Winchester Mystery House

Winchester Mystery House in San Jose is named after a wealthy widow Sarah L. Winchester. She began a construction project of such magnitude in 1884 and it occupied the lives of carpenters and craftsmen until her death thirty-eight years later. The Victorian mansion, designed and built by the Winchester Rifle heiress, is filled with so many unexplained oddities, that it has come to be known as the Winchester Mystery House.

Sarah Winchester built a home that is an architectural marvel. This huge Victorian mansion had three working elevators and many fireplaces. Sarah held séances to receive instructions on building the mansion from spirits of those killed by Winchester guns. Many visitors to the house and staff report unusual and unexplained sightings and sounds. There are special flashlight tours.

There are 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 47 fireplaces, and six kitchens. The mansion includes stairs that lead to nowhere, doors that open onto nothing, windows that look out at solid walls. Sarah supposedly built it that way to confuse the ghosts. When she died in 1922, construction ceased. But the phantoms are still there, say folks who work at Winchester Mystery House. They swear they hear footsteps in the hallway, voices from the kitchen and doors that seem to slam all by themselves.

Address

525 S Winchester Blvd
San Jose, CA 95128

Phone

(408) 247-2101

Website

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