Winchester Mystery House, December 14, 2003
The story so far: Sarah Winchester, the wife of the second president of the Winchester Arms company, lost her baby only 6 weeks after her baby's birth. Her husband died of tiberculosis, leaving her a widow with a fortune ($20 million in 1860's money) plus her controlling interest in Winchester Arms was bringing her $1000 a day. She saw a psychic who told her that the ghosts of those killed by Winchester Rifles took her husband and child, and that the only way she could avoid the same fate was to move away and build a house that she would never complete.
Sarah moved out to California, to San Jose, and purchased a small farm house. She hired around 15 carpenters to build on the house full time - 38 years - until the day she died at age 82 in 1922, when the building finally ceased. The "Winchester Mystery House" is a fascinating house, and I took some photos of it.
The house contains 160 rooms, 40 bedrooms, 47 fireplaces, over 2000 doors and 2000 windows. She never had a single visitor to the house.
This is a cheesy overhead photo I found online
This is a picture of the house as it stood before the 1906 earthquake, which caused the tower to collapse.
