The Winchester Mystery House Paranormal Story
The Winchester Mystery House is a paranormal story that continues to fascinate anyone who sets foot in the $5.5 million dollar behemoth. This historical landmark in San Jose, California is a one-of-a-kind haunt of paranormal phenomenon that seems to defy all logic with its stairs to nowhere and its doors that open to brick walls. Many visitors report paranormal activity such as cold spots, fog people, organs playing themselves, doors banging, book pages turning on their own, and voices. This mansion was under continuous construction for 38 years and has a rather intriguing back story.
The Winchester Mystery House is one of the most famous haunted houses in America, not to mention a chilling paranormal story of a woman haunted by spirits. Sarah Winchester began working on the San Jose, California house in 1883 and continued construction for 38 years until she died in 1922. Today people take tours of the historic landmark, in hopes of hearing the paranormal spirits walking through the house, turning book pages, playing an organ and slamming doors.
Stephen King's mini-series "Rose Red" was a story about a mansion that looked the same from the outside, but kept expanding to new rooms on the inside, as directed by spirits. Believe it or not, this paranormal story was loosely based on fact. The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California was under perpetual construction for 38 years and features a number of mad design elements, like stairs that go to nowhere, doors that drop off to landscaping below and double-back hallways. Some say this story is not so much about spirits themselves -- but rather, a tragic tale of how one woman's life was ruled and ruined by her belief in paranormal powers.
The Winchester Mystery House is located in downtown San Jose, California, amid five lane highways, fast food outlets and Silicon Valley high rises. Years ago, Santa Clara County was peppered with orchards, plums, apricots, walnuts mom and pop shops, and a curious house that was ever-growing for 38 years. The home's original owner, Sarah Winchester, had builders working on the house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for nearly four decades. She scribbled down directions on scraps of napkins, papers and tablecloths. What makes this a paranormal story is that Sarah's obsession was reportedly driven by paranormal spirits that directed her to remodel over 600 times and spend over $5.5 million in the process!
The story of this paranormal project starts with Sarah Lockwood Pardee, who was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1839. During the height of the Civil War, in 1862, Sarah married William Winchester, the only son of gun manufacturer Oliver Winchester. The couple's only child -- Annie -- died of tuberculosis as an infant in 1866. Oliver died in 1880, leaving the fortune to his son, but William died of tuberculosis a year later. Following the death of her family, Sarah slipped into a deep depression and began suspecting they had befallen some sort of curse. She traveled to Boston to consult with psychic Adam Coons, who told her that her fears were true. He told her that all the people and animals who had died at the hands of the Winchester rifle were avenging their deaths by claiming the lives of the family. The only way she could stop the paranormal apparitions from claiming her life was to build them a house, he said.
The paranormal story continues when Sarah promptly moves to an eight-room farmhouse in San Jose to begin her project. This 161 acre estate expanded to include 160 rooms, 6 kitchens, 40 bedrooms, 19 chimneys, 40 staircases, 47 fireplaces, 52 skylights, 950 doors, 3 elevators, 2 ballrooms and 10,000 windows! At one time, the house was a seven-story behemoth, but after the 1906 earthquake, it was leveled down to four. Architects were baffled by Sarah's odd designs that included stairs that went up to ceilings, doors that dropped off into landscaping below, upside-down stair posts and doors that opened to brick walls. It was believed these odd features would "confuse" the spirits of this paranormal phenomenon that haunted her. She was also fascinated by the number 13, as there were 13 panes in each window, 13 drain holes in the sink, 13 windows in the 13th bathroom, 13 cupolas in the greenhouse and 13 panes of wood on the walls.
This paranormal story gets weirder when Sarah Winchester moves to San Jose, California to begin her project. She continued to hold séances to her husband and other spirits for inspiration on how to build the house. She added a bell tower to help summon and dismiss spirits each night. Part of what makes this Victorian mansion so exquisite is the educated Sarah Winchester's refined taste. Her wealth can be seen in the Tiffany stain glass windows inlaid with jewels, the store room full of $25,000 worth (1920) of imported merchandise, and her high-tech modern heating system. Other elements of the house are just downright creepy though. Doors open to brick walls and sheer drops. The séance room has a door that opens to an eight foot drop to the kitchen. Another door is labeled "The Door To Nowhere."
The paranormal story continues when Sarah Winchester moved to an eight-room farmhouse in San Jose to begin constructing the mansion that would save her life and keep demons and paranormal entities far from her. The house is a stunning and bizarre piece of architecture that reveals the remnants of Sarah's tortured mind. Closets and windows open to blank walls. Doors open to brick walls or eight-foot free falls. Staircases lead to ceilings. The house is literally a maze of rooms within rooms, corridors and stairwells. A blind chimney leads to the ceiling. Trapdoors and double-back hallways were built to confuse spirits. The "room of fires" has seven sources of sauna heat to ease Sarah's arthritis and many of the stairs are built only three inches high to also help with her pain. The $9,000 ballroom holds a door that was reportedly locked at all times. Upon Sarah's death, her staff members seized the key and unlocked the door to find a vault, which contained another vault, and another -- and so on for a total of five vaults. Inside the final vault, they found a lock of her husband's hair, a lock of her daughter's hair and their obituaries.
In 1906, an early morning earthquake caused the top three stories of the house to crumble and the front section of the house to fall. Sarah was trapped in one of the rooms, but since she slept in different places every night to confuse the paranormal spirits, her staff couldn't find her for hours. Today, some of the wreckage still exists and one can see where the crowbar was used to wedge the door open and rescue her. As the paranormal story goes, Sarah believed the spirits were displeased with the progression of the house, so she sealed off the thirty front rooms and never used them again. Following this experience, Sarah chose a permanent bedroom next to the séance room, which would end up being the place where she died, at the age of 83.
Despite her many guest rooms, bedrooms and parlors, Sarah Winchester was so haunted by her paranormal story that she never allowed guests into the house. Allegedly, even President Teddy Roosevelt came for a visit since he so loved the Winchester guns, but was rejected at the door. This tormented woman left behind a bizarre but beautiful Victorian mansion as her legacy, which gives tours every day of the year except Christmas. Paranormal happenings have been reported by visitors; notably in the Sarah Winchester bedroom, the hall of fires, the séance room, the $25,000 storeroom, the grand ballroom, the gardens and the Bradley bedroom.
Sarah Winchester's paranormal story continues today, as many visitors and ghost hunters report paranormal activity in the old mansion. The piano sometimes plays itself in the Bradley bedroom. High heels click across the floor of the $25,000 storeroom. Footsteps walk through the 13th bathroom. The chandelier shakes in the grand ballroom. An old lady appears hunches over in the séance room. A routine tourist picture of the gardens turns out to be a paranormal photo when two figures dressed in time-period clothes appear in the windows of the greenhouse. While many of the ghost stories and the history of the house have been passed down by legend, it's undeniable that this curious house is indeed creepy!