Winchester Mystery House: Inside the California mansion 'built to confuse spirits'

More than a century after American philanthropist Sarah Winchester died, the sprawling mansion she spent nearly four decades building continues to stand as one of America's most unusual properties and often belived to be 'haunted'. Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, was once the private residence of Winchester heiress Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester. She died exactly 104 years ago on September 5, 1922, bringing an end to the construction that had transformed an eight-room farmhouse into a sprawling architectural labyrinth. The story behind the unusual construction is rooted in tragedy. Winchester lost her infant daughter to illness and, a few years later, her husband, William Wirt Winchester, to tuberculosis. Following her husband’s death, she left their home in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to San Jose. According to popular legend, Winchester consulted a medium who told her that the spirits of people killed by Winchester rifles were seeking revenge. She was supposedly advised to move west and keep building a house continuously to confuse the spirits. There is no conclusive evidence that this was the reason for the construction. But the story, combined with the mansion’s bizarre design, has fuelled its reputation as a haunted house for more than a century. Construction continued from 1886 until Winchester’s death in 1922, with the property expanding into an architectural labyrinth. The mansion eventually contained 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 52 skylights, 47 stairways and fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 13 bathrooms and six kitchens. Among its most famous features are staircases that abruptly end at ceilings, doors that open onto walls and windows positioned in unusual locations; details that have helped keep the mystery surrounding the property alive. The house was reportedly built at a cost of about $5 million by 1923, equivalent to roughly $71 million today. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake also damaged parts of the mansion and altered sections of its upper levels. Winchester’s death brought the extraordinary construction project to an end. Less than a year later, on June 30, 1923, the property opened to the public. Today, the Winchester Mystery House is a historic landmark and tourist attraction that draws visitors with a combination of architectural eccentricity, history and its enduring ghost story. More than 100 years after Winchester stopped building, the question of why she created such an unusual home remains part of the property's enduring appeal.