
She immediately began renovating the home, spending nearly four decades transforming it into a 24,000-square-foot Queen Anne Victorian mansion that once stood seven stories tall. In 1886, Winchester moved with her sister and niece from Connecticut and purchased an eight-room farmhouse that stood on 161 acres of land in what is now San Jose, Calif., according to reports.
#Winchester mystery house photos inside trial
The Winchester house has been open to tours since 1923.Winchester Gun Heiress Built Mansion to Keep Ghosts Away Some Experts Believe Louisiana Teen Cameron Robbins Was Not Killed by a Shark Missing Louisiana Teen Cameron Robbins Allegedly Jumped Off Cruise on Dare $103 Million Worth of Cocaine in Homemade Submarine Seized by Colombian Navy TV Stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar Speak Out Against ‘Shiny Happy People’ Charity Opens Restaurants in Prisons to Train Inmates for Hospitality Jobs Teen Who Allegedly Dumped Newborn in Trash Did Not Know She Was Pregnant: Lawyer Michigan 1st Responders Rescue Unresponsive Toddler Who Fell Into Backyard Pool Pennsylvania Neighbors Join Final Walk for Dog With Terminal Cancer New Netflix Documentary Details Anna Nicole Smith's Battle With Addiction 18-Year-Old Virginia High School Graduate & His Dad Fatally Shot After Ceremony Why Are Some Waffle House Locations Across America Facing Late-Night Brawls? Talent Manager Shep Gordon Reveals Why He Waited Until 74 to Become a Dad Women Tubing on Florida River Encounters Massive Alligator on Tree Log 19-Year-Old Threw Baby in Trash After Giving Birth in Hospital Bathroom: Cops 'Victims of Regal Assets' Say They Lost Over $10M Investing in Gold Company Book Checked Out of California Library in 1927 Found in Garage and Returned Trial Begins for Ex-Parkland School Cop Scot Peterson Who Failed to Stop Shooter 16-Year-Old Gets Hug From Good Samaritan After Serious Car Crash in Arkansas Could the UN Plastic Pollution Treaty Cut Plastic Waste by 80% in 2040?īut she sunk most of her fortune into a behemoth of a home now known as the Winchester Mystery House, which is the inspiration of the 2018 horror film. “Legend has it when Sarah’s around, you catch the smell of roses and I was watching through this hallway in pitch black after doing a shoot and right as I hit a cross section of the hallway - boom - roses,” Williams said. Some say the heiress still haunts the rooms of her own home. “Sarah would come in here during the evenings and consult the spirits to see which room she would build next,” Williams told Inside Edition. Marketing director Jacob Williams says the widow sought guidance in the séance room. Sarah Winchester reportedly believed that if she ever stopped construction on the house, the ghosts would get her.
#Winchester mystery house photos inside windows
There are countless windows on interior walls with no clear function, including a window in the floor in the middle of a room. The peculiar residence has 40 staircases and 2,000 doors, including one that allows you to leave one room with no floor beneath it. The mysterious mansion has no floor plan or blueprint. One door in the sprawling room opens to a fire safe door that opens to a safe that opens to a smaller safe. The grand ballroom is one of the most ornate rooms in the behemoth home. It’s not clear why the heiress was compelled to build such a labyrinth of a home, but legend says she believed a medium who warned her that the family was cursed by the victims of rifles made by Winchester Repeating Arms Co., and the ghosts of those victims would only be satisfied if Winchester built them a home, spawning the large-scale and constant construction.

What started off as a meek two-story farmhouse ended as a four-story 24,000 square-foot enigma of a residence, leaving Winchester to sink most of her inherited fortune into the construction of the house. The Winchesters had only one child who died during infancy, leaving the matriarch to inherit her husband’s fortune - valued at $20 million.Ĭonstruction began on the mansion in 1886, but according to historians, never ended until her death in 1922.

Sarah Winchester, who is portrayed by Mirren in the film, moved to California with her sister and niece after her husband, William Wirt Winchester, died in 1881. Inside Edition went inside the 160-room Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion in San Jose, Calif., which is filled with elaborate hallways, staircases that lead to nowhere and more doors than one can imagine.

Helen Mirren’s new horror movie, Winchester, tells the frightening story of what is widely regarded as the most haunted house in America, and what awaits inside may be more terrifying than the film.
