Our dear friend Emily reported recently that she and some friends had begun making an effort to visit new places and see new things close to home, an initiative known as TIMOT, or Tourist In My Own Town. Stacey and I, as relatively new transplants to this area, have made plenty of pilgrimages to San Francisco and points north, but have spent very little time sampling tourist destinations in San Jose itself. One of the most famous is the
Winchester Mystery House, which is less than four miles from our home. We drive past it often when we go shopping, but neither of us had ever visited it until today. With a clean apartment, a clear schedule, and a two-for-one coupon, we decided to go check it out.
Though I do not think I would have gladly paid full price for admission, the house is admittedly sort of fascinating. The story is bizarre: Sarah Winchester, wealthy widow and Winchester Rifle heiress, began building the house in 1884 and did not stop until she died thirty-eight years later. This means that the house is enormous, but also that rooms were constantly renovated (over 600 times, according to our tour guide). It's a convoluted warren of staircases (the most famous of which leads straight into a ceiling), hallways, strange nooks and closets, and doors -- some of which open into walls, or into open air (see first picture above). Supposedly Sarah Winchester consulted a psychic in Boston who told her that the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles would seek vengeance, and her strange building plans were intended to keep them at bay, confuse them, or appease them, depending on what you read. It's basically a 160-room testimony to mental illness.
It's also rumored to be haunted, but we neither saw nor felt anything. Our tour guide told us a story about his cell phone dialing the number 13 (Sarah Winchester's favorite number, repeated superstitiously throughout the house in ceiling panels, drain holes, coat hooks, and windows) by itself, but it sounded pretty bogus to me.
Our dear friend Emily reported recently that she and some friends had begun making an effort to visit new places and see new things close to home, an initiative known as TIMOT, or Tourist In My Own Town. Stacey and I, as relatively new transplants to this area, have made plenty of pilgrimages to San Francisco and points north, but have spent very little time sampling tourist destinations in San Jose itself. One of the most famous is the Winchester Mystery House, which is less than four miles from our home. We drive past it often when we go shopping, but neither of us had ever visited it until today. With a clean apartment, a clear schedule, and a two-for-one coupon, we decided to go check it out.
Though I do not think I would have gladly paid full price for admission, the house is admittedly sort of fascinating. The story is bizarre: Sarah Winchester, wealthy widow and Winchester Rifle heiress, began building the house in 1884 and did not stop until she died thirty-eight years later. This means that the house is enormous, but also that rooms were constantly renovated (over 600 times, according to our tour guide). It's a convoluted warren of staircases (the most famous of which leads straight into a ceiling), hallways, strange nooks and closets, and doors -- some of which open into walls, or into open air (see first picture above). Supposedly Sarah Winchester consulted a psychic in Boston who told her that the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles would seek vengeance, and her strange building plans were intended to keep them at bay, confuse them, or appease them, depending on what you read. It's basically a 160-room testimony to mental illness.
It's also rumored to be haunted, but we neither saw nor felt anything. Our tour guide told us a story about his cell phone dialing the number 13 (Sarah Winchester's favorite number, repeated superstitiously throughout the house in ceiling panels, drain holes, coat hooks, and windows) by itself, but it sounded pretty bogus to me.
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