I think there was definitely some of that. She was actually really innovative and adopted a lot of new technology very early on. But she was also a really sad woman who was very lonely, and got really into occult stuff (it was surprisingly popular for her era) - I mean, she did actually build a seance room into her…

She also slept in a different bedroom every night, supposedly to confuse the spirits. Although it also could have been because she had construction going on 24 hrs a day and was trying to get away from the noise.

I was a tour guide at the Winchester House and I don’t know how I feel about this. (But the staff all generally agreed she was some mix of batty + very bad architect)  

I’ve always been on AH’s side regardless if she was a “gold digger” or not - because gold diggers don’t deserve to get cellphones thrown at them, that is still domestic abuse folks - but this is really a class act move on her part.