**Links actually checked and fixed now. Sorry guys!
I would just like to begin this post with the statement that I am absolutely awful at choosing local restaurants!!! A few days ago, I was craving Japanese Hibachi. Fried rice in a bad way. So I plug it into my Garmin and set off. An hour later and one restaurant entered that did not serve fried rice, I arrive at a local place and order, feeling pretty good with myself. $36 bucks later (just for me! ridiculous!) I am sitting in my hotel room eating maybe 4 bites because it was awful! I kind of thought that this was a one time thing, but it happened yet again when I wanted a gyro and hummus! And for a THIRD time, it occurred yesterday, as Erin and I set off in search for Mexican. I am cursed! After searching for over an hour, we gave up at went to the local mall, where we ate at
The Cheesecake Factory. Yum!
That brings us to my mystery day! Yesterday morning, after being half on a day schedule and half on a night schedule, I awoke at 4am, went to the gym and showered, and drove to pick Erin up at her house in Brentwood, about an hour and a half away. We drove to San Jose, home of the famous
Winchester Mystery House. Here's the website:
http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/.
Now the story goes, that after the death of her daughter and husband, son of the famous Winchester rifle manufacturer/creator,
Sarah went just a little crazy. She took the advice of a psychic in Boston and in 1884 moved to San Jose from her home in New Haven, Connecticut and bought a 6 room farmhouse. Sarah then hired a crew of more than 20 people to work 24/7 building onto her house, believing that as long as construction never stopped, the spirits of "the gun that won the West" would be appeased and leave her alone. Construction didn't stop until her death in 1922. The cost of construction of this
mansion, styled in
Victorian era architecture then was over
5 million dollars, and the home is comprised over over 160 rooms, 2,000 doors (some of which
lead to nowhere---
a sheer drop to the ground below),
10,000 windows, 40 stairways, 47 fireplaces-- but only
17 chimneys (
some of which were unfinished),
13 bathrooms with only
one shower designed for Sarah's small size,
6 kitchens, and over 20,000 gallons of paint are needed for the
exterior.Sarah even had a
spirit room that she entered every night for her seances where she would get instructions on additional construction projects. Though there was just one entrance to the room, there were three
exits, one of which if you took would drop you 8 feet into the kitchen sink of one of the kitchens! Frequently the
number 13 occurs throughout the home. Many think this is related to Mrs. Winchester's superstitions about the spirits in the house. There are original
Tiffany company glass windows with 13 panes or
13 stones,
chandeliers with 13 sconces,
closets with 13 hooks (the other 2 cabinets contain the rest of the hooks), etc.
Things that make the home even more bizarre include a
staircase that ends at the ceiling, another called the
7/11 staircase descends 7 steps and then rises 11 to still remain on the 2nd floor. Due to Mrs. Winchester's arthritic condition, she had some staircases removed and replaced with "
switchback staircase", which has seven flights rising about 9 feet and includes 44 steps only 2in. in height. There was even a
window on the floor! Sarah only stood 4 feet 10 inches tall, so there are
rooms with
furniture to accomodate that, as well as doors that many of you would have to bend down to enter, Alice in Wonderland style. She loved
daisies, and the daisy theme also appears throughout the home.
The
Grand Ballroom was built at a cost of $9,000 (multiply than by a 100 for today's cost). In it was
detail such as
windows designed by Sarah and hardwoods that took over a month to lay by the crew. Unfortunately, the earthquake of 1906 damaged the house which originally stood
7 stories, and Mrs. Winchester believed this was a sign from the spirits to seal off the front portion of the house (including the
Grand Ballroom). The
front door of the mansion, made of exotic hardwoods and Tiffany glass, costs $3,000, and no one ever entered through them, they always used the servants' entrance. The
smallest cabinet in the house is only 1/2 inch deep, and there are also
cabinets that open into other rooms of the home. She spared no expense in the construction of her home, even having over 30 hardwoods imported for use on flooors, walls, furniture, etc. and
wallpaper at the cost of over
$17/foot.
Though Sarah certainly seemed cooky, there were things about this plantation that were absolutely brilliant. She had running water and
indoor plumbing (courtesy of a 55 foot water tower),
hydraulic powered elevators, gas lighting supplied by a Pierce gas engine in the
Pump house, a sprinkler system (indoors and out),
sloped countertops that
drained water back into sinks, and floors that could be removed when
plants were watered to drain water into an elaborate system which disposed of water into the many
gardens that she had around the home. She also had a
callsystem installed, so that her servants would know from which of the 160 rooms she summoned them from. Legend has it that she rang her
belltower bell at noon and five for the servants, and at midnight for the spirits. Her estate included a fruit drying shed, which included an evaporator that dried fruit at a rate of 1 1/2 tons every 30 hours and supplied her with $1,000 a day income to support her construction (though she inherited 20 million when her husband died. I think she was good to go). She even had a
Garage/Car Wash which enabled her to house and keep clean a
1909 French Renault and
1917 Pierce Arrow Limousine.
Erin and
I had so much fun touring the home, during which we walked over a mile inside the house. We also went to the
Arms Museum, where I got to see each and every firearm produced under the Winchester label, as well as a
gingerbread replica of the
home (not located in the arms museum).
After leaving the house, we went to the
Guadelupe River Park, where we saw the
largest permanent
Monopoly board in the world (listed in the Guiness Book of World Records). It was actually smaller than we'd imagined, but cool nonetheless. There was also a few neat
rocks and
statues in the
park.
On the hour drive back to Kyle and Erin's house, I was exceedingly tired after being up so long and had to get Starbucks to get me home. It didn't work very well, so I had to take an hour nap at Erin's house before finally making it back to the hotel around 11 and crashing into a very deep sleep.
It was a great day!
San Francisco is, I think, much windier than Chicago any day!
