

The house became a tourist attraction nine months after Winchester's death in 1922. "This house, in itself, was her biggest social work of all. Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, California. The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California, that was once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearms magnate William Wirt Winchester. "She had a social conscience and she did try to give back," said Boehme. Janan Boehme, the house's longtime historian, believes there's a logical explanation for the continual, maze-like construction Sarah commissioned during the second half of her life. While the upcoming film plays up Sarah's spiritualism with scenes like a séance that may or may not have taken place in the house's front turret, also called the "witch's cap," not everyone is convinced the heiress had otherworldly motivations. Staffers found her in a bedroom that had been obscured by rubble. She also had a habit of sleeping in different rooms (to hide from ghosts perhaps?) which posed a problem after a 1906 earthquake caused three floors of her house to cave in. Some point to Sarah Winchester's reclusive nature as proof of her guilt. "And I can only imagine that people who make fortunes to this day from selling armaments have pause at some point, especially if they are Christians: 'Am I going to pay?'" Known today as the Winchester Mystery House, the sprawlingand incongruousQueen Ann Revival was the constantly in-progress, and forever-unfinished, home to Sarah Winchester, the widow of. "If you have made a fortune out of death, you have to pay the price, a psychological price and a spiritual price," Mirren continued. Browse 233 winchester mystery house photos and images available, or search for winchester house to find more great photos and pictures. William Wirt Winchester was the treasurer of the Winchester Repeating Firearms Company until his untimely death in 1881. It was built by the widow of a firearms magnate. "Was she a Rosicrucian? Was she a straight-down-the-line Christian? Was she haunted? Was she crazy?" This architectural marvel was owned by Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester, an eccentric widow and heiress to a gun company. Here are 10 facts about the Winchester Mystery House, which many consider to be America’s first haunted house.

Times during an interview that took place in the storied house last May. "There are many understandings of her," Mirren told the L.A.
