Something Creepy in Cali

A couple of years ago, I watched this show on the Travel Channel called World's Creepiest Destinations. Of course, the show enthralled me, and I immediately wanted to hop a plane to any of the places mentioned. The show was pretty much a countdown of the top 10 creepy places on Earth, and the list included the likes of the Tower of London, New Orleans, and Salem, Massachusetts.

But the place that intrigued me the most was number 2: the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. If you think it sounds creepy, you're right.


Sarah Winchester (an heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune) started building the Victorian house in 1884, but didn't stop construction on it during her lifetime. Legend has it that Sarah had visited a fortune teller who told her that if she stopped building the home, the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles would come after her. Others say that after the deaths of her husband and daughter, she felt that ghosts were plaguing her.

So, to appease the spirits, Sarah sought the continuous noise of construction. For thirty-eight years, construction workers and craftsmen labored on the home. Work went on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It seems like a very expensive undertaking, but I guess her $20,000,000 inheritance helped out. There wasn't a master plan for the home, so it grew quite complex, and many rooms were remodeled more than once. Winchester's servants even needed maps just to navigate the home.

The home is called the Mystery House simply because it's such an oddity. The 160-room mansion had elements that wouldn't have been found in other homes of the time, such as modern heating and sewage systems, working elevators, and nearly fifty fireplaces. But on top of these fairly practical additions to the home, there are some elements that are just plain weird. There are staircases that lead nowhere, doors that open to blank walls, windows in the floor, and a recurrence of the number thirteen (13 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 13 panes of glass in some windows...). Some of these structural oddities could have been simply design error, or maybe Mrs. Winchester was trying to confuse the ghosties.

Sarah Winchester died in 1922, and construction stopped on that day. The home is now a historical landmark in California, and operates as a museum. Guided tours are available, and participants are guided through 110 of the rooms. This is definitely a place I can't wait to check out for myself someday!