Haunted Destination: Winchester Mystery House

San Jose, CA

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Winchester Mystery House

Winchester Mystery House

Photo by: Ben Franske, Wikimedia Commons

Ben Franske, Wikimedia Commons

San Jose, CA

Legend has it that when her husband and infant daughter died, Winchester Rifles heiress Sarah Winchester visited a spiritual medium. The psychic told the wealthy socialite that the premature deaths were payback by angry spirits who’d been killed with Winchester rifles -- and now it was time for Sarah to build a house large enough to accommodate all of them. Sarah soon packed her bags for sunny, spacious San Jose, CA, and for the next 38 years she embarked on a nonstop construction project that would become known as the Winchester Mystery House. Complete with 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms and 6 kitchens, the house was supposedly built to confuse evil spirits. Secret passageways, upside-down columns, staircases to nowhere and sealed-off rooms litter this bizarre and creepy mansion. Since Sarah Winchester’s death in 1922, visitors have heard footsteps in her bedroom, seen doorknobs turn themselves, been overcome with icy chills and temporarily lost their vision. Visit if you dare -- the Ghost Adventures crew did.

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