One of the oldest tours in the San Jose area is the Winchester "Mystery House". This house is the physical manifestation of the riches and fears of Sarah Winchester who was the widow of the Winchester rifle inventor and heiress to his fortune.
Construction started on this Victorian mansion in 1884 and continued with a crew of 13 carpenters for 38 years non-stop until the death of Winchester at a cost of $5.5 million. The house was very modern for its time with gas lights, a furnace and a sewer system. With the Winchester fortune at her disposal the house is constructed with Tiffany glass windows, precious metals and parquet wood floors. The house has 160 rooms.
But what caused the house to get its name was the many strange excentricities in its constructions such as:
- stairways that lead to no where
- doors that lead to no where
- windows that open into walls
- doors that open into walls
- windows so that the paranoid Winchester could spy on her servants
- windows designed to refract the sunlight that end up on interior walls
- a large number of things in groups of 13, such as drains with 13 holes for the superstitious owner
In all the house has:
- seven stories
- 160 rooms
- 10,000 windows
- 2,000 stairs
- 40 bedrooms
- 13 bathrooms
- 6 kitchens
- 2 basements
- 1 shower
- 47 fireplaces
- 17 chimneys
The story goes that Winchester was told that the constant sound of hammers would protect her from the sprits of the people killed by her late husbands invention. The Boston medium purportedly said "thousands of people have died because of it and their spirits are now seeking deep vengeance" and told her that she would continue to live as long as construction continued. There is some debate about the truth of the story but it would explain the rather strange construction of the house where the only plan seems to have been "keep building".
Tours run from $26-31 for adults and $20-28 for children. The house is Open Daily, except Christmas Day. It generally opens at 9am with the last tour starting between 5 and 9 pm depending on the season.
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