Winchester Mystery House
Sarah Winchester began enlarging an eight-room farmhouse here in 1886 and kept building for decades. The house that resulted, with its doors to nowhere and its legends, has been open to visitors since 1923.
Discover Winchester Mystery House
In 1886 Sarah Winchester, heiress to part of the Winchester rifle fortune, bought an eight-room farmhouse on a 45-acre ranch on the Santa Clara–Los Gatos Road and named it Llanada Villa. She designed it herself, room by room, without an overall plan. (Wikipedia)
The 1906 earthquake brought down its seven-story tower and upper floors, leaving doors that open onto nothing. When she died in 1922 the house had 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows and 47 stairways; one stairway of 44 shallow steps rises only ten feet, built for a woman four feet ten inches tall. (Wikipedia)
John and Mayme Brown opened the house for tours on June 30, 1923, and about 10,000 people came on the first day; Harry Houdini visited near Halloween in 1924. The legends of ghosts and endless building grew from newspaper gossip and later promotion, and historians describe Sarah Winchester as a clear-headed investor and amateur architect. (Winchester Mystery House, SFGATE)
The house is California Historical Landmark No. 868 and on the National Register of Historic Places. The guided Mansion Tour visits 110 of the 160 rooms in about 65 minutes, and flashlight tours run on select nights. (California Office of Historic Preservation, Winchester Mystery House)
Santana Row magic: A main street, a mall and a mansion at one crossroads
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