Sarah Lockwood Winchester (née Pardee; 1839 – September 5, 1922) was an American heiress who amassed great wealth after the death of her husband, William Wirt Winchester, and her mother in law, Jane Ellen Hope. Her inheritance included $20 million ($ million in ) as well as a 50% holding in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, which made her one of the wealthiest women in the world at the time. Sarah Winchester is best known for using her vast fortune to continue construction on the Winchester mansion in San Jose, California, for 22 years. Popular legends, which began during her lifetime, held that she was convinced she was cursed by the spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifle, and the only way to protect herself was to continually add on to her California home. This legend was further exaggerated by John and Mayme Brown, theme park developers, who bought the property with the intention of turning it into an attraction. Sarah, however, wasn't obsessed with building due to fear of being haunted; in fact, most of the anomalies in the house were due to quick repairs made after the 1906 earthquake destroyed much of the house. Since her death, the sprawling Winchester Mystery House has become a popular tourist attraction, known for its staircases that lead to nowhere, along with its many winding corridors and doors that lead to walls or sudden drops. Early life She was born the daughter of Leonard Pardee and his wife Sarah W. (née Burns), in Summer 1839 in New Haven, Connecticut. On September 30, 1862, in New Haven, Sarah married William Wirt Winchester, the only son of Oliver Winchester, the owner of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Sarah and William had one daughter, Annie Pardee Winchester, who was born on June 15, 1866 and died on July 25, 1866 of marasmus. In the span of one year, 1881, she lost her mother, her father-in-law, and finally her husband William, who died of tuberculosis. In 1886, she purchased a small, two-story farmhouse and ranch in San Jose, California. The property was called Llanada Villa, and would later become known as the Winchester Mystery House. Other properties In 1888 Winchester purchased 140 acres of land, the majority of what is now downtown Los Altos, California, to use as a ranch. She also purchased a farmhouse, now known as the Winchester-Merriman House, for her sister and