House on blood. History of the Winchester family. Winchester House Museum opens the most expensive tour Winchester family history

San Jose, California, 1906 A house is being built. At night, in the bedroom, the boy hears the sound of a bell. He leaves the bedroom. His mother Marion Marriott wakes up sleeping in the same bed. She takes the lamp, goes in search of her son, calls him: Henry! Marion discovers Henry. The boy is standing with a bag over his head. The mother comes up to him, removes the bag from his head. The boy's eyes are rolled back, only the whites are visible. Henry says in a hoarse whisper: he will come for us. Footsteps are heard in the house.

San Francisco, California. Dr. Eric Price, in the company of a scantily clad girl, drinks alcohol and laudanum. In a semi-delirious state, Price sees blood oozing from a panel of deer hanging on the wall. He wonders what controls what, the mind the body or the body the mind? Our mind is capable of the most unusual things, we think that we have a reality in front of us - but in fact it is an illusion. He shows the whore a trick with the bill, which remains in a horizontal position, leaning on the edge of Price's finger. So fear is only in your head.

There is a knock on the door. Price opens, a man stands on the threshold. This is Arthur Gates, legal counsel for the Winchester firearms company. Price escorts the girl, launches a lawyer into the house. I want to offer you a job. Price pours himself a whiskey: I'm on vacation. It's about about Sarah Winchester. Her husband William died 25 years ago, leaving the widow a decent fortune. She owns 51% of the company's shares. Sarah also lost her daughter Annie. The widow bought a house with eight rooms. Since then, she has been continuously building it up. Therefore, today the house has turned into a huge seven-story building. Its layout defies any logic; inside it is a huge labyrinth of separate rooms and corridors. Sarah Winchester's mental state is worrying. We need a professional who would draw up a conclusion: is Sarah capable of participating in the affairs of the company's management? Do you understand that it is impossible to make such a conclusion remotely? Sarah Winchester has given you the rare honor of inviting you to her house. No, it's too much trouble. You don't need money? You have no debts, your house is not mortgaged? As you want? Three hundred dollars. We'll give you six hundred for the examination.

On the way to Sarah Winchester's house, Price leafs through the company's catalog. He sees there not only samples firearms but also roller skates. When Price arrives at Sarah's house, he sees that there is indeed work going on to build new additions to the building.

Price meets Marion. This is Sarah Winchester's niece, who lives in her house with her son. Marion informs Price that all guests in Sarah's house must obey the hostess' schedule. Sarah disapproves of alcohol being consumed before dinner. Her sense of smell is just as good as mine. Price moves into the room provided to him. He takes a dose of laudanum, examines his face in the mirror. The mirror spontaneously turns on the stand, Price returns it to its previous position. Suddenly he sees behind a mirror turned to him at a right angle a face dead woman. Price attributes the vision to the influence of opiates. The footman invites Price to dinner.

Price, Marion and Henry are sitting at the table waiting for the hostess. Price asks the boy if he is happy to be at his grandmother's house. We are here because my father is gone. And I don't regret it at all! Price says he's experienced loss too loved one, so Marion and Henry can help. The woman advises the doctor: write in your report that Sarah is healthy, and leave here.

Sarah appears. Price asks if the Winchester is really the best rifle on the firearms market? What is the best? In accuracy and range of fire, in lethal force. That is, in the possibility of indiscriminate killings, Sarah clarifies. But you also produce roller skates, they are not so dangerous for people. Yes, and the shareholders of the company are unhappy with this.

In the evening, Price takes laudanum again. It seems to him that next to him is his late wife Ruby. You call it delusional disorder? A shot sounds. Price gets out of bed. From the intercom, located on the wall of his room, are heard strange noises. They come from the hole, signed "Winter Garden". Price leaves the room. He peeks into Sarah's room, sees her taking a glass box out of the safe. Sarah feels that someone is watching her. Price tries to hide, he jumps into the room, the door of which opens into the corridor. Sarah stands at the door, then leaves. Suddenly, Price sees a ghost, he jumps out the door in a panic. Again he attributes the vision to the action of laudanum: that's how you poisoned your brain!

Henry hears sounds under the bed. He peers in, suddenly a boot on a roller rushes past him.

Price goes to the winter garden, the doors are boarded up. He looks out the window, feels a sense of deja vu, sees some kind of shadow flickering inside.

Henry with a bag on his head passes by a carpenter working on the scaffolding and falls down. Price catches the boy. He removes the bag from Henry's head, rolling his eyes again. The boy says in a strange voice: I see you. Marion comes running, thanking Price for saving her son.

The next day, Sarah meets with Price, also thanks him for the noble deed. Did he sleepwalk before? No, but he saw his father die.

Sarah asks Price: Do you abuse drugs? Did your wife think you were a good therapist? Price refuses to talk about his personal life. Let's talk about you. Okay, I'll tell you something that's hard to believe. But it really is. I am cursed. Like this? I profit from death. Shadows haunt me. Price starts talking about how the mind controls the body, he can pass off an illusion as reality. He shows Sarah the banknote trick. But Sarah immediately exposes the deception. Do you believe in ghosts? No. Why do you take me for a fool? This is my house, so your drugs will be seized. We need expert opinion, and that requires a clear head.

Price is forbidden to leave his room, Sarah's servant is constantly on duty at his door. Price discovers that his drugs are gone. He sits down to draw up an expert opinion, in which he writes that with clarity of mind, Sarah shows some aggressiveness and says that she sees shadows. She has visual hallucinations. Sarah told Price that she felt the energy of ghosts. They were brought here by unfinished business.

The bell rings at midnight. Price asks the servant: why is the bell tolling? Because midnight. Price gets out of his room through the window, wanders around the house. He sees Sarah, in a trance, drawing plans for the new premises of her house. Suddenly, the face of a ghost appears in front of Price. Price hides in his room. He comes to the conclusion that the laudanum has not yet left his body, he begins to break down.

The next day, Sarah asks Price what it's like to die? After all, you went to another world for three minutes, you were shot. It hurts. Then darkness. But when I came to my senses, the pain arose again. He shows Sarah the engraved bullet. You recovered the bullet that shot you! For what? These are memories of the past, a connection with death. What are you holding on to? Sarah is talking about spiritualism. Did you leave your room at night? Yes. It's good that you confessed. Why are you constantly building your house? Spirits guide me. At midnight they get up, make contact with me and try to recreate the rooms in which they died. They need this in order to re-enter our world. But last night, our family was threatened by a very powerful ghost. Do you see anyone in this room? Nobody but you. Your head is still cloudy, it will take time to clear it up. What happens when the building is completed? Then the voice of the ghost grows stronger, we communicate with him, I save him from grief and anger, he thanks me and leaves in peace. But some have to be locked up. To do this, the room of such a ghost is locked on a board into which thirteen nails are driven in. And incorrigible ghosts prey on the innocent, just like they do now with Henry. And we can come between them. Price says he doesn't believe in ghosts. You need to let go of your past. Okay, do not believe me - write your conclusion, tell us what you think about Sarah Winchester.

Price talks with the butler Augustine: Have you seen ghosts? No. I have heard many stories, but they are all stories.

Price asks construction manager John Hansen if he thinks strange behavior Sarah? No. We are grateful to her for providing us with work. Price asks to show him the conservatory. No, you can't go there, it's sealed.

Price is talking to Marion. She asks: Do you think Sarah is crazy? I wouldn't be so harsh, but proper treatment anyone can be helped. How did your husband die? He died because of the demons, he liked to drink more than his wife and son. We're better off without him. But what's happening now with Henry scares me. You are able to protect him. No, I'm not a fighter, but my aunt is. Are you able to sacrifice yourself for the sake of a loved one? Yes. What have you done for this? I died.

Sarah comes down the ramp from the top floor. Shots are fired. This is Henry firing a rifle at Sarah, who is hiding from him. The rifle runs out of ammo, Price tries to hold the boy, who shouts to Sarah in a voice that is not his own: die! Price insists that the boy be sent to the hospital. Sarah objects, Marion supports Price, who arranges transport to take Henry to the hospital.

Price meets young man, whom he mistook for one of the servants. He asks how he can help. Collect suitcases. The young man says that he saw the shadows of criminals in the house, some sounds are heard in the clogged rooms. Price sees a ghost. He comes to Sarah and says: among your staff there is a person who is not himself. Sarah shows him a newspaper from twenty years ago. It is written about the massacre that Corporal Benjamin Block arranged in the offices of the Winchester Company. His brothers were killed in the war with rifles made by the company. In a photograph of an old newspaper, Price sees the face of a young man with whom he has just been talking. Block was killed in the office's display room, where weapon samples were stored in display cases. The last room, attached to Sarah's house, exactly reproduces the same room. Sarah says: now you have to believe me. She loudly addresses Corporal Blok, asks for forgiveness for the fact that his brothers were killed, asks to leave her house, leave her relatives alone.

The walls of the house begin to shake, dishes fall, John Hansen is carried out of the room, nails pop out of the boarded up doors.

Price assures himself that the fears are only in his head. The bell rings, and the key to the winter garden falls from above to Price's feet. Armed with an ax, Price goes to the winter garden. There he sees a rocking chair. Ruby's ghost appears. She asks her husband to tell a story about a farmer and his mule that fell into a well. Price talks about how the mule was helped by what should have been his undoing. I needed to heal you. No, you needed to believe me. Ruby takes out a gun, aims it at her chin, Price rushes to her, Ruby shoots her husband, he falls backwards. Ruby shoots herself. You can move on, leave your guilt behind,” she tells Price. He gets up. He is surrounded by ghosts. Price comes out of the winter garden. He sees the ghost of a black slave who scatters nails on the floor. Price collects them, moves on. He cuts the ceiling with an axe, through the resulting hole penetrates into a copy of the demonstration room. Sarah sits there on a chair, her head is covered with a black veil. She asks Price to seal the doors of the room, Ben must not leave. Price says he now believes Sarah, he sees ghosts. You were dead for three minutes, you were shot with a Winchester, because you are connected with this house.

Marion rushes around the house, she is looking for Henry, she finds a boy, he is not himself. Marion asks him to return to her.

Sarah says that the only way to save Marion and Henry is to stop Ben. She starts talking to Ben. He moves into her body, Sarah fights with a ghost. She manages to master her body. He is afraid of something, something in this room. Ben reappears, Price shoots him. No, he's not afraid of the gun. Price suddenly realizes that the only thing that can stop Ben is the engraved bullet that was removed from his body.

Ben starts to run amok, the walls are shaking, the windows are breaking, the guns are hanging in the air, various objects are flying. Price shoots Ben, who falls. Sarah says that Ben has found peace. She tells the other ghosts to return to their rooms. They carry out the order, Price clogs each door, driving thirteen nails into it.

Sarah and Price go outside, meet Marion and Henry there, hugging them. Price writes in the conclusion that Sarah is perfectly healthy mentally and physically, she can continue to work in the management of the company.

Price bids Sarah a warm goodbye. A nail spontaneously pops out of the board with which one of the doors in Sarah's house is boarded up.

The end credits tell viewers what happened in 1906 in San Francisco. strongest earthquake during which many people died. Sarah Winchester continued to finish building her house until the end of her life, which today is considered the most haunted building in America.

Every year, thousands of tourists flock to San Jose, California to see the building, often referred to as "America's most haunted home."

spread over large area the mansion even became the inspiration for a Hollywood horror film starring Helen Mirren.

But which rumors about the mysterious Winchester house are true, and which ones are fiction?

There are some things we still don't know about this spooky house. After all, there must be a reason for his mysticism.

How it all began

The house is named for its original owner, Sarah Winchester, who married a wealthy man from a rifle manufacturing family.

Sadly, Sarah lost her husband William and her daughter too soon.

By 1881, she was the only living member of her family and heir to the vast Winchester fortune.

In 1886, she bought a two-story, eight-bedroom house in San Jose. And this is where the story takes a strange turn.

big works

Winchester hired 16 carpenters and paid them three times the average for their work.

They worked 24/7. For the next 38 years, workers worked day and night on the new structures near the house.

Their long shift finally ended in 1922 when Winchester died in her sleep. The carpenters were reportedly so anxious to leave the house that they did not even bother to drive nails into the walls.

Final product

Everyone knows that the Winchesters' house eventually grew to 160 rooms located on an area of ​​two thousand square meters.

The home's owners say it has 10,000 windows, 950 doors, 52 skylights, 47 fireplaces, 40 stairs, six kitchens, three elevators, and only one shower.

Winchester is estimated to have spent $5,500,000 on home renovations during her lifetime.

But the house is not only known for its size and cost. It includes a number of completely strange features.

There are stairs that lead to ceilings, trapdoors, windows in the walls between rooms, a doorway that leads to nowhere, and even a room completely sealed inside other rooms that was discovered by accident during renovations.

Ghosts of Sarah Winchester

What motivated Winchester to obsessively build and build his strange house?

The most popular theory– the heiress was pursued by numerous victims of her production. It is said that she was a spiritual person, and one of the most famous rooms was built for séances.

But were Winchester's strange designs meant for ghosts, or to keep them out?

Theory of 13

Another popular explanation for the building's design revolves around hidden codes.

Winchester designed most of the building, and there are hidden references to number 13 throughout the house.

From stairs with 13 steps, to cabinets with 13 hooks, and even a bathroom with 13 windows, Winchester seemed to be obsessed with this room.

Some believe that Winchester was a member secret society, such as Masons or roses, and the building is a kind of code for their secret order.

The strangest theory about the house is far simpler: Winchester may have used the project to give work to the San Jose builders.

Missing parts

It's hard to believe, but once the house was even bigger.

At the height of construction, the mansion had seven floors. Three levels were lost in the 1906 earthquake, including the tower, which is on old postcards.

Winchester was effectively trapped in her own bedroom, being dug up by workers.

Earthquake damage is still visible in some parts of the house.

Encounters with ghosts

Shortly after Winchester's death, her house became sad famous place due to encounters with ghosts.

Even the famous wizard Harry Houdini was brought to the case in an attempt to debunk the myth, but in the end he also gave up.

One of the most famous ghosts, supposedly one of the workers, known as the wheelbarrow ghost.

“Typically, he is seen wearing overalls, carrying an old wooden toolbox or pushing a wheelbarrow,” says Jason Boehme, who does house history.

“Another place he has been seen in is the basement where he pushes a wheelbarrow, which is why we call him that. He's still looking after the place."

According to workers, the most favored area for ghosts is the employee quarters on the third floor. Visitors are not allowed to enter.

The article was prepared based on www.shared.com materials.

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This is a huge mystical house number 525 on Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California, which is visited by crowds of tourists from all over the world.

While the hostess was alive, guests were not invited here; even President Roosevelt, who tried to ask for tea, got a turn at the gate. Now the former possessions of Sarah Winchester, nee Sarah Lockwood Purdy, scurry about groups of curious. But, by and large, the house is just as inaccessible to strangers as it was during the life of the owner. Some places, like some stories, remain impenetrable to outsiders. The home of Sarah Winchester, the widow of William Winchester, looks like an arthritic old fist. The fist is almost not unclenched.

Maid Purdy would have laughed if it had been predicted that she would have tea parties with ghosts every night for thirty-odd years. The life of Sarah Purdy developed reasonably and successfully. She was 25 when, in 1862, she married William, the son of "the same" Oliver Winchester, whose multiply-charged production is said to have decided the outcome. civil war in the States.

The family grew rich rapidly on military orders, the newlyweds lived in love and prosperity. Small, less than five feet tall, but lovely Mrs. Winchester was the life of the party in New Haven, Connecticut. But four years after the wedding, a misfortune happened in the family - shortly after birth, Annie's daughter died.

Sarah almost went insane, and only after ten years, as they say, did she come to her senses. The Winchesters had no other children. In 1881, William Winchester died of tuberculosis, leaving Sarah a widow with an inheritance of $20 million and a daily income of $1,000 (she got half of the firm's income). Mrs. Winchester was inconsolable. Trying to understand why fate was punishing her so cruelly, she went to Boston to see a medium.

The medium communicated with the spirit of William Winchester for a modest fee. The spirit told her to tell Sarah that the family is cursed by those who died from high-quality Winchester products. He also said that in order to save her own life, Sarah should move west towards sunset, and in the place that she would be shown, stop and start building a house. Construction must not stop; if the hammering stops, Mrs. Winchester will die.

The widow packed her belongings and headed west. In 1884, she reached San José, where, according to her, the spirit of her husband told her to stop. She bought a house and set about remodeling and expanding it. Sarah Winchester did this for 38 years in a row, without resorting to the services of professional architects.

Now Winchester House has three floors. It has approximately 160 rooms, 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, 40 stairs. The rooms have 2,000 doors, 450 doorways, 10,000 windows, 47 fireplaces. An architect who tries to find logic in the arrangement of a house must be struck with neurosis.

The house was built in such a way as to confuse the spirits that would come to the soul of Mrs. Winchester. Therefore, the doors here open into the walls, and the stairs rest against the ceilings. The corridors are narrow and winding like snake loops. Some doors of the upper floors open outward, so that an inattentive guest will fall straight into the yard, into the bushes; others are arranged in such a way that, having passed the span, the guest must fall into the kitchen sink on the floor below or break through the window arranged in the floor of the lower floor. The doors of many bathrooms are transparent. Secret doors and windows open in the walls, through which you can quietly observe what is happening in neighboring rooms.

The skeptic will notice that these traps, as simple as bear pits, betray the metaphysical ignorance of an elderly widow. The mystical symbolism of the house smacks of simplicity. All stairs, except one, are made up of 13 steps. Many rooms have 13 windows. Luxurious stained glass windows from Tiffany consist of 13 segments. The abundance of fireplaces in the house is explained by the fact that, according to legend, spirits could enter the house through the chimneys.

Other guests were not expected here, and, apparently, Sarah was quite content with her own ideas about the other world. Everything in the house was tailored to the standards of the hostess. The steps are low so that a sick old woman can easily climb them. To lean on the railing, you should bend down - Sarah was short.

The corridors and bays are very narrow - Sarah was thin. It is not known whether Jorge Luis Borges knew about the existence of this house, and Mrs. Winchester certainly could not read his writings. But the house, the designs of which the hostess drew on a napkin at breakfast, seems to be the embodiment of the writer's fantasies. The Minotaur could live here. Sarah Winchester was sure that spirits lived here. Every midnight a gong sounded, and the hostess retired to a special room for a seance. During these hours, the servants heard the sounds of an organ on which the mistress, ill with arthritis, could not play.

By 1906 the house had grown to six stories. But there was an earthquake, and the top three floors collapsed. Hostess, afraid of persecution evil spirits, slept in a new place every night, and after the earthquake, the servants, who did not know where she was this time, did not immediately find her under the rubble. Sarah interpreted what had happened as an intrusion of spirits into the front of the house. 30 unfinished rooms were locked and boarded up, construction continued. Unsuccessful fragments were destroyed, new ones were built in their place.

Sarah Winchester died in September 1922 at the age of 85. The construction cost her treasury: there was no money in the safe. There were only strands of hair, male and infant, and the death certificates of her husband and daughter, as well as a 13-point will, signed 13 times. The will was silent about the fate of the house.

This story is too grotesque, too melodramatic. It's hard to take her seriously. However, she is perfectly truthful and, as such, chaste. Sarah Winchester may seem like a deranged, eccentric rich woman who squandered multi-million dollar inheritance, and her house - an expensive cumbersome nonsense. His space seems tattered; the children are tired and crying. Winchester House is simply ugly. But just this rare ugliness, and also that nausea with which the consciousness responds to a certain critical, it should be assumed, the thirteenth turn of the staircase, indicates that this house belongs to the field of art.

IN US state California in the town of San Jose is one of the most sinister houses United States, and part-time extravagant tourist attraction - the Winchester Mystery House.

This house was purchased in 1884 by Sarah Winchester, widow of the son of the famous Oliver Winchester, inventor of the Winchester rifle.

She bought it on the advice of her medium, who said that all the troubles that fell on her - the death of her husband and only daughter shortly after birth, were due to the fact that their family was cursed by those who died from a rifle created by Oliver, her husband's father. According to him, the medium was informed about this by the spirit of the late husband, with whom he came into contact.

The spirit of her husband also said that in order to avoid further problems in the future, Sarah should build herself a special house in which evil spirits can't harm her.

In general, following the advice of her late husband, or rather a medium, the woman bought this house on the west coast. True, then it was much smaller than you can see it now in the photo.

Being a very wealthy widow, Sarah invested her entire multi-million dollar fortune and as many as 38 years of her life in its restructuring - the construction of the Winchester house in these years almost never stopped for more than a day.

At the same time, she rebuilt it according to her own plans, so that the spirits that pursued her would become entangled in its labyrinths. As a result, there are many dead-end doors that open into the walls or out on the upper floors, and stairs that abut against the ceilings. The corridors are very narrow almost everywhere, and there are hidden windows in many of the walls.

Before the earthquake in 1906, her house reached 6 floors, but after it the top 3 floors collapsed. This did not stop the owner, the work continued, however, no longer in height, and the house has survived to this day as a three-story building.

Currently, the famous Winchester house has almost 160 rooms, 6 kitchens, 13 bathrooms and about 40 staircases. The building has almost 450 doorways and about 2000 doors, as well as about 10 thousand windows, almost fifty fireplaces and one shower.

In 2009, the horror film The Haunting of the Winchester House was filmed in this sinister house.

Horror films are made about this mansion, it inspired Stephen King, but its real story is much more interesting than fiction. The 360 ​​website talks about the most mysterious and confusing living space in the world - the Winchester house.

Rarely, but it happens that a film based on real history turns out to be more boring than life events. The Winchester house is the same case.

New horror movie Winchester. The House that the Ghosts Built” received not too high marks from critics and viewers, despite the participation of Oscar-winning Helen Mirren. According to a number of movie connoisseurs, the film does not fully reveal the history of the grandiose Gothic mansion inhabited by myriad souls of people who died from the bullets of the famous Winchester rifle.

This is not the first attempt to tell about one of the most amazing projects in the annals of world architecture: comics and books have been written about it, a number of films have been shot and even a TV series written by Stephen King himself. However, no fiction can convey how strange and extravagant the house was built by the widow of the arms magnate, Sarah Lockwood Winchester.

Cursed wealth

The history of the Gothic monastery begins in 1881 - then William Winchester passed away. His father Oliver created the legendary "gun that conquered the Wild West". Repeating shotguns and pump-action shotguns were in keeping with the zeitgeist and were ideal weapons for dashing firefights in saloons, roadside ambushes, and battles with Indian tribes.

A killer invention made father and son millionaires, but even the richest people get sick and die. First, 70-year-old Oliver Winchester died, and three months later, tuberculosis causes the death of William. A huge fortune of about 20 million dollars (half a billion dollars in modern money - approx. "360") goes to his wife Sarah.

Flickr/HarshLight

The inconsolable widow was shocked by the death of the founders of the weapons dynasty. 15 years before, she experienced a loss only daughter who died in infancy. According to the tabloids of the time, the death of loved ones convinced the woman of the curse hanging over her family. For help, she turns to a medium and receives unusual advice, supposedly from her late husband: only a house that will contain the souls of all those who died from shots from guns fired by the Winchester factories will remove the curse.

Soon Sarah Winchester leaves her native Boston and goes west, to distant California. Here, in the settlement of San José, she buys an unfinished farm and, without an architect or blueprints, begins building her unusual residence. It will go almost continuously for almost 40 years, until her death. The construction will take almost the entire huge fortune of her husband and father-in-law.

house of the dead

The 160 rooms of the mansion are interconnected by a network of corridors and stairs. It took tons of rare mahogany, 10,000 glass panels and almost 80,000 liters of paint to build it. Dry figures do not convey the extravagance of this outwardly solid building. There are a lot of dead ends here, and the closet door turns out to be a hidden window in the wall. A wide corridor suddenly turns into a narrow passage, and the main staircase ends with a blank wall.

Some biographers of the widow of Winchester claim that the version of ghosts is false and the widow was simply looking for an occupation that would help her forget about her deceased relatives. But the very device of the house indicates the mysticism inherent in its creator. An attentive guest will notice how the number 13 is repeated over and over again in the internal arrangement. Almost every staircase has this many steps, in a small dining room there are exactly 13 windows, and many stained-glass windows consist of 13 parts.

This is not the only mystical feature of the already strange house. Some windows do not look outside, but inside the premises, and the same motif is repeated on the walls, ceilings and stained-glass windows - a stylized cobweb. Finally, one door opens directly onto the street. It would have been normal if it had not been built into the wall at the level of the third floor, so that an unwary visitor could fall into the courtyard from a great height.

One of the explanations for all these oddities is the desire to confuse the spirits. Hidden in the heart of the four-story building is a séance room. According to rumors, it was here that the widow communicated with the dead and received instructions about new rooms or extensions to the mansion. This room has only one entrance, and only the mistress of the house had the key to the door.

The strength of the abode of spirits was tested by nature itself. In 1906, a powerful earthquake on the west coast also affected San Jose. The main building survived, but the seven-story tower that crowned it collapsed. Since then, the mansion has never risen above the fourth floor.

Death of a widow

Whether the ghosts were entangled in the web of corridors, whether the habit of choosing a new bedroom every night saved the woman, or the world of spirits from the very beginning was a figment of her imagination, but Sarah Winchester lived to old age. She died in the autumn of 1922 at the age of 82 and was buried next to her husband and daughter.

Her last extravagant trick was the will - it was divided into 13 parts and also signed 13 times. The widow's main heir was her niece, a very pragmatic woman. Eight trucks hauled furniture out of the mansion daily for seven weeks, according to its current owners, and it was put up for auction.

For almost 100 years, anyone can buy a ticket and visit the old mansion. Guides do not recommend climbing to the third floor after dark. Allegedly, mysterious sighs are heard from time to time in its corridors, the steps of invisible guests are heard, and the doors open by themselves.