
"Strange as a dream, fantastic as a fairy tale, weird as a dwelling from some other planet is the spirit house built by the late Sarah L. In that article, the headline that appeared in the newspaper read simply, "San Jose has Weird House," which is, well, accurate. Several years later, in June 1927, one witness described it as a "three-million dollar jumble of architectural uselessness."


"Shortly after her coming west, more than 30 years ago," the article read, "she received, she thought, a message from the 'spirit world' saying that she must build a mansion and that should the sound of the hammers ever cease she would die." Headlines flared, mostly at first about her fortune and what her estate would do with it (it was donated to the General Hospital Society of New Haven, Conn., near where she grew up), as well as what would happen to the house itself.īut, toward the end of each article, Winchester was described usually as "a figure of mystery" inexorably attached to the peculiar house.Ī month after her death, on October 7, 1922, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on her beliefs. winchestermysteryhouse.Not much more was written about the heiress until after her death, at which point rumors began to spread about the reasons behind the twisty, labyrinthine home in which she resided. After the 1906 earthquake damaged the house, the widow boarded up many of rooms, and it's believed that the new discovery might be one such chamber. Not only is the mansion massive, but it's also a bit of a fun house, filled with secret passages, stairs that go nowhere, and doors that open into walls (allegedly Winchester's attempt to confuse the spirits trying to find her). Thus the massive Winchester Mystery House was born in its final iteration, the home-which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places-contains 2,000 doors, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, six kitchens, and 10,000 windows. The medium instructed her to head west and build a house for the spirits, who would no longer bother her as long as construction never stopped. Winchester reportedly consulted a medium, who informed her that the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles were haunting her family. After the premature deaths of her daughter and husband, a shaken Mrs. The labyrinthine home was constructed over a period of 38 years by Sarah Winchester, the wealthy widow of William Wirt Winchester, of Winchester rifle fame.

Preservationists at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose have found a previously unknown room in the attic of the house, and in it was a pump organ, a dress form, a sewing machine, a Victorian sofa, and several paintings. The room count of California's most mysterious mansion has just increased by one, rounding out at 161 chambers (that we know of).
