On a recent visit home, I wanted to spend quality time with my mom on my last day before my flight home. There’s lots to do in the Bay Area, but most of it requires that we visit a neighboring city, and account for travel time and hours of traffic (i.e. San Francisco). My mom had the great idea that we visit San Jose, specifically the Winchester Mystery House.

I have never visited the Mystery House before, and would always respond sarcastically to my mom whenever she brought it up (because she went without me! I don’t care that I wasn’t born yet! It’s rude!). Needless to say, I was excited to go.

From driving past the house, which is actually a mansion, on previous occasions, you just get a sense that something mysterious and strange goes on inside. The look of it is eye-catching and anxiety inducing, sending chills all the way down your spine and to the edges of your toes and fingers. You can’t help but to stare and wonder; there’s just something about it.

The front of the Winchester Mystery House. It stands out from the rest of the surrounding buildings, giving off ominous vibes.

What secrets lie in the old antique, Victorian-style, faded mustard-yellow abode?

Random, but worth nothing: It’s strange how such an old, antiquated building still stands next to such luxury and wealth. The mansion is directly across from Santana Row, the high-end luxury shopping center in San Jose. The juxtaposition and contrast is really telling of the city’s history and economic wealth and disparity.

We parked the car and went inside to buy some tickets for a tour. Tickets were purchased inside the gift shop, which is strange that there’s a gift shop to begin with. We got our tickets, but had to wait about 30 minutes for our tour to start. We decided to see what merchandise the gift shop offered, and then we walked around the gardens outside.

In addition to typical merchandise such as t-shirts, sweaters, magnets, mugs, and the like, there were also some antiques such as pistols, construction tools, fishing rods, and more. It was hard to tell which of the antiques were actually used back when the house was being built or occupied by Mrs. Winchester, or if they were merely props used to set the tone and scene of the house.

There were so many fauna around the gardens, and their genus names were listed as well. It was so interesting to see the exterior of the mansion, all the flowers and plants, and think about the history of the place. I didn't know the story of the mansion then, but I would soon come to find out as I went through the tour.

My mom and I started the tour in a sort of dimly-lit hallway next to the gift shop, where I found this family tree framed in the hallway. We were escorted by our tour guide to another dimly-lit room off to the right.

The next room contained a lot of stained-glass windows on display behind a glass wall. Our guide explained that Mrs. Winchester, the widow who built and lived in the house, adored stained-glass windows, and especially loved the spider web design. Spider web designs can be found on various windows, paintings, and more designs around the house. We then saw a video clip describing the history of the house. The story goes like this:

Sarah Winchester was the widow of William Winchester, who owned the company Winchester Repeating Arms Company. After William Winchester died of tuberculosis, Sarah Winchester inherited millions of dollars. She decided to speak to a psychic, who told her she would be haunted by those who had died from Winchester rifles. In order to appease the spirits, she was advised to leave her home in New Haven and move to California. The psychic advised her to build a house and to continually build upon it, as the sounds of construction would scare the spirits away. This is why the house once had over 700 rooms. It was always under construction, with some rooms never being fully finished. There are also doors to lead to nowhere, confusing staircases, windows on the floor or that looked into other rooms, and more strange architecture. This was done in efforts to confuse the spirits.

After watching the clip and learning some background information on Mrs. Winchester and the house, we were escorted up a small flight of peculiar, winding stairs. These stairs are peculiar because they’re only a few inches tall. This was due to Mrs. Winchester’s debilitating arthritis, making it very difficult for her to raise her legs more than a few inches high. I tried not to stop to be courteous to those behind me (I only walk in the front during museum tours), but managed to get these blurry pictures of me and the stairs. Thanks, Mom, for the photo!

I don’t quite remember which rooms we went to, and each of their functions, but I’ll try to relay some here to the best of my memory. For a lot of the rooms and hallways, we just passed by, stopping at another room to hear the tour guide say his spiel. Here are some pictures of some random doors, walls, staircases, windows, and more.

We went to Mrs. Winchester’s room, fairly small and quaint, and the guide talked a bit about her spirituality. She was rumored to be very spiritual, although the record is unclear. She had a fascination (love?) for the number 13, which was considered a spiritual number, and made sure the motif was present all throughout the mansion. This was also apparent when she rang the bell on the rooftop 13 times at the stroke of midnight.

After a bit of history, the tour guide said to follow him into the seance room. YES— THE ROOM WHERE MRS. WINCHESTER DID SEANCES EVERY NIGHT AND CALLED UPON SPIRITS INTO THE HOUSE. And we closed and locked the door behind us. It’s fine, we’re fine. Everything was fine. Our tour guide just told us a bit of background about Mrs. Winchester’s spirituality and ritual when performing the seances.

We exited through a very small door on the other side of the room and entered a room that didn’t look complete at all. There were exposed pipes, unfinished walls, heaters out in the open. It was also noticeably very cold (because the walls weren’t complete— not because of any spirits, I think).

After exploring that room, we followed the guide through a few rooms until we ended up at one room that had windows on nearly every wall and the ceiling. There were plants all over the place, and the floors were slanted so that Mrs. Winchester could water some of the plants that were higher and the water would trickle and roll down the floor and water the lower plants. An innovator.

I didn’t take any good photos in this room because it was fairly small and I try not to include faces from random strangers on my blog out of respect. Enjoy this photo of a door that peeks into another room! I’m not too certain, but it looks like this door leads to another room that’s way lower, since there’s a low ceiling on the other side.

We then went into another room that was known was the hot room. This was because it had multiple heaters, providing solace for Mrs. Winchester, as the heat would soothe her arthritis. I didn’t take too many pictures because it was a small, rectangular room and I tried to avoid taking pictures of others. Here are some pictures of the restrooms in the room, whose original doors were replaced to include windows so guests could see inside as they toured the house.

After walking through the hot room, we went through other rooms which included original wallpaper from when the house was first built.

We then walked by another garden room that had windows on the floor, ceiling, and the walls. There was even a railing installed during the room’s construction to ensure guests didn’t fall in. So thoughtful of Mrs. Winchester and the house builders.

At this point, I’m not sure what direction we’re facing, what floor we’re on, or which way we went from our original starting point. We’re just following and trusting the tour guide. He told us to take special note of the design on the ceilings and walls, the stain-glass windows, and the woodwork. It’s all so antique and beautiful.

We then entered a room that was very clearly unfinished, and looked damaged, even. The walls were not fully painted, the wallpaper was peeling, and the floor wasn’t installed throughout the entire room. It was the room Mrs. Winchester was locked in during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Our tour guide explained how she was taking a nap in the room when the entire house started shaking, startling her awake. The only working door (there was another door in the room but it opened to a wall) was bolted shut thanks to the shaking. It took hours before Mrs. Winchester was found by her workers and rescued.

A small part of the house had crumbled due to the earthquake, and the entire fourth floor upward had fallen. Mrs. Winchester took this as a sign from the spirits to no longer build upward, which is why the house only stands at three stories high today.

We made our way to the top floor and were able to step outside the balcony and look out. All you could see was mansion, mansion, and mansion. If you looked close enough, you saw a bit of the shopping district next door, or the trees and parking lot. But mostly I saw the rooftops of the rest of the mansion. How strange; it’s almost as if you enter another place that isn’t really San Jose.

When did we get on the last floor? How did we get here? Are we lost?

We then went down many stairs and our tour guide told us a bit about how the workers were treated so well at the house. They were paid well more than the minimum wage at the time, could live at the mansion with the families, and were given other amazing financial benefits. I can’t remember all the details, but I remember thinking, “Wow, that’s amazing! Why wouldn’t anyone choose to work here? Oh yeah, it’s haunted.”

After taking a detour outside and seeing some of the fountains in the garden, we walked back into the house through the side entrance, and let me tell you, the living room looked exactly how I thought an old, haunted Victorian mansion living room would look like. Take a look for yourself:

It reminds me of the movie sets of every Victorian-era period piece ever made.

That concludes our tour of the Winchester Mystery House! How fun was that? I’m paraphrasing and butchering everything our amazing tour guide told us, and left out so many details (it’s hard to remember it all!!), but I highly encourage you to do more research or book a tour for yourself. Trust me, it’s so much fun and so interesting, especially from a historical and archaeological perspective.

This blog post is also coming very late because of the… eerie feelings I would get every time I would sit down and dedicate time to writing this. I’m not jumping to any conclusions, but did the energy shift as you read this?

For more information on the Winchester Mystery House, or to book tickets, visit their website.