Now four storeys, the house had a seven-storey tower before the 1906 earthquake, evident in this archival photo.
It’s true that staircases spiral-or dead end that doors open to nowhere that the prime number 13 and spider webs are favorite motifs. Whether Sarah believed in ghosts, or was a mathematics prodigy dabbling in labyrinths and encryption, the house she built is a puzzle. Money was no object: Sarah had inherited $20 million ($520 million today) and also had an income from her shares in the company-the equivalent of $26,000 a day in today’s currency. The story told is that Sarah Winchester, widow of rifle heir William Wirt Winchester, was encouraged, during a séance, to leave Connecticut and head to California, to build an eccentric home for the spirits of all those killed by Winchester firearms. The museum house is privately owned and heavily visited.
From the roof on down, every surface is exuberantly ornamented with fish-scale shingles, ball-and-spindle decorations, turnings, carvings, and board siding at the base. Turrets and bays, balconies with fancy railings, irregularly shaped windows, and a “door to nowhere” together create a rich Queen Anne fantasy.
The cost was $5 million, or $71 million in today’s currency. Built over and around a modest Victorian farmhouse, the mansion took 38 years to create (1884–1922) and was never really finished. Architecture buffs, on the other hand, are in for a jaw-dropping tour of Aesthetic Movement architecture and decoration. Most of the tourists who visit the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, come for its spooky associations.
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