Mystery House Commentary: Venetian Dining Room
Editor’s note: Every weekday in October, former Mystery House blogger Stephen will post an excerpt from his in-progress guide to the Winchester Mystery House. Previous entries can be found here. Come back tomorrow for a special Halloween treat from Stephen.
The tour script for the Venetian Dining room explains that Mrs. Winchester ate most of her meals in the room, and then runs through a list of numbers (”the house has ten-thousand windows, 2,000 doors…”) Giving the list correctly is quite a test, and adds a bit of showmanship, even if the numbers aren’t exactly accurate. Of course the tour script also gently directs you through the exit and into the Gift Shop, where all manner of T-shirts and Mystery House paraphernalia can be purchased.
If you feel the need to purchase a souvenir, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Ralph Rambo’s history of Sara Winchester. I’ve mentioned his work several times in the course of this commentary, and though I can’t be sure of its historical accuracy, he did have some connection with Mrs. WInchester. It’s a small book, but it offers some insight into what the people of San Jose thought about the house and its owner.
The highlight of this room for me has always been the brief question and answer time at the end of each tour. In honor of that, I’d like to close this commentary with a list of frequently asked questions (and their answers).
At what point was it named the Winchester Mystery House?
The house opened to the public in February of 1923, just five months after Mrs. Winchester’s death, and it’s possible the owners began referring to it as “The Winchester Mystery House” immediately. Harry Houdini toured the mansion in 1924, and the newspaper account of his visit (on display in the rifle museum at the estate) uses the Mystery House name.
If the house opened right after Sarah’s death, was her remaining family approving of using the house as a tourist attraction?
I’m not aware of any public statements by Mrs. Winchester’s family. Both her sister and her niece were living in the San Jose area when the mansion opened for tours, but I think they probably chose to ignore what was happening. The stories about Mrs. Winchester were not new, and they may have believed that trying to refute them would only draw attention.
I read that it was sold at auction but were there any stipulations in Sarah’s will about its use after sale at probate auction? Was it purchased inexpensively? Did all the proceeds go to the niece?
Mrs. Winchester made no stipulations about the future use of the mansion. In fact, her will doesn’t mention the mansion at all.
Appraisers valued the house as worthless, probably due to the unrepaired earthquake damage and the impractical nature of its design, and the house was sold at auction to a local investor. The proceeds were divided among several of her heirs.
The house sold so cheaply ($135,000), that the divided proceeds were significantly less than the other sums Mrs. Winchester left to her main heirs.
Where did the ’story’ of the house come from?
First, I think it’s important to separate the story of the house from the story of Mrs. Winchester. The story of Mrs. Winchester, that her husband and daughter died tragically, and that a psychic told her to build a house for the spirits of everyone killed by the Winchester Rifle, grew out of rumor and speculation. There may have been some truth to any portion of it, but its never clear where the truth ends and gossip begins.
The story of the house itself seems much more invented to me. Having walked through the mansion more than six hundred times, I find the idea that Mrs. Winchester purposefully built it in a confusing manner unconvincing. There are a handful of oddities (a door that opens to a wall, stairs to a ceiling, etc.), but most of these can be explained in mundane ways. For example, the stairs to the ceiling were covered over when the second floor of the barn they were in was connected to the second floor of the mansion. Mrs. Winchester would not have been able to use the stairs at this point anyway because of her arthritis, so they were simply abandoned.
In my opinion, the idea that she built the house to confound the spirits is more of a marketing scheme than a historical fact.
9 Responses to “Mystery House Commentary: Venetian Dining Room”
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October 30th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Wow, what an interesting blog! I’ll be looking forward to the next entry!
November 12th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
600 times. i was going to ask how many times you visited there. do you work there? or do you have a yearly pass? ;-) and how much of the place is off limits? I recall they said that some was off due to earthquake damage. the place certainly raises a lot of questions; a bit of a disappointment to find it tucked in the safeway parking lot and not on the hill as in the photos. do they have any spooky things happening in that area that is sold off; like the grocery store? when i was there I asked about the children and they said there were no children; which seemed unlikely as the people lived there all the time and so there had to be children at some point? also I asked where the grave yard was and they told me again that there wasnt one, also seemed like nonsense as I am sure people died there and as I recall they said it took days to get out to san francisco, the only city of size back in the day…
November 12th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Good questions Ascender. To answer them:
1. Yep, 600 times. I used to work there, and if you give 7 tours a day, it doesn’t take long.
2. Only about a third of the house is off limits.
3. Safeway is about a quarter mile away. The movie theaters next door actually lease their land from the mansion owners, but yeah, it’s kind of a let down.
4. There were children on the estate. Notably the sons of John Hansen, Mrs. Winchester’s construction foreman.
5. There’s a cemetery about 200 yards down Winchester Avenue, and another one about half a mile down the street. By the way, San Francisco wasn’t the only large city at the time. San Jose was a large city as early as 1850, when it served as the state capitol.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I first stumbled upon this house while browsing a “creepy building” thread on an image board. When I began reading your descriptions, I was skeptical as to whether or not you would try to lure people in with the little tricks and stories many guides make. I was extremely pleased to find a very thorough and truthful description of the rooms.
I do have a few questions though, mostly about the off limits and a few sections of the house not mentioned. (Please excuse my grammar and structure if they are wrong, english was not my strong subject and I am only 19.)
On http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/ they mention that the house had 2 basements. Are these both off limits or did they collapse during the quake? It would seem to me that such an odd house would make a point of taking guests to at least one of the basements, if for nothing more than to make a few extra bucks.
Another question I have is about some of the rooms and doors that supposedly lead to nowhere. This idea may seem a bit unconventional, but the way you describe some of these areas (a room with no door, and no outward facing windows, also to note the door that opens up to a ten foot drop outside) could have been used for a darker and more malevolent purpose? It seems unlikely I know, but you must admit that were any such things ever to come to light, they would be most intriguing.
And thirdly, and probably the question you would most expect from a youngster of my age, is about the off limits areas. You mention that some of these areas are actually visible through windows, and one even having a staircase to an unknown area. I live in Louisiana, and have always been fascinated by the plantations, and histories of the houses. In every plantation I have visited, these off limits areas are always the most interesting areas of the house. So, being who I am, and through past experience, is there really no way to explore the off limits areas? (Past experience being that on a few occasions, all I have had to do is meet the keepers, or guides, and ask, and they have allowed me and a few others to venture with them.)
I would like to thank you again for peaking my interest in this house of oddities and and history, and should I ever have the chance, will definitely take the tour during winter or during an off-tourist season.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:49 am
I read some history of the Winchester Mystery Mansion in a Book called A guide to Ghosts and Spirits. The book mentioned 3 elevators that go nowhere, is this true? Do you know the reason for that. The book also stated that there are no Mirrors. Why is that?
March 17th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Great website!! Keep up the good work!!
April 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
In response to Ryan.
There are two basements and one of the basements is open for tours on the Behind the Scenes tour, but even there then are a few areas blocked off. The areas that are blocked off are mainly just to hide some electrical stuff, prevent the tour from wondering everywhere and to prevent the need to have to retrace your steps because you reach a dead end. The other basement not open is basically just locked off because they use it for a lot of storage and there’s not much down there to show.
As for the doors. Many of them lead to walls because Mrs. Winchester had a tendency to just build a wall on top of a wall which is why the walls are so thick in some places. What this means is doors that used to have a purpose stopped having one because she build a wall over it. The door with the drop outside was probably there because there was a room or something attached to a room but was torn down. Mrs. Winchester did a lot of remolding as she got older instead of building.
Finally, most of the blocked off areas you encounter on tour, you see again from a different angle later on tour and you just don’t realize it. Other areas are just locked because a lot of it is used for storage for things like old signs, gift shop stuff, cleaning supply, construction items, etc. If you ever do go there for a tour the other areas that aren’t holding items or you see from other angles are really blocked off for safety reasons. Like doors that are locked because there is a drop there’s bound to be some kid who opens it and falls. Or on the third floor the ceilings are extremely low and there’s sprinkler pipes everywhere that someone is bound to hit their head on or areas where the floor is unfinished you have to walk on beams. There are even a few areas just locked off because they’ve been turned into offices for the staff.
Sorry, but many of the “strange” oddities in the house normally have a logical purpose. On a side note, if you ever do visit the place, I’d recommend going when the weather isn’t hot or cold. The house has no heating, or a/c which makes sense because it is a historical land mark and adding those things would note only damage the house more than the sprinklers did but would also cost a fortune to run.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Ok, I’m going out on a limb here but I agree with you Stephan. To me, and being a resident of Victorian construction te house makes sense. The door to nowhere? look at the barn with te hayloft and see 2 things - a door to “nowhere’ for but bringing stuff to the top floor. And you will see openings in the floor - agian for moving stuff around (in the house they are skylights and proba bly heat shafts). Regardless, I love this building and the fact that we have something so beautifule to enjoy and ponder.
June 1st, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Hi Stephen:
Thank you so much for your utterly delightful website and information! I have always been fascinated by Sarah Winchester and feel that she has always been sadly misrepresented. I do have a question: I don’t know if it was told only on my particular tour, but I remember hearing a great story about how she chose and hired her head gardener. Allegedly, she had three to choose from and as a test, she asked each of them to plant some cabbages upside-down. The first one got disgusted with the crazy lady and walked off, the second just did as he was told, and the third, a Japanese man whose name I can’t remember, replied that he would do so because she asked it of him, but that he felt compelled to inform her that cabbages grew much better when planted root-down. The story continues that Mrs. Winchester hired the third candidate because he was willing to give his honest opinion, but in the end would do as she asked anyway. Or something like that. (My sincere apologies to the original storyteller if I have messed up his story in any way!) Can you deny/confirm/debunk this story? Also, do you remember the name of her Japanese gardener? Thank you again for all the fantastic information!!