Winchester Mystery House - San Jose, CA

Recently I came across information about the Winchester Mystery House, and I am enthralled!

It's reported to be a haunted house in San Jose, CA. Originally an 8 room unfinished farmhouse, it was purchased by Sarah Winchester in 1884. She was a very rich widow, and by the time she was done building, the house was reported to have 160 rooms. She had a staff of about 13 carpenters that worked around the clock building and rebuilding rooms. It's said to actually have about 500 rooms, but due to the rebuilding it now has at least 160. It's hard to say due to the fact that people get lost while counting.

When I first started reading about this house, I immediately though of Stephen King's Rose Red. Digging on the internet I did discover that during an interview, Stephen King admitted that the Winchester Mystery House was his inspiration for the story. He had actually wanted the movie Rose Red filmed at this location, but it was unavailable. Although the Winchester House is beautiful to look at, it's still creepy.

Anyhow Sarah Winchester was heiress to the Winchester Rifle millions. I have to believe that she must have snapped mentally after losing her child, then later her husband. She visited a psychic and was told that the spirits wanted revenge for their deaths from the Rifles that her husband's company had made. She was to go west and find a place to start building. As long as she continued building, she would live forever and the spirits would be appeased.

I can only imagine that a deeply grieved person that was not in their right mind would believe something like this. Sarah Winchester took it to heart though and immediately set her plans in action. She continued overseeing the building until her death.

It has been said that there are lost rooms in the Winchester House. For example, Sarah had an extensive wine cellar. One day it was discovered that half a handprint was on the wall in the cellar. Convinced it was an evil spirit, Sarah had the cellar closed off. The location has not been discovered since.

Sarah had many oddities. The house inside had doors that opened to 3 story drop offs. There were also doors that opened to walls and stairs that lead to the ceiling. She never slept in the same room twice. By sleeping in different rooms, she believed that she could trick the spirits.


So if you are even in San Jose, make sure to stop by and take a tour of the Winchester Mystery House.