The Winchester Mystery House
Friday, 28th March 2008 by Alex Turnbull
Here in San Jose, California we find the bizarre sprawling complex known as The Winchester Mystery House. It is the creation of Sarah Winchester (the widow of gun magnate William Winchester) who began expanding this country farmhouse when she moved here in 1884. Supposedly Mrs Winchester was so terrified of the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles that she consulted a spiritualist, who told her:
build a home for yourself and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon, too. You can never stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live. Stop and you will die.
And build she did - allegedly around-the-clock, without interruption for the next 38 years until her death, Mrs Winchester built, rebuilt, altered, changed, constructed and demolished one section after another. The 'mystery' of the house is found in its weird and nonsensical architecture - staircases that lead nowhere, hidden rooms, doors that open on to sheer drops, cupboard doors that open to solid brick walls, and a myriad of secret passages!
Despite an earthquake taking down 3 floors in 1906, today the mansion still comprises 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 10,000 window panes, 17 chimneys, 950 doors, and 40 staircases! The Winchester Mystery House's unusual history, combined with the unsurprising rumours that it is haunted, have firmly planted this place into American popular culture.
You can read more at Wikipedia, check out this birds-eye photo, see a photo of the front or even browse a whole section devoted to the house on Flickr.
Thanks to Jen, Tim, seamus, Tim Derby, Yoshino, Tim, Patrick, Mel Matsuoka, Lady Kalessia, Stephanie, Michelle, Martin, Eric, Chris Branagan amongst many others!
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
What are those domes near the mansion?
I reckon the spiritualist had a brother in construction. You know they only said it for the money.
The domes nearby are movie theaters, part of the Century Theater chain.
Fascinating. A couple of things that strike me. Firstly some of the architecture , and especially the detailing, is really nice and obviously built to a very high quality. Trouble is it looks like 100 different nice buildings all stuck together. Secondly its interesting to think that this was once in a rural area and would have stood in isolation but now it is cheek by jowl with urban sprawl. Its lucky it has survived since its creators death.
Damn Interesting did an article on this house a while back. Pretty cool sight.
It’s not a great view but you can get a glimpse of the house through the trees in streetview.
View Placemark,,0,1.4772666896266147
I hate to be a spoilsport, but the house is extremely overrated… Its played up to be this creepy, bizarre, crazy house, but when you take the tour its just an old house with some weird stuff in it…
Where money meets insanity.
30 dollars for the tour… wow. even the louvre in paris is cheaper.
i have a question for you native english-speakers. i know this is not the right place for a question like this, but since this is the only board i use, i figured, i could just ask you for help. is it ok to say
“i’m shure, you feel alright with that”
like in, “i’m shure, this is ok with you”. or “you agree with this”. is the “feel alright about”-part correct, or just bad english?
thanks a lot for your help!
Shure…? or Sure?
oh… sure it is, i guess. 😉 so what about the sentence? is it correct?
It’s colloquial US slang and common in spoken English – short for “I’m sure. (do) you feel alright with that?” Yes – it is VERY off topic. Enough
Live Maps birds eye shots – pretty cool… http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=q6kqyb4v3ny3&style=o&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=5935114&encType=1
Does this look like a car standing on its front end to anyone else? (the black car/object just to the right of the blue car in the intersection. https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=37.317289,-121.94997&z=20 The spirits must be out having some fun.
thanks!
nova72, I would say yes, but notice the white car exiting the south side of the intersection, and the broken stoplight pole on the north side. Just a good old stitch between pictures.
Before my fatheer died, he told me a story of Mr. Winchester. He told me we,were distant cousins! when my father was given a 32 rim firesincle shot rifle with a hex barrel and a drop breach. The gun was passedonto me but has now been lost to the ages in the possed on of some didtant nephews. My dad carried the gun accross the Rockies by horseback when te and his parenmts came to the Wilamette River Valley from Edmonton,Alberta , Canada. I thnk I i know the curent cousin who has the rifle. Fred Putz