When it comes to peculiar properties, this empty mansion in California takes some beating. Once the home of Sarah Winchester, the heir to weapons manufacturing empire Winchester Repeating Arms, renovations on the property began in the late 19th century, though they were never completed.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!However, the home’s origins are much more humble than the extensive estate we see today.
Following her husband’s death, Sarah bought up a modest farmhouse in San Jose and set about extending the residence in an altogether unusual way.
The home swelled to mammoth proportions in the decades leading up to her death in 1922, growing to seven storeys and encompassing an eye-watering 160 rooms, including this magnificent ballroom with its parquet floors and ornately carved organ.
During the mansion’s redesign, which was a continuous 36-year project, Sarah reportedly became obsessed with the number 13. She incorporated it in groupings throughout the house, from the number of treads on the staircase to the arms of the chandeliers and even the quantity of wood panels adorning the walls.
However, that’s the least of the home’s perplexing features…
Sarah’s renovations became nonsensical, from labyrinthine passageways that meet dead ends to staircases to nowhere, the mansion’s architecture is a riddle. In fact, when illusionist Harry Houdini visited in 1924, he declared it ‘The Mystery House’.
But why go to these baffling lengths? According to legend, Sarah may have been haunted by the ghosts of those killed by the weapons her family produced. The chaotic corridors and false doors were reportedly intended to confuse the spirits that pursued her. In total, the house is said to have 2,000 doors.
Possibly the strangest house in America, one of the mansion’s most extreme features is a door on one of the upper storeys that opens out onto an eight-foot-high (2.4m) drop, while elsewhere there’s a room with a window set into the floor and even a room without a floor altogether.
Whether the house was a never-ending project to quell her heartache after her husband’s passing or a maze to confuse malevolent spirits, we’ll never know for sure.