With its witch’s hat turrets, spiderweb windows and Gothic spires, Sarah Winchester’s 24,000-square-foot Victorian house in San Jose, California, draws tourists from around the world.
They hear tales of its construction inspired by guilt and its haunting by ghosts. But to the rifle fortune heiress, it was simply her hobby house. From 1886 to 1906, she lavished time, attention and considerable cash on the workshop where she unleashed her ambitious architectural fantasies using the most luxurious and innovative materials of her time.