The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California, that was once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearms magnate William Wirt Winchester. Located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, the Queen Anne Style Victorian mansion is renowned for its size, architectural curiosities, and lack of any master building plan. It is a designated California historic landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is privately owned and serves as a tourist attraction. Since its construction in 1886, 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. However, Winchester’s biographer says that she “routinely dismissed workers for months at a time ‘to take such rest as I might'” and 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.” Bed Bug Exterminator San Jose
After her husband’s death from tuberculosis in 1881, Sarah Winchester inherited more than US$20.5 million (equivalent to $550 million in 2020). She also received nearly 50% ownership of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, giving her an income of roughly $1,000 per day, equivalent to $27,000 a day in 2020. After her infant daughter died of an illness known as marasmus, a children’s disease where the body wastes away, and her husband died of pulmonary tuberculosis, a Boston medium—supposedly channeling the spirit of her late husband— told her that she should leave her home in New Haven and travel West, where she must continuously build a house for herself and the spirits of people who had fallen victim to Winchester rifles.
She left New Haven and headed for California. She may have sought a change of setting and something to keep her occupied during her prolonged depression. However, others maintain that she believed she must move West and continuously build a house, the sounds of whose construction would keep at bay the spirits of those who had fallen to her late husband’s firearms.
Restaurants and Pubs
- The Funny Farm Restaurant is located at 3245 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose, CA
- Brew City Grill is located at 651 W Hamilton Ave Suite 1070, Campbell, CA
- Final Score Sports Bar is located at 1126 Saratoga Ave, San Jose, CA
- JJ’s Lounge is located at 3439 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose, CA
Check out other attractions like Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose