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SMNTY Classics: Unraveling the Mystery of the Winchester House · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. You're not going to
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: stuff I've never told your protection. I heart radio. Samantha.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: What do you miss most about traveling? There's so much
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: that I miss, trying new things, just being in a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: new area, like it makes me nervous, but I also
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: find it refreshing again. Like I'm very food oriented, so
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: i want to try whatever food is there. And I'm
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: not gonna lie. I'm craving like New Orleans right now
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and have been for a minute. But stuff like that,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I really missed doing things that are familiar like that,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and doing new adventures and maybe doing some touristy things.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I miss trying new things
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and doing new things and seeing new sights. And I
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: am a big as you know, Samantha. I will plan
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: my trips out to the like two thirty in the morning.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: We gotta get up at six am, and we gotta
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: here and here and here and here. We gotta see
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: it all all. And I know we discussed recently, but
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: I am somebody. I love good history, tourist site I
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: love with some good adrenaline, and sometimes you can combine
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: those things into like a kind of spooky historical site,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: which is what the classic we're bringing back today about
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the Winchester House, which I have still not seen. I've
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: always wanted to see it. But my younger brother while
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: he was moving back from California back to Georgia, and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: so he's doing like this cross country drive and my
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: older brother and his fiance went to go pick him
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: up and drive him back, and they went to the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Winchester House. I'm very jealous. But something else that you've
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: brought to my attention because listeners, Savantha has become one
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: of my purveyors of TikTok. Now, it's true, I get
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: random tex sasages that are just TikTok's looking for was Samantha,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: and one of them was about the Winchester House. Yeah,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: so they have decided to create their own TikTok account,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: and there's only three videos on there. One of them
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: has already half a million views. But essentially it's like
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: this one dude, I don't know if he's the curator
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: or not, that comes through and does a goofy little
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: video and moves on, but has shown off some of
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the dead end hallways, the cabinets that go nowhere, the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: doors that go nowhere, the stairs that go nowhere. Um,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and it also made jokes about how people try to
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: leave the group dak and hunt in the home. But
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I found it interesting. I was like, this Winchester House
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: a TikTok. It popped up on my for you page
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and those and the TikTokers know what I'm talking about.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: And I don't have anything necessarily on hauntings on here,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: but the fact that this popped up and it was
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: such a goofy soundtrack I think it was blank one two. Yeah,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: what what was happening that I had to send it
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: to you? Because of course, and we had talked about
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the Winchester House after the movie, and we've talked about
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the history behind it and then doing this just like okay,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: very cheap. Yeah, what a juxtaposition the old timey house
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: now as a TikTok. Also, I love how you're like
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: TikTokers know what I'm talking about. You've become you know.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I love it. It's so great. Well, without further ado,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: here's this classic episode on the Winchester House. Hey, this
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff. I never
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: told your protection of I heart Radio's house. Stuff works
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you know, this is our third according, and saying my
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: name is getting really weird because I feel like I
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: don't say it right. Oh I've already said on this
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: podcast before. I feel like I don't say my name
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: correctly because everyone when always questioned me about it, and
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: so now I say my name like a question and
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: it really frustrates me. I'm working on it. I think
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: mine is because of my Korean accent, like I don't
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: have one anymore, but growing up younger I did trying
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to learn English, and so trying to say my name,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I still have a weird Korean infellection. I don't know,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: so this sounds really weird to me. Well, that's is excellent,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: both of us start podcast with doubts about her own name, right, professionals.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Only the best here. Um, So today we have yet
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: another kind of spooky Halloween episode nineteen. But you know,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: you can listen to it whenever you want. And I'm
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: excited for the topic that we're doing for this episode
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: because we're talking about the Winchester Mystery House, the one
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: who built it and why. Kind of sounds like it's
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: gonna be a beginning of a Scooby Doo episode. Oh, no,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: I wish I love Scooby Doo. It's been a long
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: time since I've seen it, so I hope there's just
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: not anything really problematic but it now, but I did
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: when I was a child. All right, but topic for
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: a later day today. The Winchester Mystery House. Um So,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: this is modernly a tourist attraction located in San Jose, California.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Since it opened to the public in nine, over twelve
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: million people have visited it. I have never been and
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: desperately want to go so badly. We need to add
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: this to our list. This is the way we can
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: even out the your stops with my stops. Then yes, yes, yes, yes,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: pretty much equaled it out. If we're touch all that.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: You're excited about that one too, Yes, I'll have to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: take a tally before I agree to our disagree with
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: any of those. Um So, the Winchester Mystery House that
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: they have a Halloween candlelight tours. So if any listeners
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: have done that, please right in and a Friday the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: thirteenth flashlight tour. Right. It was also made into a
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: movie starring Helen Muran semi recently, I believe in Time
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: magazine once labeled this House as one of the world's
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: most haunted destinations. The U. S Department of Commerce has
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: given it the Certified Haunted label, which I'm not sure.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that was a label. I guess it
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: makes sense with like the Amitablle Horror House Hotel, one
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: of them. One of my friends was, she brought up
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: the bell Witch how it's the only federal, federally recognized
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: haunting in our history. So that I want to do
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: another episode on later all scary stuff all the time. No,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I promise I won't. But anyway, this house is stunning.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Until the nineteen oh six earthquake, it was seven story
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: is now it's four stories. The upper floors were deemed
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: too dangerous to rebuild. At its peak, it had an
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: estimated and we'll get into y estimated one sixty rooms,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: ten thousand panes of glass, and almost fifty fireplaces four
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: thousand square feet. It's also known as one of the
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: most haunted houses in the United States. It was commissioned
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: by Sarah Winchester, who was able to afford building such
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a spectacle because she inherited the Winchester Rifled fortune after
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: her husband died. She received a stipend of one thousand
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: dollars a day. I need that in twenty nineteen, that's
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: equivalent to twenty six thousand dollars a day. That's a lot.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Can someone give me that. I we can work on that. Okay,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: we can work on that. So that's what it is
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: modern ly. But what about historically, how did we get
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: this spectacle of a supposedly haunted house. Well we'll get
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: into that after a quick break forward from our sponsor
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: and we're back, Thank you sponsor, And we're back with
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: another disclaimer. What as with our Female Serial Killers episode. Uh,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of a lot of legend out there
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: about this place, a lot of um, I guess, exaggeration,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: embellishment of details throughout history of why it exists. And Um,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Sarah Winchester was a very private person, so there isn't
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: too much that we have concrete evidence wise when it
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: comes to her and her motivations for building this house. Um,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the official tour guides at the Winchester House are quick
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to point that out themselves. UM. So as such, Yeah,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: we've filled in the blanks with our modern interpretation that
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: essentially she was mentally ill and or a recluse. But
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: according to the guides, this was probably not the case. Um.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: For instance, a lot of people like to point to
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the seance room. There's a room that seems to have
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: been used for seances. It might not have been, but
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: that's what the historians seemed to agree upon. But those
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: were actually kind of common back then seances. So it's
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: not like she was being super weird in quotes that
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: that was actually something people did. Um. There are two
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: main narratives that she built the house to confuse ghosts,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: or that she built it as a hobby and the
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: house's uniqueness was a result of her changing her mind
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: or simply mistakes, or because she didn't have any design experience.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: There were no blueprints for this house. She was just like, hey,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: you know what, never mind, forget that hallway, let's go
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: over here. But okay, let's get into some of the history.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Sarah Winchester was born as Sarah Lockwood Party and was
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: born in New Even, Connecticut, in eighteen thirty nine. She
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: grew up comfortably in a well off family. She attended
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: some of the best schools in the area and learned
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: four different languages. In eighteen sixty two, when she was
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: twenty three, she married William Whart Winchester. William and Sarah
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: wedd And started their life as a married couple in Connecticut.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: But then William got to work at w else but
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the family business, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. This company
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: made the Winchester Repeating rifle, essentially a single barrel rifle
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: capable of holding a couple of rounds, and this business
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: made them rich. Oh yeah. Four years into their marriage,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty six, Sarah gave birth to a daughter.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: They named her Annie. Tragically, the baby died only a
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: few weeks later, stricken by marasmus. Perhaps obviously, Mrs Winchester
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: was never the same. Meanwhile, the gun that won the West,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: a K Model seventy three, was released in eighteen seventy three.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty, William's father and the owner of Winchester
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Peating Arms, died, leaving his company to his son. William
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: himself died from tuberculosis, leaving Sarah with half of the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: shares of the Winchester company, and also that twenty six
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars a day we mentioned earlier, and a lump
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: sum of twenty million dollars or five hundred million dollars
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: in today's money. This was another blow to Sarah's psyche
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: her husband's death. Some believe, to seek comfort from her grief,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: she sought out a medium. In the popular telling of
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the story, the medium did not provide comfort, but instead
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: added to Sarah's turmoil, insinuating that vengeful spirits were targeting her,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: in particular vengeful ghost who had died at the wrong
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: end of a Winchester rifle. They were behind the deaths
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: of her husband and child, according to this medium and
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: in this story, and if Sarah wasn't careful, she would
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: be their next victim. How can you imagine getting that
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: advice from a medium? Thank omn sleep we all night.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: The medium advised Sarah to go out west and build
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: a house large enough for all the spirits haunting her.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: And again this seeing a medium wasn't uncommon at the time.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: A lot of women lost their loved ones during the
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Civil War and we're looking for ways to communicate with them.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: During this time, people were bombarded with advertisements for moving
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: out west. And this is because California had only recently
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: been incorporated into the US and the government wants folks
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to move out there. So maybe the medium was working
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: for the government, or maybe Sarah just saw an ad
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: and acted upon it. You know, we do that all
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the time now, not that specifically, but so so win Chester.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: She didn't need to be told twice, and she made
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: her way out west to San Francisco, California, very quickly. Yes, however,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: she found the weather they really messed with her arthritis,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: so she moved to stand hoste A. By eighty four,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: she had purchased forty acres of land, which grew into
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: a hundred sixty acres, and began building on it. She
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: would continue building on it until her death nearly forty
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: years later in nine At first, she contracted construction workers,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: perhaps numbering thirteen at the time, to build an eight
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: room house. Over the years, the project ballooned, growing bigger
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: and bigger. Her original intent was to build a house
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: big enough for her sisters and herself, so no plans
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: were drawn up, and she designed it somewhat haphazardly, or
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: perhaps designed it. It's a strong word, you know. She
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: called it Yaada Villa. She paid her workers well and
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: often purchased them homes to live in while they worked
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: on her home. On top of the construction crew, she
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: employed eighteen servants and eighteen gardeners. They split shifts so
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that they could work twenty four seven. Allegedly, they only
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: stopped when Sarah died and left so abruptly that nails
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: were left half hammered. I find that hard to believe,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: but that is how the Internet tells it in several places.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Its story. It is a good story. She insisted that
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: only red would be used, even though she didn't like
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: how it looked, so workers were instructed to cover it
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: up with a stain and faux grain, which ended up
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: being twenty tho gallons of paint. The house also featured
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: some technological rarities of that time, like indoor plumbing including
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: indoor running hot water, forced air heating, and gas lighting
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: operated by pushing a button. So, of course, it didn't
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: take too long for rumors to start spreading about the
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: house and its owners. Locals and workers on the project
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: believed it to be haunted all kinds of things, bells
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: rained by themselves, window opening closing seemingly on their own.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Some workers purportedly claimed every day she held seances to
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: reach good spirits. Some believed her communications with these good
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: spirits were the impetus behind her Ever, shifting design ideas.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Stories abound about Sarah that she refused to be photographed,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: that she refused to grant Teddy Roosevelt's request for an
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: audience with the Winchester widow. And we have to remember two.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: At this time, any woman living by herself, owning your
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: own property was caused for gossip. Take that and multiply
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: it by an enormous, eye catching mansion, and stories were
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: sure to be rife. Even these days. A few things
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: are scarier than a woman living by herself. Agreed, all
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: of this haunted stuff is fun, but historian jen and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: bow him Um apologies if I'm mispronouncing your name, argues
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: that it was less a protection against angry ghost and
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: more of a hobby. A lot of these stories don't
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: come from Winchester herself or any historical records, kind of
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: like we said, but books written in the nineties sixties,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: after the tourist attraction had been open for several decades.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: The house's quirks could have been a result of a
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: changing mind and like design experience, as we said, and
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: or could have been away for Sarah to remind herself
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: of the good time she had with her husband William.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Building their house in New Haven. But let's talk about
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: some of those quirks. Yes, let's go. So. Winchester thought
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: that the sounds of constant construction would cover up any
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: supernatural sounds smart to me. She sought to confuse ghosts
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: with hidden passages, windows and the floors upside down pillars,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: ridiculously shallow cupboards, and dead end stairwells, not stairweys to heaven.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Different thing. Yeah, exactly one door opens the door to nowhere,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: to a twelve foot drop about three point seven meters
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: is nicknamed the mother in law Suite, which seems odd
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: as she loved the stained glass windows there are heavily
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: featured throughout the house, and many of them designed by
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Tiffany and Company, Which is they? I like that? Let
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: me go see. Those two are inscribed with quotes from
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Shakespeare wide unclassed, the tables of their thoughts, and these
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: same thoughts people, this little world. People have put a
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: lot of thought to why each of those two quotes.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I would have to think on that for a while.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: We'll get back to you. The house is also rife
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: with iterations of the number thirteen. Like we said earlier,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: there are some stories that she hired construction workers and
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: shifts of thirteen hard to say if that's actually true,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: but you can't say that it's true in the house
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: because there's evidence u thirteen coat hooks, thirteen panels on
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the ceiling, thirteen bathrooms, but only one functioned to prevent
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: ghosts from haunting it, particularly this what is it called this?
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Piggott Yeah Um. Decorative spider web patterns appear throughout the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: house as well, which at the time I believed to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: be good luck. One staircase near the cure dream as
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: forty four steps and seven turns. The historian we mentioned
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: earlier believes that this has more to do with Sarah's
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: arthritis and less to do with bamboozling spirits. The room
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: that is thought to have been a seance room has
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: one entrance and three exits. One cabinet extends through thirty rooms.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I have got to see this place, Samantha. Um. There's
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: a section of the house referred to as the Hall
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: of Fires due to the seven sources of heat feeding
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: into it. Um and that historian thinks again that this
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: has to do with providing really for Sarah's arthritis, and
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: according to legend, each night she slept in a different
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: bed and took secret passageway to us not to be followed.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Some theories suggests she believed that when construction on the
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: house stopped, she would die. Other theories positive she thought
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the nineteen o six earthquake that took out three stories
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: of the house was caused by spirits who realized her
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: project was close to completion. And yet another theory puts
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: forward that Sarah was actually a member of a mystic
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: society or mystic societies, and perhaps inspired by Francis Bacon,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the English philosopher. In Sarah's niece, Marian Merriman moved in
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to the house and remained there for fifteen years. At
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the time of Sarah's death to heart failure. In nWo,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the house posted a whopping ten thousand windows, two thousand doors,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: not all that can be walked through, and then yes,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the one sixty rooms, which is actually an estimate series,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: thirteen bathrooms, six kitchens, three elevators, and two basements. She
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: had invested five point five million dollars in the mansion,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and in today's money that would be about seven point
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: seven million. And it's a beautiful piece of queen and
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: revival architecture. While she left most of her belongings to
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: relatives and nonprofits, there were thirteen parts to her will.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: The will did not name anyone as the new owner
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: of the house. She did leave a lot of the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: furniture to her niece, who auctioned off most of it.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: One story goes that it took six months to get
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: all of the furniture out um The house itself was
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: auctioned off after praisers declared its strange designed rendered it worthless.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: So the house was leased by John and Main Brown
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: for one thirty five thousand dollars, who originally planned to
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: build one of the America's first roller coasters on the space,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: but after the public expressed so much interest in the
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: house itself, they shifted gears, opening up for tours, which
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: is smart. The roller coaster was never built. They opened
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: up Sarah's gardens, calling them Winchester Park, and a few
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: years later the Browns purchased the house outright on how
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: areeen nine. In ninety four, Harry Houdini, the Magician, stopped
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: by the mansion to get to the bottom of the
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: house's paranormal reputation. Instead, he left feeling even more confused
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and debbed it the Mystery House. Within a decade it
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: was being marketed as such. So just to be clear,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: this is a year after it's open for tours. They
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: already got like a celebrity coming in. Of course, in June,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: John Brown dies, his wife and two daughters completely take
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: over running tours until Mamie Brown died in one. In
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, a road was renamed Winchester Boulevard and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the gardens were closed to make way for Century theaters,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and the Winchester Wax Museum opened and the Winchester Mystery
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: House was incorporated. The house was bestowed with State Historic
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Landmark status and added to the National Red Street of
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Historic Places in nineteen four. Throughout the eighties and nineties,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: the property was updated and new tours added. It was
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: labeled as a San Jose Landmark. The two thousands saw
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: even more renovations, updates, and restorations. In sixteen, a secret
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: attic was discovered, containing an organ, a dress form and
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: sewing machine, a couch, and some paintings. Forty forty new
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: rooms were open to the public. And this is why
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: again the room number is an estimate, because they're not
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: sure they've found all the rooms in that dang house.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: You just want to go say that for a month,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: don't you. Yeah. I don't think they'd let me. But
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: if anyone listening as any connections, I'll go with you
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: for sure. Alright, perfect and then yes. The movies starring
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Helen Murren called Winchester debut. For seventy two hours, the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: house was closed to tourists for a jam packed filming schedule.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Mirren said of Sarah Winchester, she went into mourning and
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: stayed in mourning for the rest of her life. When
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: you lose someone, losses can be so unbearable, so difficult,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: that the only way you can deal with your grief
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: is by feeling that they are still with you in
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: some way or another. And if you're interested, the costumes
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: from the movie are on display at the site. They
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: were donated to the site by the filmmakers. So clearly
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: we have an interest with this mystery house, which is
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: so fascinating because she was someone who it seemed, shy
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: away from attention, wasn't into it. And now so many
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: tourists have gone and tried to get to the bottom
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: of her motivations. What was she really thinking? And we've
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: made up all of these stories about many legends, so
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: many legends. Um. I want to see it so badly.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I wonder how many horror films have started with the
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: burniture to being sold and being cars or something. I
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: myself was in a horror movie where it started that
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: way and it did not end well for me. I
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: didn't what a fun death scene that was. Um. Yeah,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the just the interest we have with with these kinds
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of things, I mean, it's fascinating. It's it's historical one
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: as well as you never know creativity and thought processs
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: is fantastic. And it is beautiful. I mean, looking outside
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: before you go in, if you know that it's a
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: mystery house, you can see some signs that there's something
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: kind of wonky going on in there. But from the outside,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: it's just it looks beautiful and I can just like
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: imagine her living there, right. And if you've actually visited it,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: please send us pictures. We would love to see something
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: if you're able to get any. Um. So now we're
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: at the end, we're gonna do our little shout outs. Yeah,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I wanna shout out to Uh, We're gonna shout out
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: going the history route. Um, some of our podcasts, So
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: What's Her Name Podcast with host Olivia and Katie talk
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: about fascinating women you may not have heard of, like
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Mother Shipton and Infamous Witch from England. That was a
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: fun one. And then Notorious Women podcast which is a
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: fun podcast with Lovetta and Miriam taking a comical look
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: at women in history and it's super fun if you
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: get to get listen to those two. So shout out
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: to you guys like your podcast. Yes, um, and if
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you have any shout outs that you want us to
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: shout out, please send them, let it all out, send
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: it our way. And for for our listeners who are
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: celebrating Halloween, please have a fun and safe Halloween. If
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: you've got a feminist costume, oh we would love to
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: see this, We would love it. Let's feature those. I
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: was a panda, you were a panda? You were you
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: were increasingly grumpy hot with the unicorn. Yeah, it was great.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: With my captain what are you? You're my Captain Bucky? Now,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Captain Bucky. I was the Winter Soldier because it's my
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: favorite costume and you didn't get to see it at
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Dragon Con, so to share to its good to Oh
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: thank you, that's all. I live for. You can send
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to those costume pictures or your shoutouts or anything else
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: to our email address, Stuff Media mom Stuff at iHeart
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: media dot com. You can also find us on Twitter
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram at Stuff I've
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Never Told You. Thanks as always to superproducer Andrew Howard.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Andrew, and thanks to you for listening. Stuff
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I've Never Told You the production of I Heart Radio's
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. For more podcast from I Heeart Radio,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows an