The eccentric Sarah Winchester, builder of the Winchester Mystery House, is said to have built the rambling mansion to protect her from the ghosts of all the people who were were killed by her late husband’s famous Winchester line of rifles. In a strange turn of events, is she who is said to haunt the home now. The site has been featured on the TV show Ghost Adventures.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- 525 S Winchester Blvd
San Jose, CA 95128
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 37.318337476889276, -121.95104919458163
- County:
- Santa Clara County, California
- Nearest Towns:
- Burbank, CA (1.1 mi.)
Fruitdale, CA (1.1 mi.)
Buena Vista, CA (1.9 mi.)
Campbell, CA (2.2 mi.)
Santa Clara, CA (2.5 mi.)
San Jose, CA (3.4 mi.)
Cambrian Park, CA (4.4 mi.)
Cupertino, CA (4.5 mi.)
Saratoga, CA (5.5 mi.)
Sunnyvale, CA (5.8 mi.)
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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.
In October 2002 , I follow the groups but , I walk very slowly far away from it , later the spirit
is touching my neck with the full of hand , I have to stay cool to get back with the groups, this
is very scary place .
The place is designed to be creepy with doors and stairs that go no where and odd little corredors, it is built to be confusing -add to this stories of spirtualistic seances during the ladie’s life and the sites fondness for playing up hauntings it makes peopel predisposed to think they saw things.
There are reports of the occassional spectral builder in some of the unfinished parts but this is the only likely hauntings.
I have a friend that told me she took a group tour with her mother when she was younger. In one of the bedrooms she felt someone behind her part her hair and put it on her shoulders. She looked back angrily expecting to see her mother playing a practical joke but realized she was in the very back of the tour and no one was behind her.
The whole story they tell about Sarah is all to make money. She was just a very private person who kept to herself. She was an incredible woman, check out Captive of the Labyrinth. It is an AMAZING and well researched biography on Sarah Winchester by San Jose historian Mary Jo Ignoffo.
The Winchester House is, well, just a very old, and very big, OLD house. Victorian architecture, fashions and furniture is creepy looking. It’s just old stuff that makes a very bold statement. Just look at those imposing parlor pump organs from that era. Some of them look gruesome and downright menacing! But sit down at one and pump its pedals and out flows soft, melodic, melancholy tone from the organ reeds. There are no ghosts. We create ghosts born from delusion, paranoia and ignorance. There are two great websites that explain ghosts and debunk the paranormal scientifically. http://www.skeptic.com, http://www.csicop.org. I have been on 2 tours of the Winchester home. I must say the tours are rather banal since you’re so limited to view as a spectator. The garden tour is the most intriguing. I marvel at the century old date palm trees that line the walk to the home’s from entry. It is most peaceful indeed just to reflect on the days when Winchester Blvd was a cheery country road lined with beautiful orchards. But reality jolts you to a stop when the stink and rumble of the ever increasing traffic mires the experience.
I was on a tour a few years ago and me and my friends swear we heard the giant pipe organ in the ballroom make some musical sounds. I know some other people on the tour heard it too. I asked the tour guide if she heard it and she said, “No I didn’t. The organ is not in playable condition.” Me and my friends were totally freaked out because we heard musical sounds coming from the organ pipes. I later read that Sarah Winchester was an organist and everyday she played her beloved pipe organ. There is definitely something paranormal going on there.
there is a crystal window and near the wall if you stand a sertin way makes a figure of a man tiping his hat which I think made the story of the man tiping his hat
I went to the house recently and it’s pretty cool. The best part is the full tour’s second part where you get to go into the basement. Even if there are spirits though it’s so touristed out that it’s not scary at all.
i was born and raised in an area close to here. when i was fairly young my grandfather had took me there for a tour.i had gottn distracted by a voice that called my name. being the child that i was i followed it,i walked down one of the corridors when i saw a man who looked as if he was a builder. he asked for he water that was in my hand. i gave it to him and he took a sip and gave me back my water. he gave his thanks ruffled my hair and kind of faded
None of the furnishings in the Winchester home are original to the house. Therefore I seriously doubt that any of Sarah’s energy would be attached to them. The giant “pipe”organ in the ballroom is not a pipe organ. It’s a two manual vocalion, a giant reed organ. The “pipe” facade on top of the organ is only ornamental and not functional. The old vocalion isn’t playable and there’s no way any sound could emanate from the old instrument whose bellows are rotted out.
My daughter and I are both sensitives. We have seen, felt, and exchanged interactions with ghosts/spirits/people who have passed. My daughter more so is like the kid from the Six Sense-she sees dead people EVERYWHERE. The Winchester Mystery House…ABSOLUTELY NOTHING anywhere. Weird yes. Construction was wild and wacky. No paranormal anything feeling or seeing anything in any part of the house or gardens. The only feeling I experienced was sadness. Maybe listening from the tour maybe leftover residual who knows.
im in my sixth sense, i believe u have to be there alone to call the old spirits in, especially night time when moons out, no matter the shape, because thats when the energy is the strongest in our system due to the pull of the moon
I had worked here in 1991 and the third floor is the skariest part of the house.