Since I was a small and very weird child, the Winchester Mystery House<\/a> has held a spot on my bucket list.\u00a0\u00a0 So when I found out my flight home from my honeymoon in New Zealand<\/a> would be routing through San Francisco, I had to make the hour drive to San Jose (actually my friend Melissa made the drive, because she’s the best) to see the house in person.\u00a0 For those of you who were less weird children, read on for a bit of context.<\/p>\n In 1884, the lady of the house, Sarah Winchester the heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune, left her home in New Haven, CT and headed west at the suggestion of a medium channeling her late husband.\u00a0 She thought the was haunted by the people that had been killed by the Winchester Rifles and in an effort to out run the ghost she moved to California and started construction on her new home.\u00a0 The construction would last for 38 straight years, out of the fear that if she stopped the ghost would catch up with her.\u00a0 In an effort to confuse the spirits the house is full of secret passageways, stairways to the ceiling, and doors to nowhere.\u00a0 Construction on the house only ceased after Sarah’s death in 1922.\u00a0 Another peculiarity about the house is that there were no blueprints, making it difficult to survey the entire property.\u00a0 New rooms were discovered as recently as 2016!\u00a0 Of course, the house is now open to the public for tours, and that makes me giddy.<\/span><\/p>\n The history of the house is fascinating and there is so much to explore.\u00a0 Stick with your tour guide though or you may get lost in one of the homes many mysterious rooms.\u00a0 Here are a few of the interesting, peculiar, and just plain creepy things you can find in the home;<\/p>\n Sarah Winchester was obviously a very superstitious person and the number 13 must have held great meaning for her.\u00a0 No one know exactly why, but the number 13 pops up very frequently in the home.\u00a0 There are 13 bathrooms in the house.\u00a0 Many of the staircases have 13 steps.\u00a0 The windows have 13 panes.\u00a0 She even signed her will 13 times.\u00a0 Go though the house and search for patterns of 13, you won’t be disappointed.<\/p>\n There are many stairways in the house that lead straight to the ceiling, into another staircase, or hopelessly winding just to lead to the next room.<\/p>\n Sarah Winchester held frequent seances to get instructions for new construction from the spirit world.\u00a0 You know you’ve made it when you have a house with a seance room, and visiting Sarah Winchester’s is pretty much a dream.<\/p>\n A literal door to nowhere.\u00a0 How bananas is that?\u00a0 It just opens up to the outside on the second story, presumably causing ghosts to plummet to their second death.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/magsonthemove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/97C3D496-B78D-4EB6-B845-5FD104A96DAE.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe History<\/span><\/h1>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe House’s Mysteries<\/h1>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h1>\n
The Number 13<\/h2>\n
Stairways to Nothing<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Seance Room<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Doorway to Nowhere<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nVisiting the House<\/h1>\n