Table Of Content
- Become an Atlas Obscura member and experience far fewer ads and no pop-ups.
- Podcast: Spaces for Spies
- Clowning for Novices: History and Practice With Rose Carver
- No matter the motive, Winchester remodeled her mansion nonstop for 38 years.
- About Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California
- THE HOUSE WAS DESIGNED LIKE A LABYRINTH.
One window, in particular, was intended to create a prismatic rainbow effect on the floor when light flowed through it – of course, the window ended up on an interior wall, and thus the effect was never achieved. As far as what to do with her money, William answered that too; she was to use the fortune to build a home for the spirits of those who had fallen victim to Winchester rifles, lest she be haunted by them for the rest of her life. But as Katie Dowd of SFGate points out, there is “scant proof” for this theory. Winchester could have been engaging in an eccentric brand of philanthropy, as she built her home during an economic depression, and the continuous construction project provided jobs for locals. When she died, in fact, the heiress left most of her money to charity. Sarah Winchester was a woman of independence, drive, and courage who lives on in legend.
Winchester hospital unveils refurbished inpatient ward - Hampshire Chronicle
Winchester hospital unveils refurbished inpatient ward.
Posted: Sat, 27 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMT [source]
Become an Atlas Obscura member and experience far fewer ads and no pop-ups.
“This is the full-length one.” As a speaker in the nearby bedroom emits a rising bellow, the floor starts to shake. Sounds of smashing glass and crockery punctuate the rumbles. Magnuson’s thought was to mix this up with new spaces to attract new and returning visitors. After ten intense months, 40 hidden spaces—including some even the staff had only rarely seen—opened to the public in May 2017.
Podcast: Spaces for Spies

The true nature of Winchester’s motivations is likely to remain a mystery. But as the video tour points out, the house she built was not only bizarre—it was innovative. Winchester loved to garden, so the conservatory featured an indoor watering system and wooden floorboards that could be lifted up to water plants resting below. Exactly why Winchester embarked on this dizzying cycle of building, undoing and rebuilding is impossible to say. The medium reportedly instructed her to constantly build a house for these ghosts.
Clowning for Novices: History and Practice With Rose Carver
For the city’s most luxurious shopping experience, visit this snazzy outdoor mall, a mix between California’s relaxed stylishness and a swanky European village on market day. It’s the kind of place where you can easily while away the hours, sitting on a bench perusing your purchases while nibbling fresh croissants from Cocola. If your shopping tastes run more toward Main Street than Paris boutique, there are familiar chains including Orvis and H&M. And, in the ultimate Silicon Valley indulgence, why not custom-design your own luxury all-electric car at Santana Row’s Tesla store.
A Haunted Legacy In The Famed San Jose Estate
Today, some strings of tiny lights illuminate it from behind. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the world’s hidden wonders. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. There are also Flashlight Tours around Halloween and every Friday the 13th. The Winchester Antiques Products Museum and the Winchester Firearms Museum are also housed on-site. After her death in September of 1922, Sarah Winchester left all of her belongings to her niece, Marion, who had served as her personal secretary later in life.
Visit the South Bay Haunted House That Inspired Walt Disney and Stephen King - The San Francisco Standard
Visit the South Bay Haunted House That Inspired Walt Disney and Stephen King.
Posted: Tue, 13 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
No matter the motive, Winchester remodeled her mansion nonstop for 38 years.
This might be a minor detail, but it hints at the disorder that unfolds within. The mastermind behind this architectural oddity—a sprawling Queen Anne Revival with 160 rooms—was Sarah Winchester, the widow of the rifle magnate William Winchester. Famously private and eccentric, she built onto her California home on and off for more than 30 years.
San Jose Museum of Art
“If you walked across, you’d just fall through a hole.” The maintenance team had to build a new wooden walkway through the space. Since her death, little has been uncovered about Sarah Winchester and the reasoning behind her obsession with building the Winchester Mystery House. She gave no interviews, left behind no journals, and had no family willing to speak about her. Secrets that fuel pop culture’s obsession with the house. In 2018, Helen Mirren starred in Winchester as Sarah Winchester herself. The story took the rumors about the hauntings in the house and ran with them, depicting a woman crazed by the ghosts of Winchester rifles.
The staircase landing opens onto an array of finished and unfinished rooms, including the Crystal Bedroom, where pale yellow, mica-flecked wallpaper gives the walls a luminous quality. One reason this room had been off-limits for so many years is concern about what sunlight might do to the wallpaper, so at some point it may need to be sealed off again. The front hall staircase leads to a Tiffany-style stained-glass window that surely once provided bright beams of color. But it was later completely enclosed by a new exterior wall, presumably put up at Winchester’s request.
THE HOUSE WAS DESIGNED LIKE A LABYRINTH.
However, she hopes people come to the house to learn more about how Winchester was a creative businesswoman. There are windows on each of the four walls in this room, including on the ceiling and on the floor. This conservatory is down the hall from Winchester's bedroom. Most of the house still stands, and visitors can explore it today. Winchester spent $5.5 million on her 24,000-square-foot home, which has 160 bedrooms, 40 staircases, 13 bathrooms, and 47 fireplaces.
Following Sarah's death, Winchester House was converted into a tourist attraction. But when trying to get a room count, the new owners kept coming up with different numbers. After five years of renovations, they estimated the number of rooms to be about 160, which is the number most often quoted today. Since 1923, many guests and employees have experienced strange phenomena while inside Sarah Winchester’s beautiful mansion.
Enjoy a kaleidoscope of ethnic restaurants, including Ethiopian fare at Zeni (try to sit at one of the round tables in the back). American-style meat and potatoes get matched with rotating craft beers at local favorite Harry’s Hofbrau. If you do venture out to eat, it’s not all lukewarm hot dogs and soggy fries. Celebrity chef Michael Mina overseas the stadium’s high-end steak house, which offers inside-the-park tailgate parties throughout the season. Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including NYmag.com, Flavorwire and Tina Brown Media's Women in the World. Tragedy befell Sarah – her infant daughter died of a childhood illness and a few years later her husband was taken from her by tuberculosis.