
- #BNI WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE SAN JOSE HOW TO#
- #BNI WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE SAN JOSE FULL#
- #BNI WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE SAN JOSE WINDOWS#
#BNI WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE SAN JOSE HOW TO#
John Brown had a history of working in carnivals and he knew how to sell a good story. In 1923, the house itself was sold at auction and eventually wound up in the hands of a John Brown who saw the possibilities in opening it up as a tourist attraction. Without a 160 room mansion, the furniture contained within those 160 rooms would be a little hard to store! She left all the furniture in the house to her niece who put it up for auction. Clearly she had done a good job of outrunning malevolent spirits. In any event, Sarah Winchester died in 1922 at the ripe old age of 82. The Pardee side of the family were wealthy in their own right so it wasn’t like she was going to be poor if she got rid of the Winchester money. She neither got rid of her shares in the evil Winchester money nor the money that came from it. Without the money, the spirits had no reason to haunt her. I wondered why Sarah Winchester would not have just given away her inheritance to charity. The construction foreman had a house on-site. All those Native Americans, civil war soldiers, outlaws, sheriffs etc who had been killed using the Winchester rifles did not go gently into that good night. Is the Winchester Mystery House Haunted?Īccording to the legend, when Sarah was living on the East Coast, she consulted a famous medium who told her that she was a victim of the blood money of her inheritance. Even in today’s money, Sarah’s inheritance would be considered a nice chunk of change but back in the late 19th century, it made her an enormously wealthy woman. She had about a $1000 a day to spend as she wished. Upon William’s death, Sarah inherited $20 million dollars in cash and shares in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. She traveled the world for 3 years and then eventually settled in California where she had relatives from the Pardee side of her family. When William died in 1881 at the age of 43, Sarah was devastated. Unfortunately, they lost an infant daughter to a rare disease in 1886. The couple were happy, young socialites living a charmed life in New England. Many visitors report experiencing bizarre phenomena, or otherwise capture something strange in a photo.Advertisements for the Winchester Rifles which played a major part in US history. It’s also been featured on Unsolved Mysteries, Ghost Adventures, and multiple lists of haunted places by TIME, The Travel Channel, and more. The Winchester Mystery House has been investigated by many paranormal experts over the years, including Houdini, Sylvia Brown, and TAPS West Coast. Courtesy of Winchester Mystery House Is it haunted? The total cost to build the house was $5 million in 1923, which comes to $71 million in today’s money.
#BNI WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE SAN JOSE WINDOWS#
It has 10,000 windows 2,000 doors 160 rooms 13 bathrooms 6 kitchens and 47 stairways and fireplaces. That’s why the house has bizarre features including doors to nowhere, windows into other rooms and strange proportions.Īfter decades of renovations, the house sits at a whopping 24,000 square feet. It is said that Sarah was haunted by the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles, which drove her to create the enormous, sprawling mansion in order to hide from them. After both her daughter and husband died within a few days of each other, she left her home in Connecticut and bought a farmhouse in San Jose, which she began to renovate continuously from 1886 until her death in 1922.

Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester was the widow of William Wirt Winchester, who left her an enormous fortune from the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Courtesy of Winchester Mystery House History of the house
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The sprawling building measures 24,000 square feet and is full of bizarre twists and turns, hidden doors, and staircases that lead to nowhere. San Francisco is home to plenty of paranormal sites, but the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose might give it a run for its money! The famous home was owned by Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester, who continuously renovated and added onto the mansion for decades. Tickets start at $64.99 and the event is happening on select nights through October 31. There will also be plenty of interactive carnival games on the grounds and an outdoor performance from Madame Nightshade herself. Guests can wander the halls of the mansion for an immersive and spine-chilling haunted experience, and then decompress at the Spookeasy Bar with fun themed cocktails and food.

The famous Winchester Mystery House is stepping it up a notch for the fall season! Unhinged: Nightshade’s Curse brings an old-timey haunted carnival with spooky sideshows onto the mansion’s grounds.
