What’s Inside the Winchester Mystery House?

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 Good morning, and happy Halloween!

In honor of this upcoming spooky season, I thought I’d research some “haunted houses”... but after reading about the Winchester Mystery House, it became obvious that this entire post would be dedicated to the house’s spine-chilling history and fascinating features. In fact, it was such a perfect topic for this time of year that I couldn’t resist departing from my usual posting schedule in favor of making Halloween this article’s release date. I hope you enjoy learning about this quirky maze of rooms and oddities as much as I did!

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Sarah Winchester


The woman behind the fantastical house was Sarah Winchester, an intelligent and educated woman born in 1840. In her youth, she married William Wirt Winchester of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Winchester rifles, known as “the gun that won the West”, were used by historical figures such as Theodore Roosevelt, Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, and Jesse James. After her husband’s death in 1881, Sarah inherited the Winchester family fortune. Because of the violence caused by the popular weapon bearing her name, Sarah Winchester felt that she was benefiting from the suffering of others and claimed to experience hauntings by the victims killed by Winchester rifles. Legend claims that a visit to a medium resulted in a message from her departed husband, instructing Sarah to move to California and build a house dedicated to those victims. For fear of upsetting the spirit world, Sarah agreed, and made plans to build such a house, which later became the Winchester Mystery House. Additionally, the medium allegedly revealed that the property was the secret to eternal youth, and Sarah would remain alive as long as renovations on the Winchester Mystery House continued. Don’t believe in ghosts? A more realistic and modern approach is that Sarah was a passionate, and bored, widow who had the means, time, and dedication to create her eccentric dream house. Either way, it is indisputable that Sarah was a determined and intelligent woman who worked diligently each day to achieve the goal of this beautiful piece of architectural art. 

Though stories about the Winchester Mystery House are a dime a dozen, you can visit the property’s official website for one version of the legend: https://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/the-legend-of-sarah-winchester/


Construction


Construction on the Winchester Mystery House continued for 38 years. While Sarah Winchester originally hired several architects for the job, none could keep up with her fantastical demands. Eventually, Sarah began drawing her own plans for the house, scribbling ideas on napkins or scrap pieces of paper as inspiration came. She quickly honed her sketching skills and is often credited with being an architectural, if not a little eclectic, mastermind. Some say that the house’s labyrinth-reminiscent layout is actually a set of encryptions dedicated to a secret society of the day. Others insist that it is actually the work of spirits, with whom Sarah supposedly communicated in the house’s iconic “Séance Room”. No matter her true motivations, Sarah Winchester’s work proved an interesting art form to admire and was even beneficial to the local economy. In the midst of economic hardship, Sarah hired 38 years’ worth of carpenters, gardeners, and more to create her dream home. The workers took shifts on the job, and in this way, construction continued for 24 hours a day for long enough that even Sarah Winchester later admitted that she forgot which areas belonged to the original farmhouse!

Visit this page to learn about the Winchester Mystery House, by the numbers: https://blog.buildingconnected.com/winchester-mystery-house-by-the-numbers/#:~:text=Construction%20finally%20stopped%20on%20September,10%2C000%20windows


Layout

(Photo "Winchester Mystery House ~ San Jose ~ California ~ Film 1990" by Onasill ~ Bill - 80M Views is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The Winchester House was built to be eclectic and confusing. According to legend, this was to discombobulate the spirits in the house and keep them from reaching—and haunting—Sarah Winchester. No matter to whatever or whoever we owe this peculiar layout, one thing is undeniable: it makes for a distinctive and beautiful architectural style. Lavish rooms such as the Grand Ballroom, which inspired the ballroom in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride, and Sarah’s master bedroom, a spacious chamber that features elaborate floor and ceiling designs, contrast with smaller and more intimate rooms like the Witch Hat Room, where Harry Houdini once held a séance, and the actual official Séance Room in size, style, and purpose. Gardens weave around, and occasionally climb, the mansion’s varying structures in a fluid manner that beautifies the house’s exterior. The house was originally seven stories tall, but sadly was reduced to four stories after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Unbelievably, during this earthquake, Sarah Winchester was trapped in the Winchester Mystery House! Today, upkeep of the house can be a challenge, in part because there is still so much about the Winchester Mystery House that we haven’t learned. New rooms and areas are happened upon frequently. Undoubtedly, the mansion has quite a few secrets that Sarah Winchester took to her grave, and now it is up to modern historians to bring them to light. 

A new room in the Winchester Mystery House was discovered as recently as 2016! Read about it in this Architectural Digest article: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/winchester-mystery-house-new-room 


Indoor Features

Many of the additions that may be viewed as eccentricities at first glance actually contribute to convenience. For instance, the secret passageways in the house encourage swift transitions between rooms and parts of the house, the Hall of Fires, a small room with seven heat sources, likely helped Sarah unwind comfortably during bouts of arthritis pain, and the long, overly complex staircases proved less painful for Sarah Winchester to traverse in her later years. However, on the other hand, there are no excuses for the staircases and chimneys that lead nowhere and the door on the second floor that opens directly to a dizzying fall that will have the heedless splattered on the courtyard below. Look before you leap, Winchester Mystery House tourists, and please watch your step. Sarah’s personality also shone through in the house’s indoor features. She seemed to have loved natural light, and had tunnels constructed from room to room in the mansion to enable the sun’s rays to reach all of the house’s many rooms and stained glass windows thrown in for color and interest. In fact, she had an entire room filled with extra window panes for future additions! Two conservatories hint at a love of plants and gardening. More strangely, the number 13 is a common quantity when it comes to details in the house such as windows or even drain holes. 

Explore more of the inside of the Winchester Mystery House in this article on a website that has shaped many a 6 in the Morning post, Atlas Obscura: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/real-winchester-mystery-house 


Outdoor Features

(Photo "Winchester mystery house" by Kyle~ is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Evidence in the gardens of the Winchester Mystery House suggests that Sarah Winchester was an avid collector of rare plants and birds alike. In the mansion’s gardens is an aviary, where different species of beautiful birds were kept. Topiaries line wide pathways that wind along the grounds, passing intricately carved fountains and prized species of plants and trees along the way. Today, the lovely and open greenhouse can be rented for events, allowing tourists to celebrate in this stunning and meticulously kept environment. Additionally, the house’s exterior is just as spontaneous and breathtaking as the rooms it conceals. A range of structures such as cupolas, towers, and varying roof styles shapes the house into an intricate piece of art where fine details take center stage. In the 38 year renovation of the Winchester Mystery House, there was never a final floor plan, just new drawings and ideas produced by Sarah Winchester, so the house’s exact layout is visibly unpredictable at every turn. Pay close attention and you can spot the fake or unreachable doors and windows from outside, appearing deceptively innocent amidst their more legitimate counterparts. Because the house could not be explored from the inside, staff at the Winchester Mystery House offered socially distanced outdoor tours using the house’s surrounding grounds as a vantage point to admire the structure safely. 

The gardens offer a plethora of family activities for tourists to enjoy! Read about them here: https://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/gardens-museums/ 


Visiting Today

(Photo "Winchester Mystery House" by HarshLight is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Though Sarah Winchester was buried with her husband and daughter in Connecticut, her greatest legacy can be found over 2,000 miles away at the mansion she built from a small farmhouse in San Jose. Today, nearly 100 of the rooms in the Winchester Mystery House can be safely explored on the official tour route, and new rooms are being renovated constantly to ensure tourists are able to cover as much as the house as possible while remaining safe and preserving the historical monument for future generations. Candlelight tours (eek!) and outdoor tours are also offered, as well as a recently developed virtual tour that can be purchased for less than $10 online. As mentioned, you can also rent the space for events such as weddings if you fancy getting married in what is often called the most haunted place in the world. Talk about a thrilling love story…. In addition, modern historians continue to work to learn more about the house and its incredible tale that seamlessly weaves fact and fiction into a tangle of speculation about the mansion and its mistress. So, are you brave enough to enter the Winchester Mystery House? 

Take the virtual tour of the Winchester Mystery House here: https://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/immersive-360-walkthrough/ 

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The Winchester Mystery House and the powerful woman behind it all makes for one amazing spooky success story with an important lesson about creativity and passion at its core. That's why, in closing, I won’t keep you from your autumn festivities today. Have fun with your friends and family—I dare you! 

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