160. That’s how many rooms are contained within the strange and spooky Winchester House. Of course, that’s how many rooms we have found so far. A recently discovered hidden room in the house just rounded out this number to 161.
Why so many rooms in a single house? Well, it all has to do with ghosts. Winchester House was built over the course of 38 years by Sarah Winchester. As wealthy wife to William Wirt Winchester, she sadly watched her daughter and husband pass away prematurely. Since her husband owned (and started) Winchester Repeating Arms Company she inherited a fortune upon his death. Sarah consulted a medium, who told her that the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles were haunting her family. She needed to move West and construct a house for the spirits that she should never stop construction on.
So, that’s what Sarah did. She purchased an unfinished farmhouse in the Santa Clara Valley and made sure construction never ceased. Upon her death, all construction stopped on the house. Now, the Winchester Mystery House contains 10,000 windows, six kitchens, and 47 stairways. The house is also filled with secret passageways and halls that lead to nowhere to confuse the spirits.
The newly discovered hidden room was found in the attic of the house. Preservationists of the house said it contained a Victorian sofa, several paintings, a dress form, and a pump organ. They believe this room may have been boarded up after a 1906 earthquake rocked the house. Sarah boarded up many rooms in the earthquake’s aftermath and this is likely one of them. You can’t help but wonder how many more secrets are hidden away in the labyrinth-like house.
