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Coming up:
10. Who was Sarah Winchester?
9. The Great Earthquake of 1906
8. It’s a Historical Landmark
7. The Story of Sarah Winchester was Made into a Hollywood Movie
6. The Never-Ending House Construction
5. It’s Said to be Extremely Haunted
4. Séances Were Performed in the House
3. Doors, Corridors, and Strange Architecture
2. Odd Staircases and Rooms
1. The Number 13
Source/Further reading:
www.biography.com/people/sara...
www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...
www.winchestermysteryhouse.com...
• WINCHESTER - Official ...
• Exploring The Winchest...
• Video
• Winchester Mystery Hou...
www.prairieghosts.com/winches...
• Winchester Mystery Hou...
www.flickr.com/photos/naotake...
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
• Winchester Teaser Trai...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
i.pinimg.com/originals/03/1f/...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sf...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
• Helen Mirren gets spoo...
media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...
• WINCHESTER - Official ...
i2.wp.com/teaser-trailer.com/...
www.flickr.com/photos/skinnyl...
www.winchestermysteryhouse.co...
www.legendsofamerica.com/wp-c...
It's a little weird to me that the spirits would tell her what to build next, but she would also build something to confuse them and leave her alone.
Moonbeam It's called crazy brains!
Also, she would fire anyone who disagree with her about anything. When I heard that on my first tour there, I was like, ah, I get it. She was giving orders based on inaccurate recollection of the house and no one dared correct her.
The entire spirits story didn't come about until the 30's when new owners wanted a spin to make money off of the house. In the past 6 years, sealed off rooms that suffered Earthquake damaged rooms were discovered behind the doors that open to walls and beyond the stairs to nowheres. Her employees denided the haunted stories for decades after her death. She was an eccentric woman who's hobby was architecture and turned her house into an amature experiment. The theme of 13 was her own sense of humor as well.
Three Points 1. Whispering Voices-I work third shift security, and I’ve encountered these. Usually there are two or more pieces of equipment that have cooling fans. Because the fans are different sizes, they spin at different frequencies. When you stand at the right spot, the interaction of the fans sounds like whispers. 2. Foot Steps-As the building heats and cools during the day, structure expands and contracts, sounding like footsteps. 3. Question-Was the building designed to confuse Ghost, or was it built to attract and imprison them.
She seemed to like talking to them even if she thought they were vindictive. Given her beliefs she was rather brave, Crazy but brave
Wow, Rodney, maybe. Just like that movie 13 Ghosts, but less bloody.
Rodney Kelly thank you for the insights!
No it was not built for the ghosts, Sarah Winchester inherited the house when her husband passed away, and he wrote in the will that the only way she could keep the house was to continue to build onto it every year. So she did.
This is legit one of the coolest spots I've ever visited. I recommend it to anyone who has a chance to see it.
I have a feeling that her medium owned the construction company.
How would a construction company in Connecticut benefit from a construction project in California that had to be self sufficient and craft most items on site due to the nearest city being too far from her estate to have it outsourced?
I dont get why would ghosts killed by the rifle would haunt her instead of their killers. The medium probably had a family members that were construction workers....
Marigen Beltran it was briefly mentioned but what lead to the idea was that her family died of disease. At that time, mediums and spirituality was really popular so going to a medium who told her to move across the country was a natural choice for her. She needed an easy explanation why her very rich gun manufacturing family had such bad luck. And believing that the spirits are mad at her family for becoming unbelievably wealthy from a deadly device is not an illogical thought. Makes more sense than poor on poor violence in some ways.
Because she was an idiot with mental disorders and no one to tell her no.
Sounds like a great sceem
I think because she believed that if her husband's family had not created the rifle, then those thousands of people would not have been killed.
No. The medium was in Boston, and the mansion is in San Jose.... it doesn't make sense to tell her to build a house on the other side of the country, if it was a family member the medium wanted to help she probably would've recommended building in Boston.
Sam and Dean seen fleeing the scene.
Shaun Hamilton YOU. ARE. THE. BEST!!!!!!
Love how you tell these sorts of stories without acting like the supernatural is real.
I was charging my phone when watching this, and as Simon got to the section on the number 13, no kidding my phone reached 13% battery.
Loved going to the Winchester House when I lived in the Bay Area. The tour guides always started out "Stay with the tour because you could get lost easily" .
I still get lost in there to this day
I love the Winchester House. It's one of my most favorite places.
Same here, I had a blast there.
Dude I had trouble doing a load of laundry today. How the hell does Simon have like 5 channels and a pod cast?!?
5? He's got 10.
I've been to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, and I can tell you it is very interesting place. Thank goodness for the tour guides otherwise you could get lost. Sarah Winchester's husband and daughter died, and that is why she moved to California.
There is so much more to her, the house, and the story than ghosts and spirits. Look into it more!!
Thank you! I studied the house in high school and again in college. The only sad part is the tours of the house feed false information to unsuspecting tourist. But I guess that's their job.
My family took a trip there in the late 70's, i was only about 6 or 7. I barely remember anything but seeing the staircases to nowhere and being on one of the balconies looking down at the garden and thinking it was so freaking high up. I wonder what i would think of it now if i ever cared to go. probably bored. lol.
There's a fascinating mini series from the late 90's early 2000's called Rose Red based on the house and Mrs Winchester.
And Stephen King makes a cool surprise cameo!!! A totally great movie! 🌹
I need a survival horror video game based on this please
In Michigan, I've heard about a hexagonal house that was built by sister mediums that believed that right corners trapped spirits and that the trapped spirits would seek vengeance on them. They ordered builders to leave out any right corners when building the home. Legend has it, the builders *had* to include right angles at one point, and the a couple of the sisters' mysterious deaths soon followed.
Marcus Phillips Where do people get this stuff?? I'm always amazed at all the ghosts "rules" that various people come up with, as though they attended a seminar and the ghost CEO said, " All right, from now on, NO clanking of chains, we're modernizing. We will continue to insist on left angles only, whispering unintelligible sounds into a white noise recorder, and slam cupboard doors. If anyone wants to stay in an attic only, or attach to a certain human, you need permission from HR..." insane.
christine paris I love it. Lol I meant 90° angles. The idea was that 90° and acute angles were tight spaces and ghosts are apparently just poorly-programmed A.I. and can't navigate them. I see your point, though. It seems that everyone has a different opinion on how ghosts work. I just love local folklore and urban legends. In Saugatuck, Michigan, there's a forest that is said to be inhabited by generations of violent, scientifically-modified children with giant, swollen heads. The locals call them the "melonheads." Over the years, there have been sightings of these things since the 60's. One report like 10 years ago resulted in a 911 call because people were attacked by them
Actually the real answer to the trapped spirits quandary is to stop having seances. No spirits called, no spirits trapped. Since practically everyone else lives in places with lots of 90 degree angles and don't get spiritually harassed, the problem with the spirits were the sisters bossing the poor spirits around. lol
I visit the house every time im in San Jose. It keeps drawing me back.
I've been there, it is truly a strange house! Staircases that lead to nowhere, doors that open on to nothing, it's a real trip.
Talani Greywolf Don't they also have doors that lead to outside...I mean, not on the first floor.
"Stairs and doors to nowhere" once went somewhere... to floors, rooms, and balconies destroyed by the massive earthquake of 1906. There's no mystery at the Mystery House, just the owners and guides repeating falsehoods to keep making bucks.
I love your channels keep up the fantastic content
I generally love your videos, Simon, but am surprised at the focus on SW being basically haunted and scared of spirits. She was a highly innovative woman enjoyed design, new technology and gardening. There are several books about her that the WH recommend that look at her from historic documents and the love she poured into this incredible house. While she had a seance room, it was built at the height of spiritualism. Your video on geographics about the WH was much better.
i never saw the movie winchester but i remember seeing an older movie called rose red where the story revolved around a house that was very similar to the winchester house.. only the ghosts where not friendly ...i don't remember them mentioning that it was inspired bye the winchester story , but a lot of what you say here matches with the movie.. only the movie is a lot more supernatural
Rose red was written by Stephen King
i know that.. but if you've seen the movie you know that this has to be the inspiration for it
harald becker Ah, yes. The house fed on psychic energy, constructing itself.
@@cipriharald I do believe in an interview that Stephen King stated that Winchester gave him inspiration for Rose Red.
What a way to live, in constant fright of simply living. What a fascinating and wicked cool house!!!
I don't believe in the supernatural, but this looks like a perfect vacation spot to see all of the weird architecture. Now I have to find a way to afford it.
It amazes me that she accepted all the money made by the sales of Winchester guns, but felt guilty about it. I suspect the stories about her feeling haunted are all made up since her death. As for the stairs to the roof, weren't those stairs to the upper stories that no longer exist since 1906.
So she tried to escape spirits...by contacting spirits to find out how to escape. Very clever !!!
Funny, the connection to the number 13. I was 13 when I first visited the Winchester House. In one of the rooms, there is a wooden pillar two feet across in the exact center of the room...and the pillar stops less than an inch from the ceiling.
Folks, I live in the area.... This nothing but a tourist trap... Has been for the last 40 years. The gardens are nice but beyond that there is no mystery.
G King I never liked it much. I grew up in Palo Alto and we had to take out of towners there when they stayed with us. How many times can you look at a pile of wasted wood and be amazed that it doesn't have any symmetry or plan? The gardens are cool.
G King: I think you're right. I went years ago and thought it was a boring waste of time and money, hers and ours.
LodiTX better in the carpenter’s pockets than lying around on the bank.
flipmaya I'm sure the carpenters thought so.
Mystery or not, it is a beautiful location if you enjoy the architecture and furniture design of the time. That's why I enjoy it at least.
Took the tour years ago and it is worth the time.
Even if you are sceptic about the paranormal, it's still very fascinating.
The Winchester Mystery House has a lot in common with Thornwood Castle, which Stephen King based his book and TV movie on. Both houses were being added to by the lady of the house until she died and both appear to have a reputation for being haunted. When I first watched your video I thought it was about Rose Red but under a different name/title. Thanks for a super video informative and entertaining.
When you're OCD and rich AF....
Cleopatra Ceasar As a person with OCD. I can pretty much assure you that she did not have it. I'd go crazy if I ever went in that house.
OCD takes many different forms. It sounds like she had OCD (noting the theme of 13 for everything) with a touch of something else.
Well at any rate, she was extremely superstitious and maybe just a little paranoid.
Lizzeeyful most of the 13s were added after her death to make it more condusive to tourist dollars.
Anne Telesco that may be but how do you explain the the fact that her will was split 13 ways and it was signed 13 different times either way I'm sure that the original commenter meant it as a semi joke
I would love to see this house just for its sheer weirdness. Any ghosts that dropped by would be a bonus.
Strange stuff in Cali ;) Thanks!
What's funny is one hardly notices it. It's on a major street with numerous shopping destinations near by today, and when I was growing up here it was just something "in the way" of the main first-run movie theater complex. We moved to San Jose when I was 8, and I never toured the house until I was about 35, and that only because my out-of-town friends bought me a ticket. I must have rode my bike and later drove past it a couple hundred times without even giving it a second glance. As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt.
Hey long time subscriber here with a techie question: what kind of microphone is Simon wearing and do you think it would be appropriate to use for a podcast? Thanks!
I was just trying to describe this house to my dad about a week ago but I couldn't remember the name of it or where exactly it was located. Thanks for uploading this video..!
I don't think it's haunted , just strange like me !
I have been, part of the explanation for the house is that she never had anything deconstructed with the exception of the damaged floors from the earthquake.
Just went there on Friday the 13th.. was pretty fun..
I would hate to have to find the washroom in that place.
Lol
This guy Not without a map.
You mean a bathroom?
Jimmy F same thing
There's 13 bathrooms in the mansion
I went on a Friday the 13th flashlight tour and it was amazing
Mikhail Kalashnikov be like *Ight imma head out*
I nearly fell two stories into a kitchen sink when i walked away from the tour as a kid...
I'll bet anything that the seances were colluding with the construction workers.
Sarah couldn't climb normal stairs, so they are quite shallow. The washrooms have windowed doors, to preclude privacy from her. She slept in a different bedroom each night, so the staff had to find her every morning. On her death, the furnishings were all sold, so similar furniture was purchased for today's tourist enterprise.
normally I love all of your videos and I absolutely love the Winchester Mystery House I've been obsessed with it since I was 8 years old. However the only reason I gave a thumbs-down is because I felt like you were repeating facts throughout the video and I know you can do better than that otherwise love the video. also I got to see the movie in theaters and it was amazing
If you were trying to confuse the ghosts enough to leave you alone, why would you contact them for building plans for the following day? Are there two factions of ghosts for her??
I seen that before 😱
I'm sorry that Sarah Winchester lost her husband & little girl. What's almost as sad was the way the medium took advantage of her grief to continue to get money from her for years. She would get the medium's advice for everything she did to the house & in her life. The medium was the one who told her it was because of the guns her family sold the caused her misfortune & that the earthquake was her fault. Can you imagine the guilt that poor woman carried around with her? The truth is, if there had never been guns invented we would still be shooting each other with arrows, stabbing each other with knives & spears or if worse comes to worse we would club each other. It's not the fault of the weapon as much as it is our own hateful nature. If a person really wants to kill another, they will find a way. Mankind has always found a way, & that's the sad truth.
Not everyone is going to walk up to anyone and knife or club them to death. A gun makes it incredibly easy.
The drains also have 13 holes - and there's the chandelier that only had 12 lights - so she had a 13th welded on. It's a real neat place tho :P
The later owner of the house did that, to support this "supernatural" myth they tell, to sell more tickets. Sarah didn't have a pre-occupation with 13, nor is there any evidence she was superstitious or believed in ghosts. The "mysteries" of her house are easily explained.... mostly by the earthquake of 1906. (Stairs/doors to nowhere led to floors, rooms, and balconies destroyed by the great earthquake.)
Yes, right off the I-280 freeway at (wait for it!) Winchester Boulevard. The three theaters next to it sadly are out of business. As for curses, the freeway exits are only accessible from the North (the southbound lanes).
2 of those theaters are about to be demolished.
I lived in San Jose back in 1977-78. Those domed theaters are where I saw Star Wars for the first time. And second time. And third time.
Mrs winchester felt so guilty bout numerous deaths caused by their fabled gun brand. How would the investors of lockheed and similar defense contractors would fare?..atleast mrs winchester had conscience i guess..
Love it!
I haunt The Winchester Mystery House....with my Leather Daddy!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
She sounds trapped in her head. Having all that disposable income probably didn't help.
There's no record of her being mentally unstable. She was actually described as being quite intelligent.
Hello Simon :)
you did a great job but the over advertise haunted house well to me know a lot about this place
Is this winchester thing, the inspiration behind the winchester brothers in super naturals?
Kind of. Originally, Sam and Dean's last names were supposed to be Harrison. But since there was a real life Sam Harrison where they were filming Supernatural, they used the Winchester house as help, and changed Sam and Dean's last name from Harrison to Winchester.
I. .i dropped my burrito in disbelief...
Yeah... I think I'll just 'nope' away from that house
Simon Whistler is bae af
That Winchester movie was unbelievably bad. I'm so disappointed in the great Helen Mirren appearing in such a crap movie.
The Winchester Repeating Arms company paid her a salary of $1000 a day. She bought a $1500 Tiffany chandlier for the ballroom and she like to say that she saved up a whole day and 1/2 to buy it.
That's the cost of the most expensive Tiffany stained glass window.
Watch this clip 13 times and the ghost of Sarah Winchester will show up and present you with a haunted brick trowel. 👻
Der Mann in der Menge 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hi😬it was actually 38 years of construction and 13 fireplaces..her use of 13 was observed everywhere in her decor and is one of the main mysteries ....this was including fireplaces....just sayin & of course this is just my opinion based on research that I’ve done on the house. Some of your other “facts” are a little off but how do we ever really know when she died without sharing these things with us...I wish she was someone that kept a journal
I caught that too, that construction went on for 38 years. But we actually have 47 fireplaces in the mansion.
Mad.......
this should be 13 interesting facts
i'm sure it goes without saying that not One of the people she was paying for all this work and material ever considering asking if this woman could, just possibly, be a little bit wacko
I'm sure they did. But when someone is paying you above market rate for an indefinite contract, you don't question it - you just take the money and build the stuff, no matter how stupid it seems.
Well poo, went there and didn't feel anything but lust for the bolts of fabric she hoarded!
Ruth Beaty i did the extended tour and I hit my head on the low pipes 😂
Its not A HOUSE BUT A MANSION
Mrs Winchester was, obviously, a fruit; guess since she was loaded, we'll just call her eccentric! Poor people are crazy... I've used Winchester rifles for over 40 years but have never encountered any ghosts. Simon, Interesting video, keep up the great work!
No wonder, obviously the ghosts of all those people you killed went straight to the Winchester house and were trapped there.
HermitianAdjoint - Funny, I'm guessing all deer ghost are out in the yard somewhere.
Paul Simmons - Oh deer... I think the house will not protect you then, just you wait...
HermitianAdjoint - "Oh deer" is right, they fear Winchester rifles!
Next on MTV'S cribs...
This is the financial and emotional price you pay when you are supetstitous.
dude, how many times can u change the same exact points around and stretch them into a top 10?
You can really explain the house by simply stating Mrs. Winchester was looney. Everybody explains this by citing the deaths of her husband and daughter, but I think she must have been off level before that. More money than brains.
LodiTX You can really explain the house by simply stating "earthquake of 1906." It accounts for nearly all the oddities of the house; stairs and doors to nowhere once led to floors, rooms, and balconies destroyed in the earthquake.
Funny I watched the movie on June 25
People are eccentric...
A house built in the late 1800- early 1900's being an historical landmark is interesting? Come on, Simon!
So a wheelbarrow can come back as a ghost as well?, and as for the medium who filled the woman's head full of nonsense, it wasn't her fault that her in laws created such a killing machine the Winchester rifle.
The wheelbarrow ghost is the ghost of man seen pushing a wheelbarrow. If you can see see clothing on a ghost then you can see the wheelbarrow he used to push. If you couldn't seen inanimate objects with spirits then they'd all appear to be naked.
There's no evidence that she did see a medium.
Oh boy....when you spout off before the end of the video😳🤦🏼♀️😞
There’s no historical evidence of any ghost stuff in Sarah’s life. There is.. actually historical accounts of her being interested in architecture.. the ghost stuff is all legend, and lore, it’s fake.
I don’t like how this woman gets a bad rap, and her life is thrown out there as nothing but lies about ghosts.. it simply wasn’t true.
Sounds like a Wicked place to visit. Sadly this woman who could have used this "cursed" money on something more important. Simon, question? Does the research you did show if all of these wacky construction ideas were all hers or did others consult?
Rose Smith She did ask for certain spaces to be built, and for certain numbers to be used in construction, but she mainly just let them at it. I've been there many times and it is such a terrible waste of what could have been a beautiful building.
I believe only the Grand Ballroom was contracted out to design and build it for the best acoustics.
been watching your videos for years but have to admit that one seemed just a little bit shill-y for a film that was actually pretty poorly received (28% on Metacritic). Most of the B-Roll footage was from the trailer and a lot of the facts were repeated throughout the list (stairs to nowhere and doors with walls behind them were mentioned several times). Still, I watched your video and it piqued my interest enough to watch the film now so I guess everybody wins?
13 Steps To Nowhere...
I went to the Winchester Mystery House!!! Think that was around the time I started to overcome my anxiety about making a purchase at a cashier since up until then my parents bought everything I wanted for me... But there was a place selling pirate hats near the mystery house I think and I really wanted the pirate hat and they wouldn't buy it for me they just gave me the money and I was like crying because I really wanted the hat and really didn't want to talk to go through a cashier interaction and almost didn't, but eventually I caved in after long enough... Then for awhile I was just really nervous and would be sweating a bit, but these days I'm more just internally slightly bothered if anything... And I still have my pirate hat which feels like it has sentimental value attached because of that memory... Might have not been near the mystery house, but I think it was... The tours through the mystery house are interesting though... Would recommend... They have an area with a ton of different models of winchesters and stuff...
Wow, Young Sarah was kinda pretty.
She was actually described as the Bell of New Haven and very bright and intelligent.
I think you mentioned on 113 of the 160 rooms are seen during the tour, why can't all the rooms be seen on the tour?
Several of them were damaged in a fire in the early 90s. Plus, the restoration work is on-going, expensive, and difficult. Not all of the building is safe to wander through, just from a structural standpoint. Looking at that many rooms is also only on the special tours; the standard tour only shows 20 or so rooms.
MrJest2 thank you for the information!
Just went today, you can see more on the Explore More tour. Not all, because of the restoration. But almost all of them, including the basement, which is not included on the normal tour, can be seen.
Thanks Aaron.
@@MrJest2 I'd think it would get tedious. I build dollhouses, but I can't even take the 70+ room boxes of the Thorne room at the Art Institute...
Not far form the Apple Park.
Not 36 years it’s 38
13
Making a movie based on the house and Sarah Winchester isn't really that interesting of a fact...
Disgusted that this video perpetuates the lies about Sarah Winchester being haunted. Numerous times construction on the house stopped for longish periods of time. She was crippled by arthritis and used her home and farm as her interest in amateur architecture. The doors tthat opened to walls and stairs to nowhere covered the rooms that Sarah was trapped in as a result of the Earthquake and represented major trauma to her. Should have done some fact checking.
The house is what happens when a crazy woman comes upon massive unearned wealth and surrounds herself with yes-people.
Because ghosts.
The facts could have been formatted better.
And more of them should've been factual. Sadly, most are repeated myths.
She had severe mental problems
so... she was batshit crazy!
No. Just eccentric with a creative streak in architecture. She was actually described as being very bright and intelligent by her peers.
Not. Haunted..
I've had 5 paranormal experiences there, including seeing 2 ghosts, so...
Very wasteful use of a huge fortune. She would have been better off donating money to the poor or other helpful causes. She was obviously neurotic. I've been there twice and it really isn't spooky as much as it is just weird. The really weird part is this once large fruit farm is now surrounded by urban sprawl.
She bequeathed huge sums of money, the bulk of what she owned, to a New Haven hospital for tuberculosis research. (Her husband died of TB.) She was smart with her money and built fortunes better than building houses. That's her real legacy - what she gave to TB research - not this sprawling house.
Simon bb this isn't your best work...would love a better researched update 👀