GHOSTS OF THE TATE MANSION EXCLUSIVE
The Tate Mansion aka the haunted house...Rambling ROSE
Inspired by A Real-Life Ghost Story!
The Devour Family Saga is brought to life by the creative imagination of author Sherry Mauro. In her first novel, she introduces readers to a haunted house called the TATE MANSION, a chilling mansion with dark secrets and a bloodcurdling past. Many readers will believe this is simply another story from the artistic mind of the author... never realizing that the story of Tate Mansion aka Rambling Rose was inspired by a real-life haunted house!
The “Real” Tate Mansion aka Rambling Rose
My three-part series under the name, Sherry Mauro centers around a house called the Tate Mansion aka Rambling Rose, a turn-of-the-century old mansion that has long been abandoned, but according to local lore, continues to be haunted by evil spirits. Although the house, Tate Mansion is not real, I’ve created an entire “history” for the house. The story goes that the house once belonged to an old millionaire and that his wife, Amelia Devour, and others haunt the mansion after being told that she would live forever as long as construction on Tate Mansion aka Rambling Rose was never completed.
If the story sounds somewhat familiar to ghost buffs, there’s a reason for that. The story was actually inspired by the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. I first toured the house on a school field trip as a kid and remembered it for years after. Oliver Winchester, who invented the famous repeating rifle that won the west, left a daughter-in-law with a belief in Spiritualism when he went to his reward. At one séance, Sarah Winchester asked the medium, ’When will I die?’ .... the medium replied, ’When your house is done’.”
Winchester Mystery House
For those of you that haven’t heard of this great Victorian mansion and its strange owner let me briefly give them their due for inspiring the Devour Family saga.
As most people know, the Winchester house was never really completed and construction continued on it around the clock until Sarah Winchester died. She continued to add rooms, hallways, and entire wings, claiming to receive blueprints and ideas from the spirits on a nightly basis. After reading about the Winchester House and touring it several times over the years, the story of a “never-ending mansion” and the sprawling mansion itself fascinated me and eventually I thought it might make a great inspiration for a novel. I decided to expand upon my idea of the never-ending house and combine it with my own ideas. I also decided to make my ghosts more than simply the product of the mind and turned to the classic themes of the restless dead, and true ghost stories, to flesh out my manuscript. The house itself actually becomes a character in the novel, began to take on a monstrous life of its own. And like Sarah Winchester’s mansion, it is never quite finished and at one point, the lead character loves to hear the sounds of hammering and sawing as she continues to build on the house too!
Sarah Pardee married William Winchester, son of Oliver Winchester the Governor of Connecticut and the manufacturer of the famous Winchester repeating rifle. The couple’s life together was happy, until disaster struck when their infant daughter unexpectedly died. Fifteen years later her husband died. Afterward Sarah Winchester fell into a deep depression from which she never fully recovered. According to sources, she consulted with a medium that explained that her family and her inherited fortune were being haunted by the spirits of the American Indians and Civil War soldiers, and others killed by the Winchester rifles. However, the medium also instructed Mrs. Winchester that unless she built a great house to appease the spirits she might be the next victim.
So, in 1884, Mrs. Winchester moved to San Jose, California and purchased an eight-room farmhouse. She immediately hired carpenters to work in shifts around the clock. By the turn of the century, the eight-room farmhouse had grown into a seven-story mansion with 160 rooms!
Incidentally, she was fixated with the number thirteen and it showed up in her unconventional building. Furthermore there is no record of there ever being any blueprints made on the construction of the odd house, and the miles of twisting hallways are made even more intriguing by secret passageways in the walls. The beautiful but bizarre house had some rooms that were remodeled many times by the curious Mrs. Winchester and it is estimated that 500 to 600 rooms were originally built, but because so many were redone, only 160 remain.
This naturally resulted in some peculiar effects, such as stairs that lead to the ceiling, (pic above) doors that go nowhere and that open into walls, and chimneys that stop just short of the roof!
The repeated occurrences of the number 13 throughout the house add to its mystery as well. Many windows have 13 panes and there are 13 bathrooms, with 13 windows in the 13th bathroom. There are also 13 wall panels in the room prior to the 13th bathroom and 13 steps leading to that bathroom.
Here are even more thirteens: 13 rails by the floor-level skylight, 13 steps on most of the stairways, 13 glass cupolas, 13 ceiling panels in most of the rooms, and it had 13 Palm trees lining the long driveway, and so forth. It’s also interesting to note that Mrs. Winchester’s will had 13 parts and was sighed 13 times. (*Hint: After you’ve read the books, see if you can tell how many times I used the number 13!) Mrs. Winchester’s financial resources were virtually unlimited; upon her husband’s death, she received several million dollars in cash and 777 shares of stock in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Thus gave her more than enough money (about thousand dollars a day—tax-free!) to begin her eccentric building project, which lasted over the next thirty-eight years until her death in 1922.
The mansion is now historical landmark number 868. I have toured the estate many times over the years and it never ceases to fascinate me. It is indeed spectacular with its lush sprawling grounds and Queen Anne Victorian architectural craftsmanship. Therefore, the Tate mansion is its unambiguous replica of that great house.
Over the years, the Winchester Mystery House has collected its own supernatural lore. Even some staff members have said that they have felt a presence within the house and have gotten their own glimpses of the spectral inhabitants.
Hauntings
Haunted houses are often regarded to contain the spirits of deceased beings who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property. Supernatural activity inside homes is said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events in the buildings past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide — sometimes in the recent or ancient past. Amongst many cultures and religions, it is believed that the essence of a being such as the 'soul' continues to exist. Some philosophical and religious views argue that the 'spirits' of those who have died have not 'passed over' and are trapped inside the property where their memories and energy is strong. Evil entities, which are said to ‘haunt’ homes, are often believed to make noises, appear as apparitions, and shift or launch physical objects. This is sometimes manifested into 'poltergeist activity'; poltergeist meaning 'noisy spirit'. Traditionally an exorcism is the method used to remove unwelcome spirits from the property.
Legends about haunted houses have long appeared in literature. Haunting is used as a plot device in gothic or horror fiction or, more lately, paranormal-based fiction. Roman-era authors Plautus, Pliny the Younger, and Lucian wrote stories about haunted houses, and more modern authors from Henry James to Stephen King have featured them in their writings. Haunted castles and mansions are common in gothic literature such as Dracula.
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