Winchester Mystery House

Sarah Winchester, heir to the fortune of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, purchased an eight-room farmhouse near San Jose in 1886 and oversaw continuous construction and renovation on the property until her death in 1922 — work that, according to staff accounts, never stopped, with construction crews reportedly working in shifts around the clock, including holidays. By the time of her death, the house had grown to around 160 rooms across seven storeys (reduced to four after earthquake damage in 1906), with 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, staircases that lead to ceilings, doors that open onto walls or steep drops, and a deliberately disorienting floor plan of switchbacks and dead ends.

The popular legend, which emerged largely after Winchester's death and has never been substantiated by contemporary documents, holds that following the deaths of her infant daughter and her husband William Winchester, Sarah consulted a Boston medium who told her that she was cursed by the spirits of all those killed by Winchester rifles, and that she could only appease them — and would die herself the moment construction on her house ceased — by building continuously, with the labyrinthine design intended to confuse malevolent spirits. Architectural historians note more prosaic possible explanations: Sarah Winchester was a wealthy widow with an interest in architecture and carpentry, no formal architect, and apparently little concern for a master plan, conditions that alone could account for the house's eccentric, ever-evolving layout. The house has operated as a tourist attraction since shortly after her death.