September 2, 2024, 3:55 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
A widow haunted by ghosts built one of the most bizarre houses in the USA over a period of 36 years. The building remains the subject of numerous chilling legends and is now a popular tourist attraction. TRAVELBOOK tells the eerie story of the Winchester Mystery House.
It was 1886 when a mysterious woman appeared in the American city of San Jose in the US state of California. Her name is Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester. She immediately acquires an old farmhouse with eight rooms and begins to have it extended in a bizarre way. What follows is a renovation that will ultimately take 36 years. The result is one of the most mysterious and eerie houses in the United States.
Overview
Sarah is the widow of Oliver Fischer Winchester, the man who invented the bolt-action rifle of the same name. He left her an immense fortune but also a huge burden. As the official website of the historic house reports, Sarah felt haunted by the ghosts of people who had died by her husband’s rifle. A medium advised her to move to San Jose and expand the house.
The Winchester Mystery House was supposed to be a hiding place from ghosts
And it takes on almost absurd proportions, covering an area of more than 2,200 square meters. There are ultimately 160 rooms with 2,000 doors and 10,000 windows, as well as 13 bathrooms and 6 kitchens. However, the construction method is truly uncanny, as “Atlas Obscura” reports. Some of the doors lead to nowhere, and behind several of them are shafts or chasms into which anyone would fall if they went through.
Some staircases end directly in the ceiling, in other places where there is no light, expensive windows decorated with Tiffany glass are installed. The most bizarre feature, however, is probably a cupboard that extends to over 30 rooms in the house when opened. The eerie building continues to grow, as legend has it that Sarah hopes to hide from the ghosts that haunt her in this way. She supposedly sleeps in a different room every night and uses the numerous secret passages to move around her property.
Scarred by a severe earthquake
Sarah devotes the rest of her life to the mania of expanding her home more and more. She had a vision that she would die as soon as the construction was finished. In 1906, a severe earthquake shook the region, and the top three floors of the house collapsed. Sarah saw this as a sign from the spirits that the completion of the house was imminent and had the front half of the building boarded up. You can still see the earthquake damage to the building today.
When Sarah died in 1922, she had been working on the bizarre construction for 36 years. It cost her five million dollars. By today’s standards, that is the equivalent of 58.5 million euros. According to legend, the ghosts that Sarah feared so much during her lifetime did not simply disappear with her death—quite the opposite.
Even Houdini could not disprove horror stories
Her estate opened its doors to visitors in June 1923 and became known as the Winchester Mystery House. According to the website, both visitors and staff repeatedly report encounters with ghosts. The ghost of a former employee called Clyde is said to haunt the house and is regularly seen pushing a wheelbarrow or repairing the fireplace in the ballroom. According to the house’s management, visitors often say they liked the Victorian-style “actor” they met on a tour. However, no actors work at the Winchester Mystery House.
Employees also repeatedly report suddenly hearing footsteps on the upper floors of the empty house. This is despite the fact that no one can be there. Shortly after its opening, the house became a legend when the famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini visited it in 1924. He wanted to disprove the fairy tales but was not entirely successful. Instead, he only attracted more spiritualists and ghost hunters.
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Still one of the spookiest places in the USA today
The prestigious Time Magazine, USA Today, the Travel Channel, and many other media outlets still include the Winchester Mystery House on their lists of the spookiest places in America. And, of course, television crews such as those on Ghost Hunters have also been there to capture the haunting on camera. In 2018, the story was even made into a movie titled “Winchester” with Hollywood star Hellen Mirren in the lead role.
Today, visitors can take guided tours of the house, which cost around 40 US dollars. Guided tours after dark are particularly popular. There are also quirky activities on offer, such as axe throwing. If you don’t want to wait for your next trip to the USA, you can also book a digital tour of the house.