Real Haunted House
Winchester Mystery House
San Jose, California
By Shannon Reinbold-Gee
Few haunted houses are more splendid and massive than the Winchester Mystery House. Once the pet project of wealthy widow Sarah Winchester, the Winchester Mystery House, which began as a humble 6-room home, is now a popular destination for ghost tours of the San Jose area.
In 1884 Sarah Winchester, heiress of the Winchester Rifle fortune, began construction on a Victorian-style mansion. Driven by her supposed guilt over the many deaths her husband’s rifle business caused, Sarah paid a veritable army of construction workers and craftsmen to build the sprawling 160-room house over the course of nearly forty years. Devastated by the untimely deaths of both her husband and baby daughter and thinking them to be connected to the shooting deaths of many victims of the Winchester rifle, Sarah was supposedly told that continually building the rambling home would appease (or in some cases perhaps trap) the spirits and lift a curse.
Acting as her own architect, Sarah consulted with spiritual guides to make sure the wandering souls who’d lost their lives by gunshot would find a final resting place. Sarah Winchester never created a master set of blueprints, instead she sketched the rooms she wanted on scraps of paper and occasionally tablecloths. The house’s hallways and corridors are like a labyrinth, causing many to speculate that perhaps Sarah’s goal was to trap and confuse the spirits who sought vengeance on her family. Rumor has it Sarah tried to avoid the restless ghosts by sleeping in a different room every night.
When the earthquake of 1906 struck, Sarah was trapped in the Daisy Room where she’d been sleeping near a fireplace that suddenly collapsed. When she was finally freed, she said the experience was the result of the ghosts wanting her to stop spending so much time perfecting the mansion’s front rooms—and that they were furious she thought she was nearly finished with her construction. So Sarah obediently boarded up 30 rooms and focused on even more expansion. She never again used her then recently acquired (and quite pricey for the time) front doors.
Filled with “modern” amenities, the Winchester mansion includes button-operated lights, nearly 50 fireplaces, parquet floors and gorgeous chandeliers. Almost every window has 13 panes of glass, most floors contained 13 sections and all but one staircase boasts 13 steps. But beyond the architectural oddities and trappings of wealth, it seems the mansion has also trapped a fair share of spirits.
Ghostly animals began to be sighted and many people have reported seeing things ghosting about. People hear mysterious voices, footsteps and doors slamming shut. Cold spots and strange lights appear and then fade away. An employee of the mansion claimed to see a figure of an elderly woman in one of the rooms and asked who they had gotten to portray Mrs. Winchester. Alarmed, a coworker explained they did not have any reenactors. Could it be that Sarah succeeded in trapping the ghosts who dogged her steps for so many years and they still roam the Winchester mansion? Or are the disturbances signs that Sarah herself has never left the building—trapped with the same ghosts she feared?
Today 110 of the 160 rooms are available for tourists to see—but stick with your guide so you don’t become a victim of the wandering designs and maze-like halls!
191 comments on this haunted house. Share your story »
191 Comments |
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joan says: |
May 24, 2006, 3:52 pm |
I think that this story was freaky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it was cool.
Genina says: |
May 26, 2006, 2:36 am |
Gotta love living in San Jose! For those of you who haven’t been to the Winchester Mystery House, you should go if you are ever in the area. It’s definately worth it. The house is really creep and has a lot of history to it.
shannon smith says: |
June 4, 2006, 1:42 am |
my mom and faimly say im an old spirt and what patty was talking about that show ive seeen it and just turned my cousin on it
Vincent says: |
June 27, 2006, 3:30 am |
ok, so I went to this hosue and funny story. I hit my head on one of the pipes in the basement and started bleeding. yea I was dumb but ehh. also the hosue gave me weird vibes through ym body when I saw the staircase. yea weird I know. anyways great hosue
Timmy says: |
June 28, 2006, 12:13 pm |
STOP MEDDLING! YOU GUYS NEED TO QUIT MEDDLING WITH THESE SPIRITS! THE LION ONLY ROARS ONCE BEFORE EATING ITS PREY!
Matt says: |
July 2, 2006, 7:49 pm |
I have visited that house multiple times during the daytime tour and I have never seen anything out of the ordinary except for the house itself.
lang says: |
July 4, 2006, 8:50 pm |
padre luke and jose ruiz, dont ever post in spanish again. i dont have time for mexicans
PandaBlaze34 says: |
July 6, 2006, 10:23 am |
isnt it that house that has trap doors? i mean like you open a door and theres brick wall..or it just falls straight to the ground?
Cathy says: |
July 7, 2006, 8:38 pm |
I’ve been there several times I never had any camera problems and I have several pictures one with my daughter sitting in sarah’s carriage which is sitting inside the house right when you start the tour other pics of her bed room and stair cases going no where and windows every where the bathrooms and kitchen have pipes that really dont belong and the kitchen has alot of windows looking at almost every view I also was in the earthquake room it was very damaged and never repaired after the quake. The location of the house is also unusual its like next to a resturant and across from shopping it’s on a busy street it is weird to see it not off in a woods or something Go see it yourself it is very cool.
Narayan says: |
July 13, 2006, 12:18 pm |
Hi my name is narayan.i als visited the plsce and it was very scary their. thank you for your information of that house.
Channy says: |
July 16, 2006, 1:15 am |
Hm, I heard differently from a TV report about the Winchester Mansion. After the death of her family, she contacted them and the spirits threatened to hurt her unless she built a home for them, and each day something would be edited or change to the house, otherwise she’d regret it. So, the fear of death gotten to her to spend a great deal of amount of money. Her designs were quite amazing considering she designed something out of the oridinary everyday easily. Some suspected that the spirits aided her with the designs. For years she never missed a change nor a new design to that home. But unfortunately, she died but not of being locked in a room during an earthquake (ridiculous).
But who knows, maybe what I stated is wrong what I’ve gotten from television or we are both wrong. Only Sarah knows but unfortunately that wouldn’t be possible now to clearify it. Although despite all this “edited stories” that has been rushing through our naive brains, I have to admit it is quite entertaining. 
jay says: |
July 18, 2006, 6:45 pm |
Sarah Winchester was the widow of the man who invented the Winchester rifle she was told by a psychic who contacted her out of the blue that if she kept on adding on to her house it would apease the spirits of those who were killed by the Winchester rifles. I believe that she was just a seriously superstitious woman who had too much money and not enough sense! People expect to get a bit freaked out in places like this, though there is supposedly the ghost of one of the workers who worked for Sarah Winchester still roaming the house pushing a wheel barrow, Who knows maybe it is just haunted.
Rhiannon says: |
July 19, 2006, 6:52 pm |
Hi,my name is Rhiannon and my brother says there is a ghost in the house and another time my sister was sleeping and she woke up to a kid crying and there was no one there in the room crying and she only heard is in the room not in the house…..
100%latina says: |
July 26, 2006, 6:24 pm |
omg i am mexican and mexican people belive this **** but i dont this is all bs and bc hahahhahahahahahahaha all of u guys are stupid 4 beliving this ****. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
shawn says: |
July 27, 2006, 1:32 pm |
this stuff seems pretty cool to me. i am going to go this halloween. i cant wait. its not the fact that i beleive in ghost or spirits (because i dont know if i do yet) but i just want to see this house for myself. it seems like it’ll be pretty awesome.
angel says: |
August 9, 2006, 2:54 pm |
well acturally i can contact spirits. i am wat u call parynormal which means i can c bad and good spirits and things no one else can see because they have no powers at all. I c loads of things and have been asked 2 check out a hotel by my house in jersey channel islands. anyone from montana here?
angel says: |
August 9, 2006, 2:55 pm |
well acturally i can contact spirits. i am wat u call parynormal which means i can c bad and good spirits and things no one else can see because they have no powers at all. I c loads of things and have been asked 2 check out a hotel by my house in jersey channel islands. anyone from montana here? how r u anyway
CASSIE says: |
August 14, 2006, 10:19 pm |
THATS REALLY INTRESTING. BUT MY QUESTION TO YOU IS HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS? DID SHE TELLLLLLL YOU?/ HA HA HA LOL
angel says: |
August 15, 2006, 1:34 pm |
when your physic and paranormal and u know how to contact her from the dead u can ask her things. and i already have.
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Miss new booty says:
May 19, 2006, 11:37 pm
you all are funny cuz u guys are white lol power to the blacks!!! free us!!!!!!!!!end slavery!!all hale the king!!!!!and no not elvis you white crackers i mean martin luther king jr!!! thanks for listening
peace crackers