Once the residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester, this Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion was plagued with spirits from the very beginning. As soon as construction commenced in 1884, the property and mansion were claimed by many (including Sarah Winchester herself) to be haunted by the ghosts of her deceased family (both her husband and daughter experienced untimely deaths due to tuberculosis) and those killed with Winchester rifles. Legend has it, a spirit medium advised Winchester, a Connecticut native, to move west and continuously build a house to appease the angry spirits – directions she followed. The result was a seven-story mansion that workers labored over day and night, haphazardly adding expansions wherever she pleased. There are now 160 rooms (including 40 bedrooms), two ballrooms, 47 fireplaces, more than 10,000 panes of glass, two basements, and three elevators. It is currently open for tours, with tickets starting at $26 per person.
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