The hammering began again yesterday over at the Wachsmuth cabin – a welcome sound after several weeks of silence. The roofers – the same crew who have done many Oysterville roofs – are hard at it. I walked over to say ‘hello’ and to take a few pictures for the record.
I have several scrapbooks called “Structures of Oysterville” into which I put pictures and information about the houses in our National Historic District. It has come in handy many times when homeowners or visitors want to know when a wing was added to a house or what the original porch looked like or… I’m always on the lookout for historic pictures and I try to be diligent about the changes that are taking place now. I hope that the scrapbooks will continue to come in handy a few generations hence.
But, hearing the men at work cheered me for other reasons. First and foremost, the sooner the additions are done, the sooner we will have Tucker and Carol as full-time neighbors. Secondly, in deepest darkest winter, the sound of men at work is cheering in quiet little Oysterville – a thought which made me flash to the Winchester House in San Jose.
In 1884, Sarah Winchester, widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester, purchased an unfinished farmhouse in the Santa Clara Valley of California. Under Winchester’s day-to-day guidance, its “from-the-ground-up” construction proceeded around the clock, without interruption, from the time she purchased the house until her death on September 5, 1922, at which time work immediately ceased. The mansion is renowned for its size and utter lack of any master building plan. According to popular belief, Winchester thought the house was haunted by the ghosts of the people who fell victim to Winchester rifles and that only continuous construction would appease them.
Other than the sound of hammers and saws, there is no rhyme or reason to my fanciful Wachsmuth/Winchester analogy, of course. And, thank goodness for that! But it is nice to hear the work resuming across the way. I’m pretty sure ghosts have nothing to do with it.
Sarah Winchester, what a fascinating figure! She was drawn to the occult–I believe it was known as “spiritualism” at the time–and in addition to the ongoing building, there were many features within the house to keep those ghosts from harming her. Another famous ploy were staircases that led to nowhere. Did you know that she changed bedrooms every night? After the ’06 quake, her staff didn’t know which room she was in, and didn’t find her for a day as she was trapped.
Where is the Wachsmuth house located? It is kinda neat to hear the distant tapping of hammers throughout the day. Just a reminder that life goes onward and upward.
The Wachsmuth Cabin is on School Street just east of the big sign that tells about “the kidnapping of the County Seat.” The original Wachsmuth House (probably built in the ear;y 1870s) was on the south east corner of School Street and Territory Road. In 1939 it was replaced by the smaller house that still stands there. At that time the family also built three small cabins which they placed on their property along School Street. Tucker and Carol’s cabin is the only one of the three that remains.