My brother had wanted to tour Hearst Castle as part of our Big Sur / Pinnacles / Monterey road trip, but as I mentioned, that trip was indefinitely postponed due to the closure of Highway 1, and we were left scrambling to find alternate activities. One day I suggested the Winchester Mystery House, kind of a substitute (though very different) for Hearst Castle. I had been there once before, years ago: when Mark and I were still dating, he and some of his co-workers had to travel to San Jose for some training, and I tagged along. I don’t remember how I came across it – maybe some brochures in the hotel – but I ended up dragging everyone on a tour of the Winchester Mystery House because I LOVE Victorian houses and I also love whatever a “mystery house” is! This is a tourist attraction that is right up my alley. I loved it as much as I thought I would so I was more than happy to con some more people into touring it with me. It’s sort of an obscenely expensive tour (though so is Hearst Castle), but to me it’s worth it because the house is fascinating and oh my god, I want to live there SO BAD.
Upon the death of her husband, Sarah Winchester inherited millions of dollars and the profits of the Winchester Rifle Company; she had an insane income: the equivalent of about $23,000 in current US money per DAY. Unfortunately, her income wasn’t the only insane thing about Sarah, and she developed the idea that she had to continuously build a house in order to avoid being haunted by the spirits of those killed by the arms sold by her husband’s family’s company. The result was the Winchester “Mystery” House, which is over 160 rooms (I read a few months ago that they just discovered a previously unknown one!) and full of strange features like doors and stairs that lead nowhere, windows in floors, etc. Sarah designed the house by herself with no architects. It’s huge and it’s crazy (and AWESOME), but though she seems kind of nuts, she was apparently a very intelligent, resourceful, and compassionate person. She personally invented a few things I thought we really cool: a self-draining double floor in the two “plant” rooms, and these little metal triangles that fit into the corners of the stair risers to keep dust from forming. She also paid her employees (maids, cooks, and the contractors that worked full-time building the house) more than double the standard rate at the time, as well as providing room, board, and childcare.
Photography isn’t allowed inside the house, which is too bad because IT IS AWESOME. The house was damaged in the 1906 earthquake (and Sarah was trapped for a few hours before being rescued by her employees), and many of the rooms are unfinished or unrepaired, or pointless, but even the rooms that aren’t complete or are unfurnished are interesting. When I walk through it I keep identifying places I want to sit and curl up with a book and a cat, although my brother pointed out that if I move in with the cats, they’ll get lost and I’ll never see them again…which is quite true. I think Mark would get lost and I’d never see HIM again. We’d ALL need GPS collars. Anyway, it’s an awesome place and I’m not saying that just because I ordered a coffee just before our tour began and I very rarely drink coffee and I was thus really buzzing and extremely hyper the whole time, and later went a bit crazy in the gift shop and on a crazy caffeine high bought what Michael said was an overpriced wrap but which I insisted was AWESOME. Michael also said that I think EVERYTHING is awesome and he and Sue decided my theme song is some song called “Everything is Awesome” from some Lego movie I can’t figure out why they watched. But they played the song for me and I guess it IS my theme song because I DO think pieces of string, twigs, rocks, clocks, figs, jigs, and the Winchester Mystery House are awesome. Hmm, I think I’m getting a caffeine buzz just remembering drinking that coffee. Which is bad news because I was awake until like 4 a.m. that night. Here are some pictures of the house from outside since I couldn’t take any inside.
Be First to Comment