The Winchester Mystery House

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The Winchester Mystery House was fascinating, strange, huge, and beautiful. It was a labyrinth of 160 rooms, 6 kitchens, 13 bathrooms, etc.

There were so many legends about it. This is the main one below that is at the front entry. Most likely though she was just keeping busy with a hobby she loved, architecture, to help her deal the grief of losing her daughter and husband.

We checked out the museum while we waited for our tour time. There was displays about the Winchester company, and there were clothes on display. Mrs. Winchester supposedly always wore black with a veil. Her niece would have worn the dress. The servants would have probably worn the other items.

There was also a shooting gallery where things would move in ghostly ways if you shot its target

Gardens and Outside Buildings

We also checked out the gardens and the house and out buildings on the outside as we waited for our tour.

Mrs. Winchester had all kinds of orchards and had her own fruit drying house . Her estate manager had his own large house next to the drying house and close to the main house.

There was a 10,000 gallon water tank in this three story building that drained into an elaborate system of water pipes and cisterns in the house.

There was a large green house with an enclosed bridge to it from the main house because Mrs. Winchester loved to garden.

There were also workshops, garages, and she even had her own gas manufacturing plant on the property for the gas lights. She also had a car wash with a 360 degree rotating pipe on the ceiling.

There were also some unusual things on the outside of the house such a a door that went outside from the second floor.

The outside gardens were beautiful. She had full time gardeners that were oriental, which was unusual for that time period. Usually they were discriminated against.

This is the very beautiful front porch and elaborate front door which nobody used because she closed off the front of the house after the 1906 earthquake.

Another fountain called the serpent Fountain. There were lots of statues in her gardens including these greek ones.

East side of the house

The house tour started in the carriage house which was in the house. Mrs Winchester could get out of her carriage inside the house. This picture is the only known picture of Mrs. Winchester when she was living at the house.

Next we went into a storage room filled with stain glass items that were never used. They showed a slideshow about the original myth about the Winchester home.

Not only did Mrs. Winchester use lots of stain glass in her house she also used lot of Lincrusta wallpaper, which gave the house a very expensive feel. Lincrusta is made from a paste of gelled linseed oil and wood flour spread onto a paper base. It is then rolled between steel rollers, one of which has a pattern embossed upon it.

Next we went up some stairs that went back and forth several times, about seven to nine. The ceiling was low and the stairs were each only 2 inches tall. Mrs. Winchester had painful arthritis and that was how she was able to get upstairs. Mrs. Winchester was only about 4’10”. She was a small, petite woman. There were 47 stairways in her house, including the ones built just for her. Towards the end of her life, when her arthritis got really bad, she had a couple or elevators installed in the house. They were the first elevators ever installed inside a residence.

We had a great tour guide for the inside of the house. She was dressed as a maid and she was funny. Her name was Tyler. I’m not sure is she was a man or a woman though. It is the San Francisco area.

She immediately started showing us some of the unusual parts of the house such as a door that opened to a wall and a stair case that ended at a ceiling

Another unusual things was the fascination Mrs.Winchester had with the number 13. The Winchester House had many 13-paned windows and 13-paneled ceilings, as well as 13-step stairways. Even her will had 13 parts, and she signed it 13 times.

Some of the first rooms we saw.

Bathrooms

There were 13 bathrooms in the house. Many had doors with windows in them. Strange. There was also one shower. Showers were rare back in those times. This one has needle point size holes around the curved pipes on each side. It was set for Mrs Winchesters size. She hoped it would relieve her arthritic pain.

The house seemed have been built in sections, so it wasn’t all one solid house, more like pieces put together. You can see in the second picture how it was built around the bell tower which was on the original property along with a barn that was incorporated into the house as well.

Master Bedroom

The prettiest bedroom was Mrs. Winchesters. It was also where she died.

Kitchens

There were six kitchens in the house. Maybe they had a lot of employees to feed. The room with the marble walls was a cold storage room. Blocks of ice were delivered regularly from the Sierra Nevadas to help preserve the food in this room.

Fireplaces

There were 47 fireplaces in the house. Here are a few of them. They were all different designs; Two of the ones below are oriental inspired. The brick one isn’t really brick.

Laundry Room

Mrs. Winchester wanted to make her employees work easier so washboards were incorporated right into the sink.

Windows

The massive amount of windows everywhere was one of the things that struck me. There were 10,000 windows in the house and 52 skylights. There was an enclosure of windows in the middle of the kitchen that let light in from the skylight. There were windows on the hall walls so that the light from windows in rooms could shine into the hall. The eagle statue window enclosed area is in the center of the house.. There were even windows in the floor to let light into floors below.

There was also an ingenious way to wash the windows in the middle of the house. There were doors leading to the center areas where light came down from skylights. The doors look like they go nowhere, into empty space, but boards were put down so that servants could step on them to clean the windows.

Conservatories

Mrs. Winchester also had several interior conservatory’s because she loved gardens and plants. She even had interior hose outlets and an ingenious system of watering where the wood was lifted off the floor and then the water drained through the concrete to the outside.

Another ingenious system that was far ahead of its time.

Next we went into an area that was closed off after the 1906 earthquake. You can see the damage it did to the plaster walls. The house was originally 7 stories high, but the towers were torn down after the earthquake because Mrs. Winchester considered them to be unsafe. You can see the before and after pictures below. Mrs. Winchester went and lived elsewhere for a while after the quake because it scared her so much.

Stain Glass Windows

Some of the prettiest stain glass windows were in the front area that was closed off. These daisy windows were my favorite. Mrs. Winchester loved daisies. The last stain glass was the most expensive one in the house and was embedded with crystals. The only problem was that it wasn’t on an outside wall. There was a closed off room behind it. It would probably shine beautifully if it had some natural light behind it.

The most beautiful part of the house was the front part which was closed down after the earthquake. But has since been restored. The first part was the twin dining rooms

Next was the front hall and front doors, grand staircase, and a sitting room off to the right.

Next was the grand ballroom. It was the most expensive room in the house with all the parquet. There are also some interesting Shakespearean quotes on the two stain glass windows, but nobody knows what they meant to Mrs. Winchester. There was also a safe behind a door but you had to open two more doors to get to it. People expected valuables, but inside were memorabilia of her late husband and baby daughter such as a lock of hair. Mrs. Winchester loved playing the organ in this room, though this isn’t the original one.

Toward the middle of the house was this sitting room and dining room where she probably spend most of her time because the front was closed off.

After reading more about Mrs. Winchester, I think she was a fascinating woman. The house was her design with no plans. I don’t think the reason the house is so unusual is because of ghosts. I think a lot of mistakes were made while she was learning and experimenting. She loved architecture and was always trying new things on her house. She was also very smart and even ran her own finances and investments very successfully. She was a kind, caring person who gave lots of anonymous donations to several charities and paid her employees twice the going rate. Because of her house, lots of people in the area had employment.

I would love to explore this beautiful house on my own and really see the details. I would also like to see all the parts they didn’t show us in the tour. Hopefully we can go back again someday.