Winchester Mystery House for a Spooky Spouse

Located in San Jose, California, the Winchester Mystery House is a historical landmark with rich history. Originally purchased as a modest, two-story farmhouse in 1886, it soon became an ever-changing 7-story Victorian-style home that survived the 1906 earthquake and an eccentric, mentally unstable, but very wealthy owner.  The home now has a grand total of 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 160 rooms, 47 stairways, and 2 basements.  Estimated to have cost around $5 million in 1923, inflation has its value sitting at about $71 million today.

Sarah Winchester, a well-educated socialite of her time, was the widow of William Winchester, the inventor of the Model 73 rifle, aka “The Gun that Won the West.” His death triggered a large inheritance of around $20 million, as well as half of the “Winchester Repeating Arms” stock rights for Sarah. Though her life was now comfortable and gave her independence most women were not fortunate enough to have at the time, she began to believe her earthly existence was being tormented by the ghosts of those who died by the Model 73. At her wits end, she sought guidance from a psychic who instructed her to begin construction on her home to alleviate the hauntings, noting that continuous construction would keep them away. Construction was ongoing for 36 years.

The house includes peculiarities such as staircases that lead to walls or ceilings, doors that open to nothing, tilted entryways that lead to more staircases or dead ends, and a séance room with a “fake door”. Sarah was said to sleep in a different bedroom every night and only had a single working bathroom. This was a very purposeful design, meant to confuse spirits with many “decoy rooms”. Aside from the strange bits, the home also includes intricate exterior detailing, hand-crafted fireplaces, and carefully thought-out landscaping. The “floating foundation” allows the home to be semi-detached from the brick base and move freely during a quake, thus surviving the 1906 catastrophe. Some of the innovations that went into building this home were steam/forced-air heating, indoor plumbing, horizontal hydraulic elevator pistons, and push-gas lamps – all very modern for the time.

The Winchester Mystery House is open to tour for those with an interest in history, architecture, or possible paranormal activity. Some visitors leave with stories of Sarah Winchester still roaming the halls of her complex estate, hiding from her own haunts, even in death. Spoooooky!