The House Fear Built^TM

Breakdown by Location Total incidents reported in each place. Click a location to accounts from that location.
	$25,000 Storeroom	21
	13th Bathroom	18
	Back Porch Steps	13
	Basement	33
	Belltower	10
	Bradley Bedroom	6
	Carriage Entrance	9
	Crystal Bedroom	7
	Daisy Bedroom	18
	Elevator Shaft	10
	Front Kitchen	8
	Front Parlor	9
	Gardens	26
	Grand Ballroom	28
	Hall-of-Fires	32
	Hayloft/Attic	11
	Laundry Room	6
	Linen Room	5
	Morning Room	6
	North Conservatory	3
	Oriental Bedroom	6
	Other Location	39
	Post 1906 Kitchen	8
	Sarah Winchester Bedroom	100
	Seance Room	55
	Servant Call Station	10
	South Conservatory	2
	Venetian Dining Room	8
	All Areas

Recent Incidents

I walked into the room and I have never felt so cold. I grew up in Nebraska and this was colder. I had to leave the room and still did not warm up for about ten minutes.

My girlfriend and I felt a cool breeze as I passed the elevator

I heard footsteps. Sounded like someone walking with a limp.

Everyone in my group stood still. We wanted to find out if we could feel anything. Instead, we heard snoring. It was very distinct. Do spirits need a lot of sleep.

I heard music and could not identify the source. It was weird.

According to Roger, some employees were waxing and buffing the floors one night. While waiting for the floors to dry, the employees heard footsteps up on the third floor. There was no one else in the house at the time, and the employees who were working were never up on the third floor. (March of 1979) In another incident, Roger was opening the house one morning when he found the light bulb in the Séance Room had exploded. It had not rained the previous night and there were no other apparent causes. (July of 1977) Following a KSFO Radio Broadcast on Halloween 1979, Roger went with psychic Warren Capling of Concord, California, radio personality Buddy Hutton, and Winchester employee Brett Chisessi to the bedroom where Mrs. Winchester died. It was about 6:00 PM and fairly dark. They sat in the room with the lights off and about 2 minutes later, the psychic heard an organ playing and a dog barking. None of the others heard anything. Shortly thereafter, the psychic told them to look over their shoulders. There they noticed a small glowing light that was foggy in the center. It moved across the room at a walking pace, stopped by the bed, and then vanished.

I was taking a tour of the house and when passing a small kitchen saw a small gray-haired lady sitting at a table. After the tour, I inquired as to why we had a tour guide dressed up like Sarah Winchester. She was informed that there wasn’t anyone in costume.

Allen had locked all the doors in the Gift Shop and went back to the Gift Shop storeroom to turn on the alarms. When he returned to the Gift Shop, he found the glass door leading to the courtyard was unlocked. Allen was the only employee on the premises at the time. (1980) In a second incident, Allen walked the entire tour route to shut off the lights in the house. After locking up, Allen walked out to the parking lot and turned around to check and make sure all lights were off in the house. He then proceeded across the street to his car. When he turned around and looked back at the house, all the lights on the third floor were on again. (January of 1981) Allen’s latest experience occurred when he walked into his office one morning and found his desk, paperwork, chair, and floor soaked with water. A pencil holder on his desk was filled with water also. It had rained the night before but not enough to cause the damage that occurred. Also, the ceiling above the desk, the walls, and the paperwork on the walls showed no signs of water damage. From all indications there was no possible way for the water to have gotten where it had.

Sylvia Brown, psychic and co-founder of the Nirvana Foundation1, requested and received permission to spend a night in the Winchester Mystery House so she could dispel the stories of ghosts and spirits in the house if she did not encounter any experiences herself. Mrs. Brown, along with four other members of the party, took up residence in the Séance Room. After setting up all the equipment, Mrs. Brown heard organ music. However, the other members of the group did not hear a sound, but definite organ sounds were picked up by the tape recorder. Later, walking through the house, the entire group saw moving lights for which there were no sources, and they also encountered unexplained cold spots. While sitting in the bedroom where Mrs. Winchester died, Mrs. Brown and Antoinette May, a writer and member of the group, saw large balls of red light that seemed to explode and then fade. At one point, Mrs. Brown described a couple, a man and a woman, standing across the room and watching the group with “fierce intensity.” Mrs. Brown described the couple as wearing clothing appropriate to Mrs. Winchester’s time and thought they might be the spirits of servants.

“As I was thinking how much better I’d feel if there were electric lights on the second floor, I felt a sudden chill. When I moved away from the cold spot, the room was warm again. But when I backed up, the chill was still at the same spot.” Nancy Osborn, co-author of Haunted Houses, spent a night in the Daisy Bedroom. About 2:00 AM, she heard a piano playing. She quickly woke up Richard Winer, also co-author of Haunted Houses, but he heard nothing. Suddenly the floor started shaking. The shaking lasted about 30 seconds. At about 4:00 AM, Nancy heard the piano playing again. A few seconds later, both Nancy and Richard heard footsteps outside the Daisy Bedroom. When they rushed out to check, they found nothing. An interesting point is that the burglar alarms were on at the time, but none were set off. The two authors also checked the piano in the Ballroom and found the keys to be broken. When the authors checked about the floor shaking during the night, they were told there were no earthquakes reported or recorded.

On Halloween night in 1975, Jeanne Borgen, of Pinole, California and considered to be one of California’s foremost psychic investigators, conducted a midnight séance at the Winchester Mystery House. The séance was conducted with the help of Joy Adams, a medium residing in the San Jose area, and several members of the press. The séance was held in the bedroom in which Mrs. Winchester died. As Mrs. Borgen was walking around the room, “it suddenly appeared as if Mrs. Borgen’s face had aged. Her hair appeared to turn gray and deep lines creased her forehead. She felt staggering pain and was unable to walk. It was as if she was having a heart attack, and she started to fall. She screamed for help. Mrs. Borgen woke a short time later breathing normally and feeling no pain.” Mrs. Borgen told everyone that she had felt a tremendous build up of energy and that Mrs. Winchester was an over-powering woman. Mrs. Borgen also stated that there were “no violent spirits, just one very gentle ghost.” Mrs. Borgen was also in the house a few days prior to the séance when she told the press that “there are definitely spirits in the Winchester House. I saw one this morning.” Describing the spirit, she said it had “just a kind of white face and form. I saw it over against the wall in the hallway.”

Jack and his son John were on the estate early one morning and were just entering the Carriage Entrance Hall. Jack looked down the Back Hallway and saw a man in white overalls staring back at them. The man walked up a flight of stairs about halfway down the hallway. Jack walked over to the stairs but the man was gone. Jack and John were the only two people in the house at the time.

In a letter written to the staff of the Winchester Mystery House by Mrs. Arlene Bischel of Fresno, California, she wrote of an unusual experience she had while visiting the Winchester Mystery House in 1955. It seems that after viewing several rooms, Mrs. Bischel lost her eyesight. She asked to be taken out of the house but was told there were no exits nearby. Mrs. Bischel was led through the house by her husband until the tour guide could take them out. Once outside, Mrs. Bischel sat on a bench for a few minutes. After several minutes in the sun, Mrs. Bischel regained her eyesight. In 1978, Mrs. Bischel returned to the Winchester Mystery House for a second visit but could not report any strange experiences.

Brent Miller, caretaker of the Winchester Mystery House from 1973 to 1981, entered one particular room, and “in the unearthly silence of such a vast, empty place, heard someone breathing. There was no one there.” On another occasion, Brent heard footsteps and followed the sounds to the room in which Mrs. Winchester died. Again, no one was there. One night shortly after being hired as caretaker, Brent was awakened by the sounds of someone unscrewing a screw and it hitting the floor and bouncing up onto the carpet runner. When he went to check, he found nothing there. A friend of Brent’s, Gary Parks, was invited over one New Year’s Eve and was taking pictures with a new camera he had received for Christmas. After developing the film, he found one picture with strange moving lights “and a ghostly figure of what appears to be a man in coveralls in the middle of the room.” The strange images occur only in one negative while the rest of the roll is normal.

I didn't experience any paranormal activity until I walked into Sarah's bedroom. As soon as I approached the door, the door knob rattled. I slowly turned the knob and entered the room to find no one.

I do not believe in ghosts. However, I found it odd that the moment we touched the front door of the Winchester Mystery House one of the light bulbs burst on the staircase behind us. Glass went all over the wood floor and we learned it was that door which has remained locked since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. While we were just examining the woodwork on the door....the timing was just odd and very, very loud.

Does the tour go by the bottom of this shaft? Every time I take this tour, I hear voices at the bottom of the shaft and they seem to be agonizing over something... strange.

There was an eerie odor coming from the room. I asked the tour guide about it and he seemed puzzled. I went back to check it again, and there was nothing.

I thought is was cool that the organ was playing itself, but when I mentioned it to our tour guide, the guide told me the organ doesn't play itself. I thought he was kidding, but he was serious.

I was walking by the carriage entrance at about sunset when I thought I had seen a shadow from inside. When I looked again it was gone and thought maybe the sun had cast a shadow down from the tree's. As I got closer to entrance, there was a cold feeling that came across me; it was a colder feeling then just the weather, as if I had past through that shadow that I thought I saw. When I looked back there stood an old woman smiling at me and pointing me in the direction of the house, as if I was a guest of some event lost and she was helping me get back to the party. When I looked at the house and then back again she was gone.

I thought I saw a maid or something carrying laundry. She glared at me and stormed off.

I went there on a Halloween night several years ago for flashlight tour shortly before or after midnight. I’d been there before without event. I was stunning in a silver ball gown hoop dress. I was about 19. I’m 28 now. The tour guide said that cold could indicate a spirit and that in the next room several people had felt their hair pulled. I thought that was ridiculous. So, in that room, I was standing agains the wall, when I felt suddenly chilled on my shoulders and then found myself scream “ouch” out loud because several pieces of my hair were sharply yanked upwards in a swift and painful movement. My head was against the wall and those next to me had hands to themselves. It was very painful. I’m not a big believer in ghosts being able to touch people, but something happened.

We went to the winchester mystery house a few days ago and we took a lot of pictures. well we just got the pictures back and there was a figure of a woman in one of them. it was very creepy.

While on vacation from Nevada my family and I visited the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. We walked through the house which was absolutely beautiful. When we entered the kitchen the smell of baking filled the air. After our trip around the estate we asked our tour guide if they still used the kitchen in the house. She informed us that it has not been used in 80 years.

We wanted to share this interesting picture with your readers. In August of 2007 my wife and I went to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. The attached picture was taken with our digital camera a little after 1 pm. This was taken in the room named the “25,000 Dollar room”, that contained a lot of unused decorations and stained-glass windows. While scrolling thought the pictures I noticed something different. To the left of the white post in the middle of the picture is the shadow of someone or something wearing a hat.

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