Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vog obam here. Most of us want to get
Speaker 1: home construction over as soon as possible. We worry about
Speaker 1: the expense and complain about the inconvenience. But for Sarah Winchester,
Speaker 1: construction was a way of life. For thirty eight years,
Speaker 1: she had construction going twenty four hours a day at
Speaker 1: her home in San Jose, California. This was no ordinary
Speaker 1: construction job. Though the house is an odd ball labyrinth
Speaker 1: of rooms that at one point reached seven stories. It's
Speaker 1: filled with weird things like stairs and doors that go nowhere,
Speaker 1: not to mention the ghosts, Sarah Winchester didn't start out
Speaker 1: looking for this kind of project. Born Sarah Party in
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty nine, she was one of the social stars
Speaker 1: of New Haven, Connecticut. Although she only stood four feet
Speaker 1: ten inches, she was known for her beauty and sparkling personality.
Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty two, Sarah married William Winchester, who was
Speaker 1: the heir of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The company
Speaker 1: had developed the Repeating rifle, a gun that was easy
Speaker 1: to reload and fired rapidly at a rate of one
Speaker 1: shot every three seconds. The gun was used by Northern
Speaker 1: troops in the Civil War, and it was also known
Speaker 1: as the Gun that Won the West. The young couple
Speaker 1: started a family in eighteen sixty six, but their daughter
Speaker 1: Annie died in infancy and mister Winchester died of tuberculosis
Speaker 1: fifteen years later. Distraught over these losses, Missus Winchester visited
Speaker 1: a medium for spiritual guidance. The medium told her that
Speaker 1: the Winchester family had been struck by a terrible curse
Speaker 1: and was haunted by the ghosts of all those killed
Speaker 1: by the Winchester rifle. Their spirits were seeking vengeance, and
Speaker 1: the only way to appease them was to build a
Speaker 1: house for them. But the ghosts had another request that
Speaker 1: the house never be completed. Never stopped building, the medium
Speaker 1: told Missus Winchester, or you will die. We can't know
Speaker 1: exactly how she interpreted this advice. She might have thought
Speaker 1: the spirits would get her if she stopped, or she
Speaker 1: might have seen the continuous construction as a path to
Speaker 1: eternal life. Missus Winchester headed west to build a home
Speaker 1: for herself and her ghosts. She bought a sick room
Speaker 1: farmhouse on a hundred and sixty two acres in California
Speaker 1: and set to work. She served as her own architect,
Speaker 1: but it's possible that some ghosts had a hand in
Speaker 1: designing the house as well. Every night, Missus Winchester would
Speaker 1: retreat to her seance room and receive instruction from the
Speaker 1: spirits on the progress of her house. The next morning
Speaker 1: should present her construction workers with hand drawn sketches of
Speaker 1: what was to be done. Sometimes it seemed she didn't
Speaker 1: care what she built as long as she could hear
Speaker 1: the hammers of her crew. The crew might spend a
Speaker 1: month constructing a room, only to be ordered to destroy
Speaker 1: it the next month. Because Missus Winchester paid well, no
Speaker 1: one disputed her instructions. Missus Winchester had inherited twenty million
Speaker 1: dollars and just less than half of the Winchester Repeating
Speaker 1: Arms Company stock. That left Missus Winchester with a daily
Speaker 1: income of about a thousand dollars to spend on her house.
Speaker 1: That's equal to about twenty five thousand dollars a day
Speaker 1: in today's money. But what if those doors and stairs
Speaker 1: to nowhere? Doors may open onto walls, or, in the
Speaker 1: case of a second story, door to the outside resulting
Speaker 1: in a big fall for anyone who might try to
Speaker 1: exit that way. A closet door on the second floor
Speaker 1: seance room opens onto a first floor sink several feet below,
Speaker 1: and the stairs to nowhere are pretty much what they
Speaker 1: sound like. Stairs go up until they reach the ceiling,
Speaker 1: and then they just stop. These might have a simple explanation.
Speaker 1: The stairs were likely part of the original house that
Speaker 1: Missus Winchester bought, and when she started adding on to
Speaker 1: the home, she covered up the stairs, whether it was
Speaker 1: accidentally or on purpose. Missus Winchester usually covered up her
Speaker 1: mistakes by just continuing to build around them. Because she
Speaker 1: had no master plan for the house, her architectural ideas
Speaker 1: didn't always work out since she had no deadline for completion,
Speaker 1: should either tear down the mistake or cover it up
Speaker 1: with something else. But the new stairs she built also
Speaker 1: zigzag back and forth, going around and around in circles,
Speaker 1: and most are only two inches about five centimeters tall.
Speaker 1: Some people think that these touches were designed to confuse
Speaker 1: the evil spirits that were haunting Missus Winchester. The height
Speaker 1: of the stairs served a very specific purpose though she
Speaker 1: had very bad arthritis, and these small stairs allowed her
Speaker 1: to get around. However, Missus Winchester might have deliberately installed
Speaker 1: some of the other weird touches, believing that ghosts would
Speaker 1: get lost on stairs that went nowhere or accidentally step
Speaker 1: out of door that went outside. If this sounds strange
Speaker 1: to you today, you're not alone. Even at the time
Speaker 1: that Missus Winchester was building the house, she was regarded
Speaker 1: with suspicion. Some thought her an eccentric with too much
Speaker 1: money on her hands, and her home took on the
Speaker 1: nickname Mystery House not long after her death. Because Missus
Speaker 1: Winchester left no diary or other communication, we honestly have
Speaker 1: no idea what might have been going on in her mind.
Speaker 1: What we do have is her house, which is still
Speaker 1: open to tourists. Missus Winchester died in her sleep in
Speaker 1: nine two, and the house was sold to a group
Speaker 1: of investors who wanted to create a tourist attraction. To
Speaker 1: this day, it's hard to know exactly how many rooms
Speaker 1: are in the house because people keep getting lost when
Speaker 1: they try to count, but it's estimated that about a
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty rooms are in the home. It had
Speaker 1: reached seven stories by nineteen o six, but the top
Speaker 1: three floors collapsed after the nineteen o six San Francisco earthquake.
Speaker 1: Some other famous numbers associated with the house include its
Speaker 1: forty seven fireplaces, seventeen chimneys, two basements, six kitchens, ten
Speaker 1: thousand window panes, and four hundred and sixty seven doorways.
Speaker 1: Despite these impressive numbers, there are only two mirrors. Missus
Speaker 1: Winchester thought the ghosts were afraid of their own reflection.
Speaker 1: Missus Winchester also had an obsession with the number thirteen.
Speaker 1: Many things installed in the home feature thirteen of something a,
Speaker 1: thirteen window panes, thirteen wall panels, thirteen sections of flooring,
Speaker 1: thirteen stairs in each staircase, their thirteen bathrooms, sinks that
Speaker 1: have thirteen drain holes, and the sands room has thirteen
Speaker 1: coat hooks. And beyond the stairs and windows to nowhere,
Speaker 1: there are other architectural oddities all over the house. Stair
Speaker 1: posts were installed upside down, and chimneys that served no
Speaker 1: purpose are all over the house. Their cabinets there are
Speaker 1: less than an inch deep that's about two and a
Speaker 1: half centimeters. Missus Winchester ordered a beautiful and outlantishly expensive
Speaker 1: Tiffany glass window, but after she installed it, a wooden
Speaker 1: wall was built behind it so that sunlight could never
Speaker 1: shine through the panes. Mrs Winchester was convinced that she
Speaker 1: lived with spirits, But are they still there today? Does
Speaker 1: the spirit of Mrs Winchester herself walk the halls? Some
Speaker 1: psychics say yes, that upon visiting the house they sent
Speaker 1: spirits wandering. Tour guides and visitors report mysterious footsteps, banging doors,
Speaker 1: and weird moving lights. Some see door knobs moved by
Speaker 1: themselves and feel cold spots. It may be something you'll
Speaker 1: have to determine for yourself. The Winchester Mystery House offers
Speaker 1: daily tours, and for those who want to be particularly spooked,
Speaker 1: flashlight tours are offered on Halloween and all fridays that
Speaker 1: fall on the thirteenth of the month. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Molly Edmonds and produced by Tyler Clang. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other winding topics, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.