February 27, 2020 - Winchester Mystery House

Because we didn't get very far heading north the day before, we had a much larger drive in the morning.  But it was a beautiful drive.  Traffic was good once we left the LA Metro area and we could just enjoy it.  Part of me was pretty glad we didn't do too much the night before, we would have missed it.  I wish we'd done at least an hour more, so we could have arrived in San Jose earlier.  But I'm glad we didn't go all the way.

We arrived at Winchester Mystery Fun House later in the afternoon.  Both Gina and I had this house on our bucket lists for a very long time.  The story is:  Sarah Winchester, heir to the Winchester fortune, thought she was haunted by the ghosts of every person that was killed by a Winchester weapon.  A spirit had told her that the spirits would get when the construction on her house was completed.  So she kept the construction 24/7 until the day she died.  The small farm house she originally purchased was not even recognizable with all the additions and modifications.  According to articles written on the house, she was BSC and there were staircases that lead no where, and doors that open to walls.  Most articles paint her as an unstable woman that slowly unraveled, becoming more and more crazy until the end of her life.  She was haunted by the early death of her husband and held séances every night, hoping to reconnect with him.

There were two tours, the standard and the extra.  We wanted to do both tours, but because we arrived so late we could only do the standard, we'd have to come back tomorrow for the extra.  The yard and exterior of the house is beautiful.  There are statues and flowers and fountains all over the yard.  The house contains multiple balconies and stained glass and although large, it looks fantastic.

The Standard Tour gives the original history of the house and takes you through the main areas of the house, explaining much of the construction and purposes of the rooms.  Talks about some of the people that worked there and talked about Sarah Winchester.  Many of the furnishings of the house aren't original to the house.  But they do add a nice touch.  At its tallest, the house was seven stories high, but after the earthquake of 1906 the chimney at the top of the house collapsed and did an enormous amount of damage.  The front of the house was reduced to four stories and most of that area was just closed off.  Other than making it was structurally sound, they didn't make any repairs or continue building to the front of the house.  All additional building took place in the back after the earthquake.  Soooo...many of the 'oddities' of the house weren't originally odd.  The staircase that goes nowhere?  It used to go to the other floors that no longer exist.  Chimneys that end 2 inches below the ceiling?  They used to go all the way up, but the tops were destroyed/removed after the earthquake.  So, not as creepy as originally advertised.  The house had the top technologies at the time.  One of the first showers in the country.  There were multiple greenhouses throughout the house with zinc floors with drains in them.  Skylights regularly used to make use of as much natural light as possible.  Rudimentary intercom systems so Sarah Winchester could contact servants whenever she needed assistance.

Gina and I went and checked into our Airbnb and headed out for dinner.  We had a park scheduled and had to be back in town early enough to catch the Extra tour before they closed.