8 Strangest Stories About The Winchester Mansion

The Winchester mansion started life as a humble eight-room farmhouse but over 36 years, it was transformed into an 160-room maze of cavernous halls and tunnels. The house has stairways that lead to nowhere, doors that open onto thin air, hallways crammed with fireplaces and entire wings that took years to be uncovered. All in all, it spans 24,000 feet of ground in California, looking imperiously over San Jose, and earned the ‘Longest Continuous Home Construction’ title in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Sarah Winchester employed full-time carpenters over those four decades, with her financial reserves in the bank only increasing following the death of her mother-in-law in 1897. It wasn't until her death in 1922 that building ceased. Afterwards, it was rented to a family of carnival workers who began holding tours for the public. The twists and turns of the house have been explored by curious visitors ever since.