winchester mystery house san jose california reviews

WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA REVIEWS WINDOWS

'Teddy Roosevelt was in the Bay Area,' said Tim.

If you stepped outside, you'd fall 20 feet to the garden below. The Explore More Tour leads super-curious visitors through previously unopened parts of the house - such as the front door, which Sarah refused to open to anyone.ĭoor to Nowhere. For example, the Friday the 13th Flashlight Tour focuses on the paranormal and takes ghost fans around the property after dark. 'The House is many things to many people.' One solution is to segment the audience. 'Every door hinge in the house is different,' said Tim - and the house has 2,000 doors.Īs an attraction, the Winchester Mystery House must satisfy visitors with interests ranging from home remodeling to history to hauntings. Inside was some hair and the funeral notices of Sarah's husband and daughter, dead for decades. The 'Grand Ballroom' features a hinged wall behind it is a wooden door, then a steel door, then a safe, then a safe inside the safe. Sarah would shut herself in the Hall and light all the hearths, slowly roasting herself. The 'Hall of Fires,' for example, includes multiple fireplaces (The house has 47 fireplaces but only 17 chimneys). Winchester rifles, 'The Gun That Won the West' by killing the losers. She was a very intelligent lady, but her house doesn't make any sense.' Winchester didn't work from blueprints, she didn't keep a diary. I still get lost,' said Tim O'Day, marketing director for the House. The Grand Ballroom: plenty of floor space for the dead to dance. The public wanted to see it, and in February 1923, only five months after Sarah died in the house, it opened as a tourist attraction.

Spirit-plagued Sarah's question might have been: 'If I can't get rid of ghosts, can I at least drive them mad?' Her answer might have been to live in a house so confusing that the dead, befuddled, left her alone.įor over 35 years Sarah was a recluse, paying millions of dollars to expand her former simple farmhouse into a 160-room labyrinthine mansion. Sarah Winchester never explained why she wanted these structural peculiarities, but accounts after her death fed the legend that she built her crazy home out of fear - fear of the vengeful spirits of the people killed by her late husband's Winchester rifles.

WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA REVIEWS WINDOWS

Sarah Winchester spent most of her life as a widow, dressed in black.Ī funhouse ahead of its time, Winchester Mystery House has doors that open onto walls, stairs that go nowhere, windows that appear in ceilings, rooms that lack floors. It was built under the direction of eccentric millionaire Sarah Winchester, and her purpose was. The Winchester Mystery House is an answer looking for a question. Quirky on the outside, but the real strangeness is within.

Winchester mystery house san jose california reviews