. And her guilt only mounted when her late husband’s entire fortune landed in her lap. She considered that money more of a blessing than a curse — and she had to get rid of it somehow.

Getting rid of the curse

How much did Sarah inherit? The equivalent today of more than $500 million! And she vowed to use it against this evil omen sabotaging her life. Sarah needed to put the family curse to rest once and for all, and that meant she had to talk to a man who — on the surface — seemed impossible to contact.

Seeking spiritual guidance

But Sarah wouldn’t be deterred. She had to get rid of the ghosts. Luckily, spiritualism was on the rise in the United States, with many people paying big to speak with dead relatives and loved ones. Sarah was among them, dishing out hundreds for a “genuine” medium. And the message she received would end up consuming her life.

Talking with the dead

Sarah’s expensive medium claimed to speak with William himself, and he apparently had a cunning plan to fool these wretched ghosts. Clearly, Sarah thought, becoming a ghost himself had swayed William into believing in the supernatural. And while his idea would require a large sum of Sarah’s inherited fortune, it may have been a small price for her to pay to finally remove the curse.

A ghoulish plan

First, William wanted Sarah to move out west, which she did with haste. There, as he supposedly told her, she should find a plot of land with plenty of room to build. So, upon arriving in San Jose, California, Sarah purchased a farmhouse that was mid-construction. And on her husband’s orders, she began constructing her ghost-catching mansion!

Her ideas were too dangerous

There was just one problem: not a single architect was willing to meet Sarah’s demands. They insisted her suggestions would cause serious injury. But Sarah knew this mansion was for spirits, not people. Frustrated, she decided to lead the construction all by herself — and the plans she had for the place were odd, to say the least.

Her strange vision finally comes together

Sarah gathered dozens of local construction workers and commenced the project. Her workers were rumored to be on-site day and night, through weekends, and on holidays. Seeking perfection, Sarah paid her crew handsomely. Eventually, her vision began to come together — and she got advice on what to build from a very unexpected place...

The weirdest mansion ever built

Sarah hired multiple mediums to help her speak with the dead. With their guidance, she instructed the workers to build grand staircases that expanded up several flights — then tailed off to nowhere. The men wallpapered long, dead-end hallways and installed meaningless doors. And as time went on, Sarah’s additions became more and more baffling.

A hazardous funhouse

In an attempt to expand quickly, Sarah had extensions tacked onto existing rooms. She became less picky about exact measurements, causing some fixtures to be Frankensteined together. Her home had become a hazardous funhouse — but she had to keep going. Who knows what would happen if she didn’t appease the spirits? She just couldn’t take the risk.

Two decades to build

Sarah had begun construction in 1884. Twenty years later, her mansion had reached seven stories high! It was huge, too, with 161 rooms, two ballrooms, three elevators, two basements, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, and one working restroom. Once again, Sarah was in love. Unfortunately, though, she was about to be met with yet another heart-wrenching tragedy.

Yet another blow for Sarah

In 1906 California was hit by a devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake. It remains one of America’s deadliest natural disasters, destroying 80 percent of San Francisco and the surrounding areas. And that included Sarah’s haphazard, seven-story mansion, which splintered and toppled to the ground. Sarah was in ruins. Was this some kind of a sign to halt construction?

Determined to keep going

Well, luckily, Sarah had given the mansion a floating foundation, which is commonly found in earthquake-prone parts of the world. This had prevented the home from total collapse. Yet Sarah’s strange construction did cause a large portion of the damage. Her plan? You’d think she’d just call the whole thing off. Instead, she decided to build it again — but better.

Erected once more

Sarah settled for a mere four-story mansion and spent another 20 years rebuilding the property. Forever beholden to William, she lived in the mansion until her death in 1922. And while it’s easy to say she was just a widow in mourning, her determination to appease spirits was the product of a post-Civil War mindset.

Ghostly goings-on in Washington, D.C.

Folks of all stripes believed in attempting to contact the dead back then — perhaps because they so desperately wanted to speak once again to their lost loved ones. But while a lot of people also believed in ghosts, they apparently didn’t include President Taft — despite the spirit supposedly roaming around the White House.

A startling weight on your shoulder

Even though different people reported an encounter with this ominous presence, the story always tended to be the same. A startling weight would impress itself down upon your shoulder, as if a person was bending over you from behind. But if you dared to turn around, you’d find that there was nobody to be seen.

“The Thing”

Without any tangible evidence of this presence, details about its true nature and form are pretty vague. It’s not even clear when exactly reports of the spirit first started to emerge from inside the White House. But by 1911 even members of President Taft’s inner circle knew about it. And they even referred to it by its nickname of “The Thing.”

Taft changed the subject

But the president himself really didn’t want people to talk about this ghostly presence walking through the White House. Taft would apparently fall into a rage if the subject came up, as he wanted to keep the tale from the general public. And if any of his staff were caught chatting about it, then they faced losing their jobs.

Did the president see a ghost?

Yet behind his reluctance to speak about The Thing, it’s said that Taft privately gave a great deal of thought to spirits. In fact, there’s even a rumor that he personally encountered a ghost once inside the White House. Perhaps he merely wanted to keep a lid on the building’s paranormal activities to prevent a panic?

The spirit herself

The spirit that Taft supposedly came across was female and dressed in a shawl and cap. Her arms were extended out in front of her, just as she was gliding through solid surfaces before Taft’s eyes. It was almost as if she was on her way to do the laundry — but she definitely wasn’t an employee...

An eerie first lady

Various reports over the years have mentioned a female spirit on her way to the White House’s East Room, which is precisely where former first lady Abigail Adams once dried her clothes. She and her husband John Adams were the first presidential couple to reside in the White House, so they definitely had a special connection to it.

Abigail Adams as a ghost?

Throughout Taft’s presidency, there were multiple alleged sightings of Abigail Adams. But things didn’t end when he left office. Even after many decades had passed, people were still occasionally claiming to see her. And the most recent sighting seems to have taken place in 2002 after visitors to the White House supposedly came across her.

So many sightings

The alleged sightings of Adams doing her laundry, however, are merely the beginning. A huge number of supposed ghost sightings have taken place inside the walls of the White House, you see. It’s happened so frequently, in fact, that some have argued that the White House is America’s single most haunted residence

Ghost tours

Jared Broach has been taking people on ghost tours via his business Nightly Spirits since 2012, including one for the White House. Speaking to The Washington Post in 2017, he remarked, “The White House has the best ghost stories, and I’d call them the most verified... Honestly, we could do a ten-hour tour if we really wanted to.”

Truman’s creepy tale

One story that Broach has surely mentioned during his White House ghost tours is the creepy tale involving President Harry Truman. One night during his tenure, it’s said, he retired to his bedroom and settled in for some much-needed rest. But at around 3:00 a.m., his slumber was rudely disturbed by an unexpected knock at his door.

No one there

In a letter to his spouse Bess, Truman recalled what happened next. He wrote, “I jumped up and put on my bathrobe, opened the door, and no one [was] there. Went out and looked up and down the hall, looked in your room and Margie’s. Still no one.” Margie, presumably, was a reference to his daughter Margaret.

“The damned place is haunted”

Truman went on in his letter, “Went back to bed after locking the doors and there were footsteps in your room whose door I’d left open. Jumped and looked and no one there! The damned place is haunted sure as shootin’. Secret Service said not even a watchman was up here at that hour... You and Margie had better come back and protect me before some of these ghosts carry me off.”

Lincoln saw a ghost too

And Truman wasn’t by any means the only president to be convinced of paranormal activity in the White House. Abraham Lincoln, too, was supposedly under the belief that he was being visited by a spirit. For him, though, the story is more tragic, as he was believed to be encountering his son, who passed away aged 11.

The spirit of his child

Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd is also said to have seen her child’s spirit after his passing. She was so devastated following the loss that she hid inside her bedroom for weeks, where once she was visited by the boy. She apparently claimed to hear the voice of former president Andrew Jackson at one stage, too.

Even Andrew Jackson

Truman also once noted the presence of Jackson in the White House in a letter to his spouse. He claimed, “I sit here in this old house and work... read reports, and work on speeches... while listening to the ghosts walk up and down the hallway and even right in here in the study... The floors pop and the drapes move back and forth – I can just imagine old Andy [Jackson] and Teddy [Roosevelt] having an argument over Franklin [Roosevelt].”

Lincoln apparently haunts as well

As for the Lincolns, though, it wasn’t just their child that showed up. After President Lincoln himself was killed in 1865, many have claimed to see him wandering through the White House. They’ve included first lady Grace Coolidge, the U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and they can’t all be telling tall tales.

Annie Surratt’s ghost

Another apparition said to have appeared is Annie Surratt, who has a grim connection to the Lincolns. Surratt is remembered for trying to save her mother from execution after she was found guilty of involvement in President Lincoln’s murder. Her efforts failed and Mary Surratt was hanged. Since then, there have been reports of Annie’s spirit barrelling through the White House, trying to secure her mother’s freedom.

Dolley’s warning

In a less terrifying tale, the ghost of former first lady Dolley Madison was once apparently spotted in the White House rose garden. This happened during Woodrow Wilson’s tenure as president when there were plans to move the rose garden to another spot. Coincidence? Well, Madison’s appearance convinced people to leave the plot firmly where it was.

The ghost on the second floor

In 1883 a newspaper called The Washington Critic published a piece that described a spirit said to roam the second level of the White House. This phantom could be seen floating through the bedrooms located on this floor of the building. And the details mentioned in the paper were disturbingly vivid. So brace yourselves...

“An aged and bent man”

The article described the ghost as “an aged and bent man with long, phosphorescent, white beard and hair, ghastly and wavy, bright and glaring eyes, and long scrawny fingers. His walk is noiseless but stately, and his presence is always indicated by a peculiar electric sensation which pervades the surrounding air.” Creepy or what?

There was also a lady

In 1897 another newspaper called The Saginaw News published a vivid description of a White House ghost. And this time the story was about a police officer who was walking around a greenhouse complex that used to be located to the side of the building. Here, the officer reportedly saw, “a tall, beautiful lady dressed in the fashion of the early 19th century.”

Musical laugh

The police officer tried to engage this apparition in conversation, but then she disappeared before his eyes. Just rude really! And with that, a “musical laugh” sounded and a weird glow lit up the greenhouse. But the woman was gone. This same officer encountered the ghost again, but he fainted as a result and was removed from his post by his bosses.

Haunted entrance

Yet another section of the White House notable for its apparent high level of paranormal activity is the North Portico entrance. Because here people have claimed to have seen an apparition of a soldier with a torch in his hand. Others have said that they’ve seen the ghosts of former doormen still seeing to their duty here.

When The Thing appeared

So overall the White House has a long history of people claiming to have encountered spirits. But of all the ghost stories set within the walls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, arguably the most fascinating takes us back to 1911. This was when, we’re told, the spirit known as The Thing haunted the place.

Who gave the ghost its nickname?

Now it isn’t known for sure when reports first started to emerge about The Thing’s presence at the White House. But it does appear that the phantom picked up its nickname in 1911 when William Taft occupied the building as president. The moniker of “The Thing” reportedly was the work of Major Archibald Butt, a military aide to the president.

Spirit belonged to a child

Butt’s own life would tragically be cut short aboard the doomed Titanic voyage, but before that he described The Thing to his sibling Clara. In a letter to her, he explained that the spirit actually appeared to belong to a kid. He then went on to describe the creepy way the ghost revealed itself to people.

Teenage apparition

Butt wrote, “It seems that the White House is haunted... The ghost, it seems, is a young boy – from its description, I should think about 14 or 15 years old... They say that the first knowledge one has of the presence of The Thing is a slight pressure on the shoulder, as if someone were leaning over your shoulder to see what you might be doing.”

Taft gets mad

Fascinated with the spirit, Butt reportedly interrogated others who worked in the White House to try and learn more. But he was forced to stop his investigation when President Taft learned of the ghostly rumors. Taft was apparently furious about such talk and threatened to fire anyone who engaged in it.

Avoiding panic

Butt detailed Taft’s reaction to the ghost story in another letter to his sister. The president, he wrote, succumbed to, “a towering rage... he thinks it will be a very serious thing to have the story get out among the people of the country.” So it appears that Taft wanted to avoid a panic at all costs.

Brushing it off

Yet privately it’s said that Taft was eager to learn about The Thing. And Butt himself was fascinated by the subject, though he tried to pretend otherwise. When White House staff reported sightings of the spirit, he would try to brush it off as if it didn’t interest him.

Squeeze of the shoulder

Plus very few people claimed to have actually seen The Thing with their own eyes – but they did feel it. The creepy, ghostly hand of the phantom would apparently give a squeeze of a person’s shoulder, which surely was a terrifying experience. There were reportedly numerous people who said that this had happened to them.

Maid sees it

But even though The Thing tended not to show itself to people, there has been at least one reported visible sighting. This came from a maid who worked in the White House, seeing to the First Lady Helen Taft. In accounts of this maid, she’s referred to by the name of Marsh.

Sad eyes

Following her claimed sighting of The Thing, Marsh described the phantom as that of a teenage boy. His hair was disheveled, she claimed, and he had blue eyes that appeared to be “sad.” This was the most detailed account of The Thing that anyone in the White House had ever offered. And perhaps a pretty harsh name on reflection given it was just a boy?

An investigation

So Butt didn’t appear interested in this tale – in public anyway – but he secretly went about trying to learn more. He interviewed people about the phantom, plus he conducted research to try and discover whether a boy may have passed away in The White House. But eventually the letters he sent to his sister stopped mentioning The Thing. It seems his investigations never bore fruit.

Who is he?

And others have attempted to figure out who this kid might have been, too. But the only young boy that’s known to have died in the White House is President Lincoln’s son. Yet Willie Lincoln passed at the age of 11, which doesn’t quite match reports of The Thing’s physical appearance.

Kept from the public

Whatever was truly believed by the men in private, it’s understood that Taft and Butt managed to keep the tale from reaching the general public. That’s the view of Evan Phifer, a historian associated with the White House Historical Society. Speaking to Mental Floss, he explained that Butt’s letters appear to be the only solid records of The Thing.

Only mention on record

Phifer told the website back in 2017, “I didn’t really see the story in any papers of the time, so you could say that Archie Butt did a good job of keeping the story under wraps... This seems to be the only mention in the historical record of this ghost.”

Not so high-profile

Perhaps one of the other reasons why The Thing largely faded from history is because it wasn’t as high-profile as some of the other White House ghost sightings. As Phifer put it, “It’s not a president or a first lady. It’s this unknown boy about 14 or 15 years old.”

Maybe he’ll return

So if Butt ever did manage to find out anything substantial about The Thing, it seems that he didn’t document it. By April 1912 he’d lost his life on the Titanic, so if he had any secrets they died with him. But who knows? Perhaps The Thing will reveal itself again to those in the White House today...