the winchester mystery house.....

[thoreau]

David has been suggesting that we head to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose for a while now - and we finally went today. Built in 1884, a wealthy widow named Sarah L. Winchester (of Winchester Rifle fame) began a construction project of such magnitude that it was to occupy the lives of carpenters and craftsmen until her death thirty-eight years later. I laughed with David that it's the bargain Hearst Castle. Our guide was a young college student who had clearly recently memorized the scripts - and delivered the jokes in the script in the same deadpan monotone. It became pretty funny... he'd just stop for a brief break where I'm sure the script said "pause for laughter" - and kept right on rolling. LOL! It was a lovely tour and actually a very nice house. Widow Winchester was extremely superstitious - believing that the earthquake in 1908 was the spirits of people killed with Winchester Rifles.. so the sections of the house that it damaged were locked away and never revisited till after her death. Every single fixture in the house comes in 13 identical pieces - and every coat area has 13 hooks. It was a lot of fun.

Now we're back at the house waiting to hear from the spa that Miss Kate is ready to come home. I'm looking up recipes for dinner and David is excitedly reading the copy of 'Nature' magazine that came in today's mail.

Comments

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

We went to Winchester House a few years ago... what a place! It's the sort of thing my mother would design without realizing it. *sigh*

[tonethbone.livejournal.com]

A fantastic place..I first visited this in the 1980s and then in the mid 90s..Nice to know its still a big attraction..and, from your picture ...the grounds seem to have been expanded

I loved the stairways to nowhere..and the collection of cut glass

[mh58.livejournal.com]

I hear the Halloween tours are quite interesting.

[bootglove.livejournal.com]

Hmmm something to visit when I come out that way... I like those kind of things, the somewhat "Local" equivalant would be The House On The Rock in Mineral Point WI

www.thehouseontherock.com

[bibliocub.livejournal.com]

I loved The House on the Rock! The museum is even better! The Carousel from Hell was my favorite.

[apparentparadox]

Personally, I liked the Winchester Mystery House better than the House on the Rock.

Although they make Sarah Winchester out to be a loony, it's also possible that she was just a woman with way more money than she needed and that she was trapped in a society that didn't let women do many things. One train of thought is that she wanted to be an architect but wasn't allowed by society, so she just kept working on things in her house -- and there was no reason to "fix" any of the mistakes (like doors that open to a big fall) because she knew they were there, and didn't care.

[bootglove.livejournal.com]

I want to see it :-D Sounds cool!!! & Eclectic

[apparentparadox]

It is neat, and it's a testament to what someone with way too much money can do -- just don't believe all the hokey spiel by the guides. For example, some will make a big deal about the funky staircase that has so many steps, but she built it so that the rise between steps is only a couple of inches, so she wouldn't have to step up so much when her knees hurt.

[daddytodd.livejournal.com]

To discover the "true" purpose of the Winchester Mystery House, read Earthquake Weather by Tim Powers.

Tim used the title first; Beck stole it from Powers...

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

I'll look that up :)

[daddytodd.livejournal.com]

Be warned -- Earthquake Weather is the third of a loose trilogy, which started with Last Call (World Fantasy Award winner) and continued in Expiration Date. There are very few connections between LC and ED, but most of the characters that survived the first two books turned up in Earthquake Weather.

I love Powers; for my money, he's the finest fantasy writer working in the English language.

[wescobear.livejournal.com]

I can almost hear my departed Mother saying "Too much to dust." She always was a practical gal... [g]

[jimmyadventure.livejournal.com]

I like to go the mystery house in the morning and the rosicrucian museum in the afternoon.

[sjwarrior.livejournal.com]

Brings back memories. I visited this place as a kid and found it fascinating. I loved all the superstitious stuff and all the ways she incorporated 13 throughout the house. I recall a stained glass window with flowers, in which each flower had 13 petals.

[jhitchin.livejournal.com]

I just can't believe she'd want to build a house that close to the freeway!

Kidding.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

*bap*

[cyberguy]

Im a card carrying yearly member actually! I swear.. I get a kick out of taking folks and there is something to seeing something with that much history out here.. not to mention the family tombstone is not far from where I grew up back east!

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

I very much enjoyed that tour seven years ago when Danny and I did it (he still lived in San Jose at the time). I'm not sure I'd think of it as a Hearst Castle even at bargain basement prices. What I do think about is the immense amount of property the entire estate once contained, but is now bordered by Sultana Row, a major freeway, and some gaudy 1950s styled movie-plexes.

The woman was just a nut, but I'm glad most of the buildings were preserved. And yes, the guides need to have lessons on delivery. We had a guide that delivered in the same uninterested monotone. Gawd.

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

I think all the guides are like that! It was a regular trip for me with out of town guests when I lived in San Jose. "You go up to go up to go down..."

[cuboz.livejournal.com]

I LOVE old houses like that... That's a must see for me!

I've been to a few old places here in Australia and New Zealand.... I just love hidden rooms, nooks and crannies... :-)