The oddities that made the house famous have plain explanations, according to Joe Nickell and Mary Jo Ignoffo. Doors and windows opening to nothing are where balconies and wings fell in the 1906 earthquake and were never rebuilt. Barred interior windows were once outside windows, enclosed as rooms were added. The shallow steps were built for Sarah Winchester’s arthritis, and the trapdoors drained a greenhouse room.
Questions people ask
Why does the Winchester house have a door to nowhere?
Mostly because the 1906 earthquake destroyed the parts of the house those doors once led to.