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All
houses wherein men have lived and died are haunted
houses ...Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
San José's most famous
haunted house tourist attraction is the Winchester
Mystery House. This rambling old Victorian
mansion was the home of a very rich and very
eccentric widow. Mr. Winchester had been the
head of the company that made the Winchester
rifle, the "Gun that Won the West"
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Winchester A very Haunted
House
In 1884, a wealthy widow named Sarah L.
Winchester began a construction project
of such magnitude that it was to occupy
the lives of carpenters and craftsmen
until her death thirty-eight years later.
The Victorian mansion, designed and built
by the Winchester Rifle heiress, is filled
with so many unexplained oddities, that
it has come to be known as the Winchester
Mystery House.
Sarah Winchester built a home that is
an architectural marvel. Unlike most homes
of its era, this 160-room Victorian mansion
had modern heating and sewer systems,
gas lights that operated by pressing a
button, three working elevators, and 47
fireplaces. From rambling roofs and exquisite
hand inlaid parquet floors to the gold
and silver chandeliers and Tiffany art
glass windows, you will be impressed by
the staggering amount of creativity, energy,
and expense poured into each and every
detail.
Mrs. Winchester was understandably distressed
and, as one did in those days, she consulted
a spiritualist. Much to her horror, she
was told that the spirit world was full
of the ghosts of people (and doubtless
buffalo) killed by her husband's rifles.
They were very angry with her, and things
were going to get bad. Her only chance,
the spiritualist said, was to build a
house, and keep building it. For if the
house was never finished, no ghost could
settle into it, and she could never be
haunted.
And so we have a warren-like structure
in suburban San José that makes a
fortune from those who believe in ghosts.
There are many features in the house supposedly
designed to confuse (or possibly trap) unwary
spirits: doors that are very small or lead
nowhere; long, winding staircases with very
shallow risers; windows that look into other
parts of the house; pillars installed upside
down and the number 13 found everywhere.
Stairs to nowhere? These
stairs that lead to the ceiling are just
one of the many bizarre features that Mrs.
Winchester designed and had built
The Mystery House is especially busy at
Halloween. They do special tours in the
middle of the night in which bold ghost
hunters get to wander the spooky hallways
in the dark, armed only with a special Mystery
House flashlight (which you get to keep
afterwards). As for the dead, the place
is so popular that this year Elvis is haunting
there. I have a photo of his ghostly white
limo to prove it.
That, of course, is the commercial front,
and very successful it is too. The reality
is rather different. The description of
the house is correct, but most of the anomalies
can be put down to the continual building
and to much less bizarre aspects of Mrs.
Wimchester's life. The shallow stairs were
a result of severe arthritis that prevented
her from raising her feet very far. Everything
was built small because she was only 4'
10" and designed the house around herself.
She was a very distrusting person and used
internal windows to keep an eye on her staff.
What is more, if you take the "Behind
the Scenes" tour you discover that
Mrs. W. was actually very smart. The house
is full of the latest (for Victorian times)
technological marvels. It has gas lighting
in every room, it recycles rainwater in
case of drought, and it was one of the first
buildings in the area to be earthquake-proofed.
Number of rooms: 160
Cost: $5,500,000
Date of Construction: 1884 - September
5, 1922 (38 continuous years!)
Number of stories: Prior to 1906 Earthquake
- 7; presently 4
Number of acres: Originally 161.919; presently
4
Number of basements: 2
Heating: Steam, forced air, fireplaces
Number of windows: Frames 1,257; panes
approx. 10,000
Number of doors: Doorways 467, doors approx.
950 not including cabinet doors.
Number of fireplaces: 47 (gas, wood, or
coal burning)
Number of chimneys: Presently 17 with evidence
of 2 others
Number of cars at her death: 2 (a 1917
Pierce Arrow Limousine & a 1916 4 cyl.
Buick truck)
Number of bedrooms: Approx. 40
Number of kitchens: 5 or 6
Number of staircases: 40, total of stair
steps - 367
Number of skylights: Approx. 52
Number of gallons of paint required to
paint entire home: Over 20,000
Number of ballrooms: 2 (one nearly complete,
and one under construction)
Blueprints available: None, Mrs. Winchester
never had a master set of blueprints, but
did sketch out individual rooms on paper
and even tablecloths.
Sarah Winchester was the first to report
ghost in the house. Often, she spoke to
them nightly, ringing a bell at midnight
to summon them. A second bell run at 2:00
a.m. told them it was time to leave. However,
it seems that someone might need to ring
a bell around the place again.
The unusual goings-on reported in the Winchester
House include organ music in the Blue Room
where Sarah died, a couple lingering in
the corner of a bedroom, cold spots in Sarah's
bedroom, and apparitions of Sarah. Perhaps
one of the oddest is the smell of chicken
soup coming from a long-unused kitchen.
Since Sarah Winchester's death, several
psychics have reported feeling cold spots
and seeing red balls of light that fade
and explode.
Besides their normal tours, Winchester
Mystery House offers special flashlights
tours every Friday the thirteenth and at
Christmas.
What
if someone told you the piece of
ground you were standing on was
known as the "Most Haunted
Scariest Spot in the world"!
Would you believe them?
Whitechapel,
Sloss Furnace, Amityville, Spittalfields,
London East End, London, England,
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Auschwitz-Birkenau
Concentration Camp, Oswiecim,
Poland, Amityville, NY, or the
Waverly Ghosts of the Kentucky
Sanatorium, Bachelor's Grove,
Bald Mountain Or The entire Haunted
City of New Orleans. It's all
up to conjecture... Haunted America
Tours lets People who visit the
site vote to see what they believe
is the most haunted location,
other paranormal sites, and television
shows pick and choose their haunted
places for you.
THIS STORY MAY JUST PUT A NEW
REAL HAUNTED HOTSPOT ON YOUR LIST
OF REAL SCARY AND MOST HAUNTED
PLACES TO INVESTIGATE!
TO READ MORE PLEASE VISIT HERE NOW! |
Winchester House on the
internet
525 South Winchester Boulevard, San Jose,
CA 95128 (408) 247-2101
Official
Winchester House web site: www.winchestermysteryhouse.com
Ghost
Hunters - Winchester House/ Queen Mary
Episode Number: 21 Season Num: 2 First Aired:
Wednesday October 5, 2005 Prod Code: 211TAPS:
Paranormal Research & Investigation,
Ghost Hunting.
CATCH SEASON 2.5 of GHOST HUNTERS Wednesdays
@ 8 & 9pm EST on SciFi ... Relive all
the scary and funny moments of Ghost Hunters
Season 1. Show
Stars: Paula Donovan (Herself - Research
& Development), Steve Gonsalves (Himself
- Technical Advisor and Evidence Analyst),
Donna LaCroix (Herself - Case Manager),
Brian Harnois (Himself - Technical Advisor
and Case Manager), Kristyn Gartland (Herself
- Field Researcher), Jason Hawes (Himself
- Founder of TAPS and Lead Investigator),
Grant Wilson (II) (Himself - Co-Founder
of TAPS and Lead Investigator)
http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/
Winchester
Mystery House Home Page
Victorian 160-room mansion, designed and
built by the Winchester Rifle heiress, filled
with unexplained...
http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/
THE
WINCHESTER HOUSE!
THE WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE The Haunted
History of One of America's Strangest ---
& Most Haunted --- Houses by Troy Taylor
...
http://www.prairieghosts.com/winchester.html
Winchester
House -
http://www.winchesterhouse.co.uk/
Winchester
Mystery House - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
The Winchester Mystery House is a unique
mansion located at 525 South Winchester
Boulevard in San Jose, California. Its construction
began in 1884, ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House
+Lost
Destinations::Winchester Mystery House+
Pix of the perplexing, ghostly Winchester
Mystery House @ LostDestinations.com, the
website for those who like to get lost.
http://www.lostdestinations.com/winchstr.htm
Winchester
Mystery House
Winchester Mystery House. San Jose, California
is the where one of the most unusual houses
in the ... The Winchester Mystery House
525 S. Winchester Blvd. ...
http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/shelly/43/winchester.html
Welcome
to Winchester House School
Co-educational prep school for children
aged 3 to 13. Profile and prospectus.
http://www.winchester-house.org/
Winchester
House -- Santa Clara County, California
-- National ...
The Winchester House, or Winchester Mystery
House as it is better known, is a 160-room
Victorian ... Courtesy of City of Santa
Clara and Winchester House ...
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/santaclara/win.htm
Dan
Heller's Photos/Pictures of Winchester House,
San Jose ...
Winchester House, San Jose, California.
... You Are Here: Home > United States
> California > Winchester House Dan
Heller's Photos/Pictures of ...
http://www.danheller.com/winchester.html
The
Silicon Valley Gateway
Campbell Historical Museum & Ainsley
House: Visit canning pioneer John Colpitts
Ainsley's historic home and explore the
Santa Clara Valley's pre-Silicon ...
http://www.siliconvalley-usa.com/tourist/?f=yes
Let
us help you find your
Most “Haunted America Tours” destinations!
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