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[VanquishUK]

Sounds like she completely lost the plot after her husband died. Definitely would like to visit that place though. Very creepy.

 

[The Beard]

That's pretty cool. It'd be nice to see her original furniture and belongings.

When I visited the house a couple years ago, I was disappointed that none of the items in the house were original. All the original furniture is long gone.

 

[olympia]

did they finally find the man cave

 

[SwiftDeath]

Winchester Mystery house is kind of a weird experience. It's cool to see what money can get you even back when this was built.

I came out of the tour honestly just saddened for Sarah Winchester the owner who had it built. If memory serves she was incredibly superstitious and after her husband died moved out west on the advice of a fortune teller of all people. And kept building and building the house again on a piece of advice from a fortune teller.

She also apparently owned a massive amount of land, 161 acres that included that house in what is now San Jose, CA.

Can you imagine what that land would be valued at today? I imagine who ever got that land got it for nothing compared to what it's worth now.

She loved gardens though and I can't knock her for that. The ones they preserved are beautiful but I believe she had several times more of gardens being taken care of. It must have been quite the sight back in the day.

 

[Creaking]

There are also stairs that go nowhere:

Took a while to decide whether these were ascending or descending

 

[Dishwalla]

There may not actually be ghosts in the Winchester Mystery House, but if you want to experience real ghosts you can head one town over to Sunnyvale and visit the haunted Toys R Us.

Silicon Valley sure is strange place.

 

[Skellig Gra]

Was there in July...just missed it. To those saying it's creepy trust me it's not. It's just a really weirdly designed house by someone with way too much money.

 

[CodonAUG]

99 percent invisible did a podcast on the house. There is some speculation that she built the house the way she did because she wanted to be an Architect and woman at the time were not allowed to do so and so she kept designing for her own home.

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/mystery-house/

 

[obin_gam]

 

[FelixOrion]

Yes there's an entrance fee for the tour and that's used to keep the property maintained. there's a very impressive garden area and as mentioned-they're constantly restoring the mansion.

We should have a GAF meetup here..

There's also a small but impressive firearms museum on-site, too.

 

[v1lla21]

Yes there's an entrance fee for the tour and that's used to keep the property maintained. there's a very impressive garden area and as mentioned-they're constantly restoring the mansion.

We should have a GAF meetup here.

That would be pretty cool. The real "haunted" house in San Jose is on Senter and Hellyer though.

 

[echoshifting]

Pretty wild that they found this right as House of Penance is wrapping up

If you like comics and dig the Winchester Mystery House, you gotta check out House of Penance

 

[wanders]

99 percent invisible did a podcast on the house. There is some speculation that she built the house the way she did because she wanted to be an Architect and woman at the time were not allowed to do so and so she kept designing for her own home.

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/mystery-house/

I love this podcast

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

The fuck?

I've been there but they wouldn't allow you into half the rooms. How can you even miss that?

 

[ghostofsparta]

Took a while to decide whether these were ascending or descending

shoot, the first time I saw it, it was going up, but now I think it's going down

 

[riotous]

Isn't it practically across the street from a giant mall complex? Close at least.. having driven past it a dozen or so times it doesn't seem very spooky.

 

[MrCow]

am i still in the mcmansion thread?

and of course there has to be a creepy doll in the New room

 

[The Argus]

I went there when I was young. Never thought the place was haunted, just that Mrs. Winchester herself believed she was haunted by the thousands of lives her husband's guns had taken. Cool place, but no Hearst Castle.

 

[Creaking]

shoot, the first time I saw it, it was going up, but now I think it's going down

Lol, I think just the opposite. Lighting and angle makes more sense if it's going up. The little details also seem a little off for something going down. Though it might be a good way to confuse the spirits.

 

[RyanardoDaVinci]

I feel like if i wound up stupid-rich I'd build a couple wacky things inspired by this into my dream-home just for laughs except then i'd add a couple more just because the first few were so damn amusing then suddenly i'll actually be a crazy person living in a house better suited for a point-and-click adventure game than for living.

I'd make a room that has a giant mirror on one of the walls, only it's not a mirror but a pane of glass looking into a second room, decorated exactly opposite of the first room.

I'd also have a nice bar area built where everyone would gather during parties, and whenever someone gets blackout drunk and passes out, we'd move them into an exact replica of the bar area, only everything is built in half-scale. Cameras would record their reaction upon waking.