Sarah Winchester, widow of the heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, bought a farmhouse in San Jose in 1886 and kept adding to it until her death in 1922.
The result has about 160 rooms, stairs that lead to ceilings and doors that open onto walls. Popular legend says spirits told her to keep building; historians say she was an enthusiastic, unconventional builder.
The 1906 earthquake damaged the house, and it opened for tours a few months after her death.
Timeline
- 1886Winchester buys the farmhouse.
- 1906The earthquake damages the house.
- 1923Opens to the public.
When a woman builds a house her own way, people tend to invent a reason.
