A colossal estate traces its origins to an empire forged through a history of brutality and bloodshed, with its vast corridors built by a grief-stricken mother. Tormented by her family's dark past, ...

Sisters Isabel Merriman and Sarah Winchester called the house on Edgewood Lane in what is now Los Altos “El Sueño.” Courtesy Los Altos History Museum. The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose is an ...

The story is so famous most locals can recite it by heart: An eccentric widow, heir to an American rifle fortune, is tortured by the horrors wrought by the weapon. She becomes convinced only building ...

Among the Pardee sisters born in New Haven, Conn., much is known about Sarah—heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Less is known about Winchester’s younger sister Isabel Merriman, an ...