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Winchester Mysteries
 I'm from Monterey, and if you're from Monterey then you know all about the Winchester Mystery House in San Francisco. It was always one of my favourite "touristy" things to do whenever we had visitors out from Nebbyland.
Here's an chunk of history from the Winchester house wikipedia entry for some background if you are unfamiliary with this cool place:
The Winchester Mystery House began construction in 1884, and was financed and built by Sarah L. Winchester, the heiress of the man who invented and manufactured the Winchester rifle. Construction continued 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, until her death 38 years later in 1922.
 Sarah had lost her husband and also her only child, a daughter, who died in infancy 15 years earlier. Deeply grieved and seeking solace, she consulted a spiritualist on the advice of a friend. Known as the Boston Medium by those who follow this mystery, the medium, among other things, told her that there was a curse upon the Winchester family because of the guns that they manufactured which had taken so many lives. She told Sarah, "Thousands of persons have died because of it and their spirits are now seeking vengeance."
The direction from the medium is the reason she built her house in such a haphazard fashion and some believe it was to distract the spirits who were seeking her. She was reported to have slept in a different room each night for some time.
The house began as a simple farmhouse that Sarah purchased from a local doctor. From those uhmble beginnings the mansion grew to 160 rooms, including 40 bedrooms, 47 fireplaces, 10,000 window panes, 17 chimneys (with evidence of two others), two ballrooms, two basements and three elevators. There are secret passages and stairways, and doors and halls that lead nowhere. The house also has many conveniences that were rarely found at the time of its construction, including steam and forced-air heating, modern indoor toilets and plumbing, push-button gas lights and a hot shower from indoor plumbing.
 Sounds pretty cool eh? Well the reason for this long post is that I stumbled onto a blog by a guy who is/was a tour guide at the mansion and he's publishing his own photos from around the estate - some of which have never been seen by the public. It's pretty neat :)
You can also check out the official site for the Mystery House.
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3 Comments:
When I was a kid, the show "In Search Of..." (narrated by Leonard Nimoy/Captain Spock) did an episode on the Mystery House. It gave me the creeps! (That show always gave me the creeps - I think it's how I developed my bigfoot phobia)... Anyway, I've wanted to visit the mystery house ever since. It's so close now - San Jose = less than an hour - I have no excuse not to! Thanks for the great link to the pics!
You should definitely go :) And with Halloween coming up you could do one of their nighttime flashlight tours - though it may exacerbate the creep factor.
OHHHHHHHHHHHH! Nighttime flashlight tours? ::swoons:: I would give my left, well, yeah, to do that.
Humph. :-(
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