Virtual Tour of the Winchester Mystery House Online
No doubt you've heard of The Winchester Mystery House, an architectural wonder in San Jose, California, and a place that often appears on top ten lists of America's haunted destinations.
We'll be viewing a documentary-style virtual tour through the Winchester Mystery House. This house is quite the mystery! Originally an 8-room farmhouse, it was purchased by Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester after the death of her husband, William Wirt Winchester of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
Legend has it a psychic advised Sarah that in order to appease the spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifle she would have to build forever. Whether or not that is true, Sarah did order construction on the home in 1886 that did not stop until her death in 1922. The property grew from its 8 original rooms to a sprawling mansion featuring:
- 24,000 square feet
- 10,000 windows
- 2,000 doors
- 160 rooms
- 52 skylights
- 47 stairways and fireplaces
- 17 chimneys
- 13 bathrooms
- 6 kitchens
- Built at a price tag of the $5 million dollars in 1923 or $71 million today
What motivated a well-educated socialite to cut herself off from the rest of the world and focus almost solely on building the world’s most beautiful, yet bizarre mansion? Sarah Winchester was a woman of independence, drive, and courage who lives on in legend. And the mansion she built is world renowned as much for the many design curiosities and innovations (many ahead of their time) as it is for the reported paranormal activity that resides within these walls.
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