The "Door to Nowhere" on the Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California is a monument to one woman’s obsession with avoiding death. Sarah Winchester, the heiress to the Winchester gun fortune, had her carpenters working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year adding to her huge mansion. All of this was because her child, Annie, died in 1866 and her husband, William, died 15 years later of tuberculosis. Greif stricken, and sitting on a fortune estimated at $20,000,000.00, she consulted a spiritualist, like any normal, sane person would do.

The spiritualist, a medium from Boston, convinced her that her family and her fortune were being haunted by spirits of American Indians, killed by the Winchester rifles her husband’s family had invented. Since her daughter and husband had already been taken, naturally the medium convinced Sarah that she would be next. The only way to avoid this horrible fate was to move west and begin construction on a great house. This would appease the “spirits” and as long as construction continued on the house, Sarah would be safe.

Construction on the house continued for 38 years, until Sarah’s death in 1922. What was left is a massive mansion containing 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms and 6 kitchens.

Exploring this weird, wonderful place is a great way to spend an afternoon, or even longer.

Winchester Mystery House

Further reading:

• Museums in Santa Clara County, California: Ames Research Center, Winchester Mystery House, Forbes Mill, Villa Montalvo, New Almaden
• Haunting of Winchester House
• America’s Castles – California Dreamers: The Winchester Mystery House and Scotty’s Castle