

- #Winchester mystery house san jose california interior full#
- #Winchester mystery house san jose california interior windows#
Open 7 days a week to the public, and only closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, visitors can take a tour of the famous mansion. Visiting the Winchester House has never been so easy. Visiting and touring the Winchester Mystery House Photo credit: Lyla0724, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsĬonsidered to be the most haunted house in America, the Winchester mansion is located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay. Side view of the Winchester Mystery House. The famous mansion is located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. Where is the Winchester house?Īlthough it started as the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the Winchester House is now a popular tourist attraction. Just five months after Sarah’s death, the house was opened to the public and Mayme Brown served as the tour guide.Ĭurrently, the home is owned by Winchester Investments LLC, a privately held company representing the descendants of John and Mayme Brown.

Since she made no mention of the mansion in her will, and appraisers considered the house worthless, it was auctioned off for just over $135,000 and leased for ten years to John and Mayme Brown, who eventually purchased the mansion. When Sarah died on September 5, 1922, all of her possessions (apart from the house) were inherited by her niece and personal secretary. The house was continuously built over a 38-year span and the construction only stopped after Sarah Winchester died of heart failure in her sleep. Photo credit: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Sarah Winchester’s bedroom inside the Winchester mansion.
#Winchester mystery house san jose california interior windows#
Often cited as the most haunted house in America, the building has ghoulish amounts of space - about 2,000 doors and 10,000 windows (!), 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, and 3 elevators. The Winchester mansion has many 13-paned windows, halls with 13 ceiling panels, and 13-step stairways. Sarah also had a distinct preoccupation with the number 13. Due to its odd construction and secret passages, no one knows for sure. The 24,000-square-foot home has about 160 rooms. Not to speak ill of the dead, but apparently, Sarah Winchester was haunted by a rather unique type of ghost: the kind that can’t pass through walls. The house has a labyrinth layout that was meant to confuse the ghosts. Some say that Sarah started building it after a medium told her she was cursed by the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles, who demanded she build them a house to pay for her family’s sins.Īs Sarah Winchester didn’t use an architect, the Winchester mansion contains many oddities like trap doors, secret passages, stairs that lead to nowhere, windows overlooking other rooms, doors that open to blank walls and a door that opens out into nothing. The Winchester mansion once belonged to Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearm magnate William Wirt Winchester.Īfter her husband’s death, Sarah inherited a tremendous amount of money that she used to build the house.ĭespite its glamorous looks, the sprawling mansion’s history is edged with tragedy. Photo credit: Only1youwant, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsĪnd it’s a popular tourist attraction that just announced a new interactive tour.īut first, let’s take a look at the home’s humble beginnings.
#Winchester mystery house san jose california interior full#
Here’s the full scoop on the infamous California compound that has ties with the smash TV series Supernatural and is often dubbed “the most haunted house in America.” The history of the Winchester Mystery HouseĪlthough it is considered to be one of the most haunted houses in the world, the Winchester House is currently a California historical landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. So why is this magnificent mansion known as one of the creepiest houses in the country? And who owns it? Located in San Jose, California, the Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion is known for its size, unique architecture, and utter lack of any master building plan. As far as notoriously haunted mansions go, the Winchester Mystery House is the uncontested leader.
