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San Jose, California is the where one of the most unusual houses in the world calls home. The 160 room house is a jumble of twists and turns, dead ends and doors to nowhere. It is the result of thirty-eight years of nonstop construction with no more of a blueprint than the whim of the house's owner.
Sarah Winchester was the wife of the heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune, William Winchester. They had one child, a daughter, Annie, who died about one month after her birth. William died approximately 15 years later of tuberculosis. Mrs. Winchester, deeply distraught over both deaths, consulted a medium for guidance. This is where the fun starts.
The medium, rather than giving a message of a comforting nature, told Sarah that her family was cursed by the spirits of all those killed by Winchester rifles. These spirits had taken the lives of her husband and daughter as a revenge. The only thing that would pacify these tormented, and tormenting, souls would be to purchase a house and build on it continually. If Sarah did as the spirits directed, she could escape them. Apparently, the medium also gave Sarah the impression that if the construction ceased, so would Sarah's life. Make sense to you? Me neither! It made sense to Sarah, though, which is why I'm able to write about this.
In 1884, Sarah bought a house in San Jose and immediately set to using
her $20,000,000 inheritance to fund nonstop additions. There were people
working on the house twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year until the day
she died, thirty eight years after construction began. Sarah was responsible
for the architectural design of the additions, which includes doors that
open to 8 foot drops, staircases that rise to nowhere but the ceiling, switchback
staircases with two inch steps, and a room that has a window in the floor.
Theories abound as to why Sarah constructed the house in this fashion.
A common one seems to be that it was her intention to confuse the spirits
that were after her. A more outlandish one is that she had a seance every
night to learn what the spirits wished. Most sources I read stated that
the house has a "seance room", but some claimed it a bit of legend. The
most down-to-earth theories are: 1) The house looks like that because she
was not an architect and had no idea how to design a house. 2) The house
looks like that becuase the woman was completely out of her gourd.
Here are some statistics about the house:
What about paranormal activity in the house now? Again, accounts differ, but many people claim that that have had many odd experiences in the house, like hearing phantom organ music or book pages turning by themselves. You can go to GEISTweb to hear sound bites of EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) taken in the Winchester Mansion. (EVPs totally freak me out, by the way.)
The Winchester Mystery House
525 S. Winchester Blvd.
(between Stevens Creek Blvd. and I280)
San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 247-2000
Fax:(408) 247-2090
Please call or go to their
website
for more information. I used to have more details here, but apparently
I ruined some pinhead's family outing by having some outdated pricing here.
Here's a quote:"You should not post prices that are lower than the real
price. I took the information from your web site to be official, and am
upset that the prices are even higher than those you indicate. Furthermore,
I called the number listed on your web site, and was told that their policy
was "first come first served", no reservation possible, but that there was
no wait. I immediately drove from Walnut Creek to San Jose and found that
(after the 1/2 hour wait in line) that there would be an additional 2-3 hour
wait before my children and I could get into a tour. Needless to say, I
am not as enthusiastic about the Winchester Mystery House as I expected to
be after viewing your web site."
See? I told you it was scary! Anywho, why he called to check on the wait
and didn't check on anything else is beyond me. 50 lashes with a wet noodle
for me. Bad webmaster, bad webmaster!
If you have ever been to the Winchester Mystery House and have a story to share, E-MAIL me!
