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The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose is an iconic South Bay landmark, and its namesake owner, Sarah Winchester (the heiress of Winchester Rifles), has become a figure of legend. Lesser known today is Sarah’s younger sister, Isabel Merriman, who, like her sibling, moved to the Bay Area from Connecticut and also made her mark on local history, residing in what is now Los Altos, followed by Palo Alto.
Merriman and her life on the Peninsula is the subject of a current exhibition at the Los Altos History Museum, “Building El Sueño: Isabel Merriman, Sarah Winchester, and the California Dream,” which explores Merriman’s story, including her work as a champion for justice, and the rights of children and animals.
And though the Winchester-Merriman House at 762 Edgewood Lane in Los Altos may be smaller and less famous than its sibling house a bit further south, it is a historic landmark as well. In 1888, more than a decade before Los Altos was even a town, Winchester bought the plot of land and its 1840-era redwood farmhouse that became known as the Winchester-Merriman House for Merriman’s family. The sisters referred to it as El Sueño (“the dream,” or “the daydream”), collaborating on their architectural plans for the property. The 3,148-square-foot Victorian is the oldest home in Los Altos.
Janan Boehme, the Winchester Mystery House’s historian, will discuss the sisters and their “dream houses,” which both started out as “plain, old” farm houses and were remodeled into Victorian splendor, at a talk at the museum on Sept. 17.
“What struck me when I first saw the Merriman house were all the little touches I knew from Sarah’s house in San Jose,” Boehme said. “I imagined the two ladies talking together about what they might do at Isabel’s house, and how the two developed.”
The sisters’ father was a joiner and carpenter, and they grew up watching him at work. “They built the way they wanted to build,” she said.
The outspoken activist and the quiet philanthropist
Merriman eventually left El Sueño for Palo Alto. There, “she became an elected officer of the Palo Alto Humane Society, and her name was often mentioned in newspaper articles as she performed citizens’ arrests for acts of cruelty to animals and rescued abused children,” according to an article by Boehme on the Winchester Mystery House’s website.
The myths and mysteries surrounding Winchester’s mansion have overshadowed her and Merriman’s true life stories, but Boehme said they’re well worth learning about.
“I think that a lot of people who have never visited the house don’t understand what a fascinating, intelligent, business-like woman Sarah Winchester was. Often people just say, ‘Oh, she was crazy, wasn’t she?’ Well, no, she wasn’t,” she said. And while she and Merriman differed in their approaches – Winchester was a quiet philanthropist and Merriman an outspoken activist – both were concerned with helping others.
“Her sister was so different from (Winchester) but they both seemed to be concerned with doing good in the world in their own way,” Boehme said. “Sometimes in history, things women have done have been very underplayed or ignored. These women were out doing stuff.”
From ‘dream homes’ to historic reminders
Boehme grew up locally, passing the Winchester Mystery House each weekend on her way to her grandmother’s house, and has been intrigued by it for as long as she can remember.
“I knew someday I was going to work there, and sure enough I did,” she said, starting out as a tour guide and eventually creating her current role as house historian. “It’s like a second home to me.”
The historic houses are important “as reminders of two women who did wonderful things,” Boehme said. “The fact that they both remain is amazing; the women that they represent were amazing too.”
Hear Janan Boehme’s talk on Sept. 17, 5:30 p.m., Los Altos History Museum, 51 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos; $15 (free to members); losaltoshistory.org/events/sarah-and-isabel-two-sisters-and-their-dream-houses/. The exhibition “Building El Sueño: Isabel Merriman, Sarah Winchester, and the California Dream” is on view at the museum through Nov. 30. losaltoshistory.org/exhibit/elsueno/.
