Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE
Winchester Mystery House
HOUSE
senior/child 6-12 $33/30/25; 9am-5pm Oct-Mar, 9am-7pm Apr-Sep)
An odd structure purposefully commissioned to be so by the heir to the Winchester rifle
fortune, the Winchester Mystery House is a ridiculous Victorian mansion with 160 rooms
of various sizes and little utility, with dead-end hallways and a staircase that runs up to a
ceiling all jammed together like a toddler playing architect. Apparently, Sarah Winchester
spent 38 years constructing this mammoth white elephant because the spirits of the
people killed by Winchester rifles told her to.
No expense was spared in the construction and the extreme results sprawl over 4 acres.
Tours start every 30 minutes, and the standard hour-long guided mansion tour includes a
self-guided romp through the gardens as well as entry to an exhibition of guns and rifles.
It's west of central San Jose and just north of I-280, across the street from Santana
Row.
San Jose
Though culturally diverse and historic, San Jose has always been in San Francisco's shad-
ow, awash in Silicon Valley's suburbia. Founded in 1777 as El Pueblo de San José de
Guadalupe, San Jose is California's oldest Spanish civilian settlement. Its downtown is
small and scarcely used for a city of its size, though it does bustle with 20-something club-
goers on the weekends. Industrial parks, high-tech computer firms and look-alike housing
developments have sprawled across the city's landscape, taking over where farms, ranches
and open spaces once spread between the bay and the surrounding hills.
