Mystery House

The house is not as scary as the person on the porch!

Waiting in the gift shop.

The Winchester Mystery house was a must see for me as we headed north. It was in my top places to visit on our trip, the others being: The Mystery Spot, Golden Gate Bridge, and The Dysfection building. We almost missed out on going due to our tight scheduling, but we decided to make the stop on our way home.

Most of you know the story, the widow Winchester believed she was being plagued by ghost that died at the hands of her family's Winchester rifle. In order to appease the ghost she had to keep building on to her estate. So she hand a team of workers that kept working around the clock, day and night.

A window in the floor

To be honest, while it was a great tour and very interesting, I didn’t see the overall weirdness and creepiness that others had described. True, she had a fascination with the number 13 and cobwebs; there were stairs and doors that lead to nowhere, and a chimney that was never completed for 14 or so fireplaces. Sure, it was interesting that the front door was only used twice in its existence because she was trapped in the house after an earthquake and felt that the spirits were angry with her for spending to much time on the front of the house. Staircases that were in the shape of W and connected rooms, cabinet doors that opened up to walls, all the pillars placed upside down for good luck, and a séance room that the widow used to spy on her help were all fascinating, but the way people worked themselves up over this place I expected a little more.

A very scary shadow
Cob web windows- just like mine.

A very long way to get a short distance

A cool leopard tile fire place

Upside down column, just like every other one in the house- done for good luck.

A rarely used front door- 2x

I suppose I expected every room to be creepy and weird, things upside down that should be right side up and so forth. Was she really crazy or just an amateur architect (she only used a professional for one room and with the other rooms if you disagreed or offered an opinion you would probably be fired) that botched up more times than you can count?

So while I had a good time and enjoyed the tour and was just excited to finally be in this house that so many people have told me about, I would say it was the bottom of the 4 places we went. I still recommend checking it out but realize it’s a little expensive and probably not as weird as you are imagining it should be.