6. The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California, that was once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearm magnate William Wirt Winchester. Located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, the Queen Anne Style Victorian mansion is renowned for its size, its architectural curiosities, and its lack of any master building plan. It is a designated California historical landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is privately owned and serves as a tourist attraction.
Since its construction in 1884, the property and mansion were claimed by many to be haunted by the ghosts of those killed with Winchester rifles. Under Winchester’s day-to-day guidance, its “from-the-ground-up” construction proceeded around the clock, by some accounts, without interruption, until her death on September 5, 1922, at which time work immediately ceased. Sarah Winchester’s biographer, however, says that Winchester “routinely dismissed workers for months at a time ‘to take such rest as I might'” and notes that “this flies in the face of claims by today’s Mystery House proprietors that work at the ranch was ceaseless for thirty-eight years.”
Winchester house, San Jose. Sarah Winchester inherited the wealth of the prominent Winchester Rifle Company in 1881 after her husband passed away. However, her sorrow from the loss of her husband and the death of her young daughter just a few years earlier left her stunned and sad. To battle her own demons, she began building this rambling Victorian at the bequest of a psychic and some demanding spirits. These spirits became the invisible architects behind every strange nook and cranny as Sarah spent 38 years adding on to the house. Today visitors can check out all 24,000 square feet with 160 rooms (including some that are hidden), 47 fireplaces and staircases that lead to nowhere.
