If haunted houses and grand architecture are amongst your guilty pleasures, then Winchester Mystery House is the place to be. Sarah Lockwood Winchester, the successor to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune, built and lived in this historic landmark in San Jose.

The manor was originally an eight-room farmhouse that underwent 36 years of construction and became an anomaly among the world’s mansions.

What is the story behind Winchester Mystery House?

Sarah Winchester suffered two devastating tragedies at once. Her daughter was taken by a childhood illness. This tragedy was followed by the death of her husband a few years later. What remained for Sarah was the Winchester gun fortune and advice from a medium to leave her old home and travel West. After the deaths, she left their family home in New Haven to start a new life. This began the story of one of the longest home renovations in American history. This project was only stopped when Sarah passed away in 1922.

When Mrs. Winchester visited the medium that advised her to move, she wanted to try and speak to her last husband. According to the medium, her deceased husband was being channeled through her. His message was that she must continuously build a home for herself and the spirits of the people who lost their lives to Winchester rifles. This superstition led to what we now know as the Winchester Mystery House.

What to expect at the Winchester Mystery House?

The house features a baffling number of windows, 10,000 to be exact, spread across 24,000 square feet with over 2,000 doors and 160 rooms. Sarah Winchester was considered to be a woman ahead of her times– and the Winchester Houes is famous for its design innovations as well as the reported paranormal activity.

Sarah hired carpenters and workers to build the house according to her specific instructions, which caused the mansion to have many oddities, such as doors and stairs that lead nowhere, windows that overlook other rooms, staircase that have no destination, amongst other quirky characteristics. There was only one working toilet at the Winchester House; it is said that the others are all decoys to confuse spirits.

The house was originally seven stories tall, but the earthquake of 1906 caused the highest floors to collapse. When this happened, Sarah was inside the home and trapped under the debris. Her staff had to dig her out because the entrance of her room was blocked off by rubble. The manor now stands at four stories.

The mansion has inspired plays, novels, and movies that have used the setting as a primary location. It has also been featured in paranormal shows such as MythBusters and Most Haunted for its supposed paranormal activities.

The Winchester Mystery House is owned by Winchester Investments LLC and is open for public viewing. Many rooms are still not accessible but a recently introduced tour called the ‘Explore More Tour’ showcases rooms that were never opened before and some rooms that were left unfinished at the time of Sarah’s death.

To make the experience more interactive, activities like ax throwing and visits to the antique products museum are also available. You can even enjoy various arcade games and practice your aim at their shooting gallery.

Winchester Mystery House is open daily from 10 am onwards, and their closing time varies spending on the day and season. You can check this when you buy tickets for their tours. They also offer their guests complimentary parking on the lot for an even smoother experience.

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