Where to go, what to visit: The Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester house is famous in all of California and is located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, California. What makes this location interesting is that fact that many believers say it’s a haunted house and has been continuously under construction for 38 years but today is just an interesting tourist attraction.

This was the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester and under her guidance, from 1884 until 1922 the building was constructed around-the-clock, “from-the-ground-up” without any interruption and without a master building plan.

Winchester’s widow not only grieved her husband’s death but also the loss of her daughter, Annie in 1866, and after consulting a medium, popularly known as the “Boston Medium”, Misses Winchester found out that a curse may probably be the reason for the series of unfortunate events surrounding her family. According to the popular belief, the medium gave the following advice: “build a home for yourself and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon, too. You must never stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live forever. But if you stop, then you will die”.

It is said that the house is haunted by the spirits of the people killed by the famous Winchester rifles so to appease them they had to continue with the construction over the years. After all these account she began the construction of the maze-like house full of dead ends, turns and twists so that the spirits would get lost and never be able to find her. The number thirteen is predominant in almost every room of the house: the sink’s drain covers also have 13 holes, an expensive imported chandelier that originally had 12 candle-holders was altered to accommodate 13 candles, a spider web-patterned stained glass window contains 13 colored stones and every Friday the 13^th, on the property there is a large bell which is rung 13 times at 13:00 (1 P.M.) in tribute to Winchester.

The house had been built up to seven stories tall prior to the 1906 earthquake but today is only four stories and is predominantly made of redwood frame construction with a floating foundation; it has 40 bedrooms and 160 rooms in total, with two ballrooms, one still under construction, 10,000 window panes, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, three elevators, two basements, silver and golden chandeliers, hand inlaid parquet floors and trim, stairways and doors that lead to nowhere, but also modern conveniences such as steam and forced-air heating, push-button gas lights, modern indoor toilets and plumbing, an elevator with the only horizontal hydraulic elevator piston in the United States and a hot shower.

Today the house is owned by Winchester Investments LLC and five months after Mrs. Winchester’s death the house was opened to the public and still is, especially around Halloween.