San Jose and a Visit to the Winchester Mystery House
Hello! After a short hiatus, I’m happy to say that I am back! Where have I been? I’ve been working and I spent last weekend in San Jose, CA.
The purpose of my trip was to visit the Winchester Mystery House with my BFF Jenny. This has been on my bucket list for YEARS and I recently mentioned it on my Haunted Places I Want to Visit post.
Let’s dive right into it!
The Deets:
Dates: December 2nd-5th
Airbnb:
The link for the Airbnb I stayed at can be found here.
Total Cost:
For our round trip flight, our Airbnb, and our car rental, it was $786 or $383 each.
Quick notes:
Our Airbnb was charming and vintage af! Our hosts were off-site but very communicative
Quite honestly, I did not love the city of San Jose
However, I think it’s great that it’s close to everything including San Fransisco, the coast, and much more
Now that I’ve gone a mini tangent on San Jose, I finally want to talk about the Winchester Mystery House!
The front of the Winchester Mystery House
If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here it goes:
Sarah Winchester, the heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, moved to California from Connecticut after her beloved husband died. His death at the age of 43 left her with a massive fortune and with it, she bought a two-story farmhouse in San Jose.
Me and the Winchester Mystery House
Sarah began to remodel the home and ultimately created what is now known as the Winchester Mystery House. It has staircases and doors that lead to nowhere, 160 rooms, 6 kitchens, 10,000 windows, and much much more.
In other words, it’s an architectural oddity that really has no rhyme or reason. From 1886 to 1922, construction on the house never stopped. No one really knows why Sarah built her house this way or why she kept building.
A door that leads to nowhere
The legend is that Sarah consulted a medium that urged her to build a house to appease the spirits of those who were killed by Winchester guns.
Sarah was said to believe that her husband’s death and the death of her only child (who died shortly after birth) was karma. And so, Sarah never stopped building except when she died in 1922.
View of the Winchester Mystery House Roof
Knowing this story, I was ready to learn more about Sarah Winchester and her massive mansion. Jenny and I took an hour-long tour with a guide.
I had a few first impressions of the famed home. The first is that it doesn’t give me spooky vibes. Second, I believed it was going to be located in a San Jose suburb. It’s not; it’s next to a freeway and quite literally across the street from two massive malls. Third, the house is VERY cold (due to what I later learned was a lack of insulation).
Stairs that lead to nowhere
I can’t recall our tour guide’s name but she was very animated and enthusiastic. She talked about how all the furniture in the home was antique but not Sarah’s because her family took all the furniture when she died.
She also elaborated on the mystery and rumors about the Winchester home. Besides the popular urban legend regarding the medium, some also believe that Sarah built it as a big f*** you to Victorian society. She was a Woman and a VERY wealthy one at that. She technically coudn’t be an architect but who was to stop her?
Sewing room
As for my opinion, I truly believe that this is less supernatural and more about grief. Sarah was devastated about the several losses in her life including that of her husband, daughter, father-in-law, and others. I feel as if she needed something to channel her grief. She had more money than she needed; why not create something that would never be forgotten?
A greenhouse inside of the home-Sarah was a big plant lover
Towards the end of the tour, the guide mentioned that somewhere in the home (perhaps it was the basement, I don’t quite remember), two fireproof safes were found. Inside was a lock of hair believed to be her daughters and the obituaries of her daughter and husband.
Sarah Winchester’s bedroom
Sarah Winchester died in the bedroom that is pictured above. She is buried next to her husband and daughter in Conneticut.
For a lack of a better word, I believe she was a badass. She did what she wanted and by all accounts, she paid and treated all of her servants and workers well.
Do I think the house is haunted? I think the house is filled with sorrow but not ghosts. It proves something I already knew; money isn’t everything.
Me outside the Winchester Mystery Home
Final thoughts and what to know before you visit:
You can purchase tickets to tour the Winchester Mystery House for $42 here
I wish we were able to explore more of the house but the hour-long tour gives a good overview
Although it doesn’t look like it from the outside, the house is simply massive
Parking is free and available onsite
Santana Row, an outdoor shopping center, can be found across from the home and is a great place for a meal and some shopping
