It sits just outside the “no photography” zone, but many people don’t catch this until they’ve made their way past it…like I did. Winchester herself! Photography is strictly prohibited inside the mansion, with the unannounced exception of the Grand Ballroom. There have been hundreds of “ghost” or “spirit” sightings over the years, especially on the tours-everything from children to adults, construction workers to Mrs. The history and details of this peculiar mansion is something you won’t soon forget. She never slept in the same bedroom two nights in a row, and she had a switchback staircase installed, one where each step is only two inches high to accommodate her severe arthritis. She even had one room designated to spirit communication. She incorporated peculiar things in the house to detour the spirits, such as the door leading to nowhere, flights of stairs that suddenly and drastically dropped off, and the giant bell that was rung at midnight and 2:00am to try to capture the spirits and get them to vacate. Even her staff, many of whom lived with their families on the property had never seen her face. Throughout the remainder of her life, she continued to wear a dark veil every day (another “challenge” for the spirits to see her) and live a life of seclusion until her death. Winchester was eccentric, to say the least. By the time Sarah Winchester passed away, she had grown the property from a six-room farmhouse, to a 160 room mansion on six acres of land that contained 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 6 kitchens and 13 bathrooms! Construction continued 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 38 years…until her death in 1922. By maintaining construction at all times, it made it difficult for the spirits to come around. Part of her reasoning for the 24/7 construction was that she was convinced that evil spirits, those that were killed by the rifles made by the company she inherited, were following her throughout the house. To put that into perspective, twenty million dollars in the mid-1800’s was equivalent to over half a billion dollars today.īecause she had unlimited finances, she began construction on the farm house by hiring help that worked around the clock. After the death of her mother-in-law, she was left with a $20M fortune. Winchester purchased a six-room farm house (which would become known as the Winchester Mystery House) after the death of her infant daughter. In the mid-1800’s, Sarah Winchester, widow of William Winchester, son of the manufacturer of the Winchester Repeating Rifle Company, fell into a deep depression and moved from Connecticut to California. The story behind this property is as intriguing as the mansion itself. A common description of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California is, “Bizarre but Beautiful!” I found this to be undeniably true while visiting this unique mansion not long ago.
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