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An Apollonaut travel guide
The place behind the detail.
A farmhouse that grew for decades, an earthquake and a century of legends offer several ways into the story of the Winchester Mystery House.
On this page
A house that kept growing
Sarah Winchester bought a farmhouse in the Santa Clara Valley in 1886 and named it Llanada Villa. She designed the additions herself, room by room, and building continued, with long pauses, until her death in 1922.
Today the house has 160 rooms, about 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways and 47 fireplaces.
The 1906 earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 damaged the house: its upper floors and most of its chimneys collapsed.
What you see today is the house as it stood after those years of building, change and repair.
Legend and landmark
Stories that the house was built to confuse spirits grew up after Sarah Winchester’s death; there is no evidence for them. The house opened for public tours on 30 June 1923, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and is California Historical Landmark No. 868.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
- Winchester Mystery House: History
- Wikipedia: Sarah Winchester
- Wikipedia: Winchester Mystery House
- California Office of Historic Preservation: Winchester House (No. 868)
Links lead to the original publishers.