Mystery House Commentary: Stories From Another Guide
Bryan, a former Mystery House guide himself writes with some cool stories about the mansion. Here’s a few from his email, and be sure to check out his blog for more of his perspective on the mansion.
“I also worked as a guide way back at the time of the Loma Prieta quake for about a year and a half, and came to many of the same conclusions along with many of my co-workers back then. Somewhere either buried at my folks’ house or in one of my closets I’ve still got the many photos I took of the locked-off areas, my old copy of the tour script, and a crude map I drew over time to try to get a better feel of how everything lined up between the floors (though probably horribly scaled). Did you notice that one of the locked areas near the front entrance has an exterior wall enclosed by the outer walls of the house? I know that this along with looking into the crawl-spaces you can get an idea what the original color scheme of the mansion was back then. I have to wonder if that one wall might (like the back porch) have also been a part of the original farm house, or if it was a prior extension that got swallowed up later.
“I always wanted to try sneaking into the crawl-space access panel hidden in the wall next to the door that leads to the easy-risers into the _________ [Editor's note: room name removed at Bryan's request] …a coworker revealed it’s location to me and had in turn found it when another co-worker had crawled out of it while they were cleaning! It was neat that you could see some of the enclosed rooftops through it.
“I also noticed that the structure of the original water tower can be found not only in the “hall of fires” but also forms part of the fourth story observation deck. The tallest remaining chimney got cracked at its base there in the Loma Prieta quake. I just got off work when the quake hit and was in the Century theater parking lot across the street…the palms and towers of the house were actually swaying in opposition as the ground buckled, and every car in the lot was bouncing on their shocks. Ironically, the one tour guide who was giving a tour at the end of the day when the quake hit was a new hire, and he acted quite admirably.
“I suspect the ‘flying buttress’ was concealing some sort of duct, as it leads to a vented small roof structure I could never quite figure out the function of.
Thanks Bryan, and give us a shout if you’re ever in the area and want to take a tour with us.
One Response to “Mystery House Commentary: Stories From Another Guide”
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January 25th, 2008 at 1:40 am
I came across your site tonight and began to reminisce about my two years as a tour guide between 1998-2000. In that time, I estimate I gave about 2,000 tours.
Your descriptions of the rooms are excellent, and your insider’s knowledge to the timing and delivery of guides on the tour is spot on. A guide who truly is interested in Mrs. Winchester, the house, and sharing of stories about both to interested guests makes the tour. Draw a guide who is merely reciting script, and the tour may as well be self-guided with a pamphlet (save security reasons).
In my time there, I was blessed with seeing many of the locked off sections of the house… including some of the mysterious areas (pardon the pun) that even most tour guides are not permitted to see on their special 6-month and 13-month tours. On a twist of fate, I am one of the few people to walk through the front doors of the mansion (even though some guides state that the doors are “sealed”). By virtue of being on a two-person cleaning crew one summer (and conducting an inventory on the non-original trinkets throughout the house), I was granted access to much, but not all, of the house and its including walking through the fragile, earthquake damaged areas.
And, of course, somewhere in a box, I have still pictures of many of the roofs, the small basement, and even a picture from behind the Most Expensive Window in the house, which you did not mention in your commentary. (Pretty window!)
Thank you for mentioning the safe in the ballroom — clearly the most interesting room in the house. The safe, at least in my time, was not a regular portion of the script, and I tried to add in that story as much as possible. Of course, I frequently got in trouble for long tours because there was just too much good information to share. I liked giving the people that stayed close to me from room to room incentive for keeping up by adding in information while people filed into the room.
And then there was also the massive amount of things guests would just walk on by and never notice or be directed to: The Vertical Staircase, the one working servants’ call tube remaining, the detail in some of the smaller bathrooms, and in the end, how SMART Mrs. Winchester really was despite the stories that surround her. Ever hear the story about when a local carpenters’ union was attempting to form? Classic!
Anyway, enough of my rambling about my time in the house. I’d love to chat more about my memories, but I’ll leave you be for now.