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Chapter 6 Labyrinth p 106 S arah Winchester’s San José house has old bones, even older than its current owners claim.1 A full ten years before she purchased it in 1886, a two-story wood-frame farmhouse sat tucked in a small grove fronting the Santa Clara—Los Gatos Road.Although it is not possible to prove beyond a doubt that the early structure was still standing and therefore the one she bought, it is certain that it occupied the same site.Accounts of her moving into the neighborhood assert that she added to an existing house, lending credence to the assumption that at least portions of today’s mystery house date from the early 1870s or earlier . By some estimates, the farmhouse was enlarged to twenty-six rooms within the first six months.2 The how and why of Sarah Winchester’s house-building has been the stuff of conjecture since she began. What motivated the seemingly interminable project, which in reality ended in 1906, and how was it accomplished? From early childhood, Sarah Winchester had been surrounded by woodworkers and milling operations. She replicated this familiar and comfortable backdrop at her new home.Typical of members of the upper class during the Gilded Age, Winchester displayed personal tastes and experimented in interior and exterior design in a large and over-ornamented home and outdoor space.An English observer at the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 noted that the fair looked like “the contents of a great dry good store mixed up with the contents of museums .”3 Winchester’s home, as well as many others,’ could have been described with the same words. She borrowed heavily from the fairs. One example came in the form of a beautiful statue of Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth, a grapevine garland in her hair, and a goblet extended in her right hand. It stood sentry at the California viticulture exhibit in Chicago, where shelves displayed pyramids of wine bottles produced from West Coast vineyards.4 Winchester commissioned a statue of Hebe 107 / Labyrinth for her San José home, and the goddess stood in front of the house for decades until the elements took their toll on it.The statue was restored in 2004 and stands once again at the Winchester house. Many parts of the Columbian Exposition were dismantled and shipped to the California Mid-winter International Exposition held in San Fran­ cisco’s Golden Gate Park in 1894.Some things from that fair also appeared at Llanada Villa. Winchester installed a version of Strawberry Hill, a hill on the west end of the San Francisco fairgrounds for picnics and taking tea. By having the same name, the little hillock on her ranch conjured the fun at the fair. She enjoyed sharing tea and picnics provided by her Chinese cook with her sisters and her niece.The fair’s JapaneseVillage,in later years the Golden Gate Park’s famous tea garden, inspired Asian gardening themes.Winchester’s property grew“lush with acres of blooming flower-beds bordered with rare dwarf boxwood and shaded by imported ornamental trees and shrubs.”A greenhouse that was a miniature of the horticultural building found at the fair was divided equally between space for birds and a hothouse for orchids. Some have estimated that she had over 110 countries represented in the villa gardens.5 The widow reflected an architectural awakening across the country and in San José during the 1880s and 1890s. For the first time, several professionally trained architects were working in the valley.At the beginning of 1892, the San Jose Mercury Herald ran a special edition entitled “Architecture and Architects,” maintaining that “in the history of the development of all towns of note there comes a time when the village builder is replaced by the professional architect, and San Jose is no exception.”6 Winchester hired at least two local professionals. Joseph McKee helped with the initial remodel, charging about $6,000, and Jacob Lenzen designed a stable.Neither man would have been up to the standards of New Haven’s award-winning architects, who had designed a number of classic buildings as well as the Winchester mansion there.It is unclear whether Winchester was dissatisfied with their work or simply preferred to do her own design work. As a woman, she had never expected to enter an institution of higher learning to master engineering and design skills. She was a self-taught architect. She superintended construction...

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