The Winchester Mystery House: 

Sarah Lockwood Winchester—the wife of gun magnate, William Winchester—whose family created the Winchester rifle that was heralded as "the gun that won the west”—designed and oversaw the construction of the sprawling Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion that bears her name. Construction on the 24,000 square foot home, which is located at 525 South Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California, began in 1886.

Overcome with grief in the wake of her husband's death from tuberculosis in 1881,, the son of Oliver Fisher Winchester, the rifle magnate, folklore states that Sarah sought out a spiritualist who could commune with the dead. While she was presumably looking for solace or closure, she was instead given a chilling warning. Through the medium, William told his widow that their tragedies (the couple had only one child, a daughter named Annie, who died at six weeks old) were a result of the blood money the family had made off of the Winchester rifles. He warned that vengeful ghosts would seek her out. In order to protect herself, William said that Sarah must "build a home for [herself] and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon."

Sarah was advised to leave their home in New Haven, Connecticut, behind, and move west, where she was to build a grand home for the spirits. There was just one catch: construction on the house could never stop. "If you continue building, you will live,” the medium warned Sarah. “Stop and you will die."

In 1886, Sarah bought an eight-room farmhouse in San Jose, California, and began building. She employed a crew of carpenters, who split shifts so construction could go on day and night, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, for 38 years. (The work only stopped on September 5, 1922, because the octogenarian mastermind behind the home died of heart failure in her sleep. (It is said that upon hearing the news of Sarah's death, the carpenters quit so abruptly, they left half-hammered nails protruding from walls.) Rumors stated that Sarah would often have entire sections of the house that had just been built to be demolished and re-built, heeding the warning of “stop building and you will die.” to the dismay and anger of the workers.

Sarah issued many bizarre demands to her builders, including the building of trap doors, secret passages, a skylight in the floor, spider web windows, and staircases that led to nowhere. There are also doors that open to blank walls, and a dangerous door on the second floor that opens out into nothing, except for an alarming drop to the yard far below!

Not only that, but the house was built like a maze, except the only blueprint was in Sarah’s head! Some say the labyrinth layout was meant to confuse the ghosts, allowing Sarah some peace and a means to escape them. She was the sole architect of this extraordinary home, and no master building plan has ever been uncovered. So Sarah may be the only person who ever truly knew all of its secrets. When movers were called in after her death, one lamented its labyrinthine design that includes many winding hallways. One mover told American Weekly the Winchester House was a place "where downstairs leads neither to the cellar nor upstairs to the roof."

There is only one known photograph of the widow Winchester, which was taken surreptitiously. Though she was reclusive, she was never alone. She had 18 servants, 18 gardeners, and the ever-present construction team working on the grounds. Every morning, Sarah met with the foreman to discuss the always-evolving building plans. And it's said that each night, she visited the Seance Room to speak with the spirits, who weighed in on plans for the house's unusual design.

The home had 950 doors, 10,000 windows, 40 stairways, 52 skylights, 47 fireplaces, six kitchens, plus a trio of elevators, and once-groundbreaking elements like wool insulation, carbide gaslights, electricity, and an indoor shower, complete with a sewage drainage system. However, following Sarah’s death, the 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. Tourists were permitted to explore 110 of the 160-some rooms Sarah had dreamed up.

Among the secrets Sarah took to her grave was why she insisted that so many things relate to the number 13. The Winchester House has many 13-paned windows and 13-paneled ceilings, as well as 13-step stairways. Even her will had 13 parts, and she signed it 13 times. But the pièce de résistance might be the house's 13th bathroom, which contains 13 windows of its own.

After her death, the furnishing inside were left, via a will, to her niece (signed 13 times) and whatever she didn’t want was to be auctioned off. According to the current owners of the house, it took movers eight truckloads a day for six and a half weeks to empty the entire house of furniture.

The Winchester House is a destination for believers who hope to have a paranormal encounter of their own. A popular spot for such activity is the corridors of the third floor, tour guides have claimed to hear footsteps and disembodied voices whisper their names. However, only a portion of third floor is accessible during house tours—definitely the spookiest part of the house,

picture of sprawling grounds

picture of one set of stairs—watch your step!