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Of course, its size is not the only thing that is unique about the house. Not all the 2,000 doors can be walked through—one leads to an eight-foot drop to a kitchen sink, another to a 15-foot drop into bushes in the garden below. Staircases lead straight to ceilings, expensive Tiffany stained-glass windows were installed in places where they would get no light, and there are more secret passages than Narnia. A particularly odd delight is a cabinet that, when opened, extends through 30 rooms of the house. A popular tourist attraction, the house, along with many other cultural institutions in the United States, has closed to help curb the spread of coronavirus. But as Michele Debczak reports for Mental Floss, you can now explore the Winchester House from afar via a detailed video tour posted on the mansion’s website.
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Many visitors are fascinated by the vast collection of windows—more than 10,000 panes—and the fact that some of the loveliest Tiffany stained glass is hidden away where no light can reach it. When Sarah Winchester’s husband, William Wirt Winchester, died in 1881, she became one of the wealthiest women in the world. Exactly why Winchester embarked on this dizzying cycle of building, undoing and rebuilding is impossible to say. The medium reportedly instructed her to constantly build a house for these ghosts. Plus, make sure to stroll through the estate and stop by the Menagerie Oddities Market, open only during Holiday Candlelight Tour days! With a variety of unique vendors, you are sure to find the perfect gift (ticket purchase necessary).
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After Sarah Winchester passed away, there were no blueprints left behind. Explore this all-digital floor-plan of the Winchester Mystery House. Closing times vary, please check our Buy Tickets page for current tour times.
flashlight tours
During the Walk With Spirits Tour, guests will attend the wake for a departed soul in the parlor of the home, ascend to the third floor to experience a Victorian era seance and end in the dark and foreboding basement. We offer the Mansion Tour for guests to learn about the amazing woman at the heart of this home, and to see all the bizarre architectural designs and mysterious elements of the Winchester Mystery House. But there is only so much we can show you and tell you about in one hour. The Explore More Tour expands on more of the history and architecture of the mansion, taking you through the rooms you do not see on the Mansion Tour. This self guided tour that allows you to walk the halls at your own pace in the dark with a flashlight.
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The general tours are not wheelchair accessible, but there is an ADA Tour that includes garden access. Complimentary parking is available both onsite and across the street. Why did Sarah Winchester continue to make changes until her death? Some say that she believed she would die as soon as the house was declared complete. Others say she created a labyrinth to confuse and evade the spirits that followed her. Whatever you believe the reason is, the Winchester Mystery House is sure to stay in your mind long after your visit.
The 41-minute exploration of the house not only takes you inside its endless supply of odd rooms, but it also offers an in-depth narrated history of the home and the Winchester family. 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. The house became a tourist attraction nine months after Winchester's death in 1922. The Victorian and Gothic-style mansion is renowned for its size and its architectural curiosities and for the numerous myths and legends surrounding the structure and its former owner.
Seasonal Tours
You will have the chance to roam the dark halls of the mansion while hearing tales of its former and (possibly current!) inhabitants. Guests will guide themselves through the mansion that is famous for its dizzying floorplan and lack of formal blueprints… while in the dark and alone with just a flashlight. In 1886, Sarah Winchester traveled from New Haven, Connecticut, to San Jose, California, to start a new life. She purchased a small eight-room farmhouse and started a small renovation project that would take 36 years and $5.5 million (in the money of the time), only stopping when she passed away in 1922. The garden tour is entirely outdoors and a completely touchless, experience featuring 20 stops throughout the beautiful Victorian Gardens.
Take a Free Virtual Tour of the Winchester Mystery House - Smithsonian Magazine
Take a Free Virtual Tour of the Winchester Mystery House.
Posted: Wed, 25 Mar 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Walk With Spirits Tour
Just a few years later, she left Connecticut and embarked on a renovation project that would take the rest of her life. Carol is a digital marketer creating media-rich content for global audiences covering travel, San Francisco and the Bay Area, food & drink, outdoor experiences, and cross-cultural storytelling. Her work is found in the San Mateo Daily Journal and The Skyline View (Skyline College). Before travel writing, her professional background included working internationally in business, nonprofits, and government. She lives in San Francisco with her family and regularly explores the parks in her city, especially untamed McLaren Park. She was certain that relocating was the only way to evade the spirits that plagued her.
Explore more TOUR
Winchester Mystery House management and staff have worked extensively to prepare for reopening. The new self-guided tour has been designed to prioritize the safety of guests and staff and is compliant with all current county and state guidelines. For ONLY six select nights starting Saturday November 25th till December 30th, experience the magic of the season as you journey through this beautifully decorated mansion, lit up by the warm glow of candlelights. Those looking to explore even more of the beautiful but bizarre home of Sarah Winchester should book the Mansion Tour and spend more time in the gardens and gift shop. All that talk of paranormal sometimes worries parents that the tour will be to scary for children.
Not to worry – all ages are welcome and the tour is very family friendly! Children five and under are free and ages 6-12 will need a ticket. Have you ever dreamed of walking through a real-life haunted house? Maybe you don’t have easy access to any of the notable landmark haunting sites in the country.
There are also Flashlight Tours around Halloween and every Friday the 13th. The Winchester Antiques Products Museum and the Winchester Firearms Museum are also housed on-site. No one is quite sure why Mrs. Winchester demanded constant changes to her very large house.
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