Eventually, the path leads up to the Witch’s Cap in the South Turret, billed as the highlight of the new tour. To reach it you must pass through a corridor scaled for a child’s playhouse, narrow and scarcely five feet high. There’s light flowing in from occasional windows, but even so, it’s hard to orient yourself in space as the walls close in.
IT’S A MYSTERY
While visiting the Winchester Mystery House, you’ll have the opportunity to explore the must-see rooms inside of the world-famous mansion. Built during the Victorian era, Sarah Winchester’s eccentric house is a sight to behold any time of year, but it’s especially inspiring during the holidays. From November 25, 2022 through January 1, 2023, Winchester Mystery House will present daily mansion tours developed specifically for the holiday season. Guests will be treated to a sprinkling of Victorian holiday traditions, beautiful décor, festive music, and more. Supporting Winchester's actual competency were all of her friends, family, and even the builders on her property who defended her as a independent woman and a loyal widow who dressed in black to honor her losses.
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After her death in September of 1922, Sarah Winchester left all of her belongings to her niece, Marion, who had served as her personal secretary later in life. However, the Winchester Mystery House was never mentioned in her will, adding to the mystery of the home. In the years Sarah Winchester lived in the house, the residents of San Jose whispered about its strange construction and even stranger inhabitant, but it was in the years after her death that the wild stories became even wilder. Out of the 13 bathrooms in the home, only one was functional, in an effort to confuse any ghosts wishing to haunt a spigot.
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The official legend has it that the name, “Mystery House” was allegedly bestowed by Harry Houdini himself after he visited on Halloween night 1924. But considering the name appears in a local newspaper article in May that year, we can probably attribute that one to a little more early myth-making too. By the last decade of her life, Sarah owned many homes over the South Bay — not just the Winchester Mystery House.
And when you’re inside it, on one of the House’s daily public tours, it feels plausible that this mansion was designed by someone who perhaps wasn’t fully operating on this astral plane. But to understand the house — and how it came to be — you have to understand the human behind the legend. Enjoy unprecedented access to the world’s most bizarre mansion with an all-new tour —The Winchester Mystery House Immersive 360° Tour. This virtual experience allows guests to independently roam each level of the mansion, while exploring many rooms previously inaccessible on standard Estate tours. Winchester inherited $20 million after her husband died in 1881, and not long afterward moved from New Haven, Connecticut, to an eight-room farmhouse in orchard-studded Santa Clara Valley. A dedicated crew of carpenters built new rooms so quickly that no one bothered to draw up blueprints.
Fact Versus Fiction Regarding Sarah Winchester
For the next 38 years, reports claim, the property would be constantly under construction, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sarah designed all of the additions on her own despite having no formal training. Construction ended only upon her death in the mansion in September 1922, leaving it incomplete and her plans unfinished.
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The front hall staircase leads to a Tiffany-style stained-glass window that surely once provided bright beams of color. But it was later completely enclosed by a new exterior wall, presumably put up at Winchester’s request. This tranquil escape within Golden Gate Park is full of history, culture, and beauty. Charming Sausalito is a great place to spend a day, and can be easily reached on a beautiful ferry ride from San Francisco.
The Guide tothe Winchester Mystery House
Thanks to the floating foundation (a foundation that equals the weight of the surrounding soil) the entire house was saved from collapse. The top three floors were ultimately removed, leaving the house with only four stories, as seen today. Gold and silver chandeliers hung from the ceilings above hand-inlaid parquet flooring. Dozens of artful stained-glass windows created by Tiffany & Co. dotted the walls, including some designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany himself. One window, in particular, was intended to create a prismatic rainbow effect on the floor when light flowed through it – of course, the window ended up on an interior wall, and thus the effect was never achieved.
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And they were sad and desperate for a way to see that they were okay.” Winchester herself was dealing with the loss of her whole family. The remnants of the seven-story tower that toppled during the 1906 earthquake—finials, rails, and decorative trimmings that rained down like beads from a chandelier—are kept in the cavernous attic space. To make it accessible to visitors, Taffe’s team has fitted the area with myriad handholds and stabilizing planks.
“You had raw redwood that wasn’t finished; it had to be framed and covered with plaster.” Wonky nails were pounded flat, old earthquake debris was cleared out, and floorboards installed. Those looking to explore even more of the beautiful but bizarre home of Sarah Winchester should book the Mansion Tour and spend more time in the gardens and gift shop. All that talk of paranormal sometimes worries parents that the tour will be to scary for children.
This unique tour takes you beyond the ordinary, exploring areas of the house that you don’t see during the daily mansion tour. The full story of the Winchester Mystery House is featured in season 3, episode 1 of House Beautiful's haunted house podcast, Dark House. One rumor claimed that Sarah believed eternally remodeling the house would keep her alive. Others said she obsessively tried to contact the spirit world through seances in the house.
The ADA tour includes a video tour and the self-guided Sarah Winchester Garden Tour. Since 1923, many guests and employees have experienced strange phenomena while inside Sarah Winchester’s beautiful mansion. We have been listed on plenty of “world’s most haunted places” lists, but we encourage you to come and find out for yourself.
But those stories do, in some way, conceal the real Sarah Winchester. Publicity-shy though she may have been, she was more anchored in the real world than the spirit one. The consensus among the house’s staff is that she was a creative do-gooder who endured through profound personal loss. “She would give to causes that were dear to her, and she’d usually do it anonymously,” Boehme says. She paid her workers far more than the standard wage, and kept them on for many years in part because she wanted to ensure their livelihoods. Ignoffo speculates that she threw herself into her all-consuming building project to feel closer to her late husband—architecture had long been one of William Winchester’s passions.
Boehme finds that the legend has little power to explain Winchester’s unusual construction ideas. “A lot of stories were told about her way before she died, even. She really wouldn’t engage or talk to the press because they said such bad things about her.” During her lifetime, her silence likely fed all sorts of rumors.
