[INSTALLMENT 5]
Countless rooms. Secret passageways. Stairways that lead to ceilings, doors to nowhere. Nestled in the heart of former sprawling apricot orchards—now the bustling Santana Row—lies the spooky Winchester Mystery House. Among one of the ten most haunted places in the world according to TIMES Magazine, Sarah Winchester’s infamous mansion attracts tourists from far and wide to San Jose, and for good reason.
After the invention of “the gun that took the west” in 1866 dubbed “The Winchester Rifle,” newly widowed Sarah Winchester grew paranoid about vengeful victims of the rifle haunting her home. As a result of spiritualism and superstition, She began renovations on her farmhouse that did not cease until her death 38 years later, in an effort to scare the ill-meaning spirits away. This issue, the largest group of The Daily Explorer will be joining to investigate the inside of this dizzying mansion— writers Carter Cormier, Averi Halbert, Hailey Kearns, Aliyah Miramontes, Roman Soto, and Cami Yee.
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Welcome back, travelers, to The Daily Explorer. In this series, we travel (often with Journalism guests) to entertaining places within the Bay Area. With these accounts, we hope to inspire the readers of The Shield to explore their hometown and demonstrate that there’s always something new to explore.
Keep an eye out for some of your favorite writers from The Shield, as many will accompany me on these adventures in the future. If you have any favorite places, restaurants, parks, etc, please email at 558971@my.cuhsd.org to issue a recommendation. Your name and input about the place in question will be credited.
Without further ado, buckle up and enjoy the blog-style ride of The Daily Explorer!
SUNDAY, October 13
12:26 pm, Mystery of Finding Parking
Five minutes before the tour was to depart, only a couple of writers were gathered in the courtyard. Being a gaggle of teenagers, everyone struggled to find parking (and arrive on time…), but thankfully, everyone met in Sarah’s carriage house on time to embark through the house with our tour guide, Brenda.
The first room we entered was the storage of stained glass windows that never got used in the house. We watched a creative presentation on the basic history surrounding the Winchester Rifle and the convenient deaths suddenly engulfing the Winchester family. According to the video, Sarah started renovation on her farmhouse in order to scare away the vengeful spirits of those killed by the Winchester Rifle. For 38 years, construction did not cease until Sarah’s death—at which point there were over 100 rooms.
All the doorways were tailored to Sarah’s height— she only stood to 4 feet, 10 inches. Our taller writers, namely Carter Cormier, had to duck very often to avoid bumping into the ceiling. We learned that the house had not always been called the “Winchester Mystery House.” When Sarah Winchester lived, she affectionately named her estate “Llanada Villa,” translated to ‘House on the Plain’ or ironically, “Plain House.” As if the Winchester Mystery House could be described as “plain.”
“She had a sense of humor after all,” our tour guide laughed. From winding staircases built for small women with severe arthritis to curious see-through toilets scattered throughout the building, there was always something new to see. Especially considering the numerous Halloween decorations scattered around the mansion.
1:47 pm, Bubble-Blowing Break
After our mansion tour, we thanked our Guide and walked around the Gardens, passing a shooting range and Halloween-style decorations for the annual Halloween Haunt. An invisible man sits casually on a bench, plastic pumpkins scattered around the site. While waiting for the next tour, our group stumbled upon a bubbling cauldron of soapy water and several wands.
Roman, Hailey, and I started to play with the bubble wands— creating massive bubbles that floated through the air. With jaunty yet spooky tunes playing in the background, we had a lot of fun playing around until it was time for the Explore More tour.
2:02 pm, Indeed Exploring More
Starting on the long unbothered porch in the front, our tour guide Sabina told us that this new tour was a recent addition to the basic mansion tour— passing through many extra rooms not available to the public until 2017. Sadly, Averi had to leave early, so we suited up with our hard hats, missing our fellow Explorer.
We moved from the most well-preserved room in the house, the “Prism Room,” to the “Seance Room” in which Sarah had allegedly held frequent seances for information on future projects on the house. We held hands with each other in a mock seance, to which Sabina laughed and joked about a clause in her contract requiring her not to hold seances in this specific room. Would Sarah Winchester herself answer the ghostly door if we were to come knocking?
When we headed into the basement, we got to spooking each other (mostly Carter) with cheap jump scares. Many of us grew dizzy and slightly nauseous as we moved through the house— at first we assumed it was the lead content in the paint. However, after a quick Google search, we learned that one cannot experience symptoms of lead poisoning unless the lead is ingested. Whether our dizziness was caused by poor ventilation, or by mysterious ghosts haunting the corridors, fresh air was greatly appreciated.
We passed through the attic and learned about the seven-story tower that used to loom above the rest of the house before the San Francisco earthquake in 1906—when the extensive damage to the building ultimately caused much of the house to be lost. Some fragments survive, however, they are hung up with only a fraction of their former glory.
Pictures of the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake in an affected room displayed photos of the San Jose Post Office before and after the disaster— the modern location of the San Jose Museum of Art! What a coincidence!
3:15 pm, Ghosts Left Behind
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. When we signed our names in the guestbook and bid farewell to the towering mansion, we all went our separate ways, minds reeling with the new things that we had seen.
Many thanks to the generous staff of the Winchester Mystery House for providing complimentary tickets to The Shield! A spooky and educational experience for us all, we urge our readers to visit the Winchester Mystery House this October to learn something…and get a fright while you’re at it.
PHOTO ALBUM:
THE VERDICT:
- The inside of the house may make you dizzy
- It is very easy to get lost in this house. With around 160 rooms, people might need both the velvet handrails and a tour guide in order to navigate.
- The basement is very spooky. None of the group spotted the infamous “Wheelbarrow Ghost” in the dark corridor, but chills ran down our spines anyway.
Join me in the next issue for yet another adventure, hopefully somewhere as iconic and spine-chilling as the famous Winchester Mystery House!
Signing off until the next issue,
The Daily Explorer
