![]() The Mansion Tour costs $39 for adults and $20 for children ages 6 to 12. “It's a wonderful part of California history for families to learn about while experiencing some truly mysterious oddities through the labyrinth that is the most beautiful and bizarre home in America." “Winchester Mystery House is a must-visit attraction for families visiting the Bay Area,” said Walter Magnuson, general manager of Winchester Mystery House. However, visitors and guides alike have reported seeing the ghost of one of the carpenters tending the fireplace in the grand ballroom or pushing a wheelbarrow down a corridor in the basement, which is how he received the nickname “Wheelbarrow Ghost.” Whether there were really spirits helping - and haunting - Winchester remains one of the house’s greatest mysteries. Carroll explained to our group that this is the reason that the front of the house still has visible earthquake damage while the back rooms have been repaired. In response, Winchester had the front 30 rooms boarded off, and they were not opened again until after her death. According to Carroll, Winchester had never experienced an earthquake before, so she took it as a sign from the spirits that she was spending too much time and money on the front part of the house, which was nearing completion - something she was not allowed to do per her psychic’s instruction. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake caused a large amount of damage to the front portion of the house. “But, if you go down those first seven steps again, make a right turn and go down six more - making 13 stairs - you’d find yourself on the first floor.” “If you go down the first seven steps and back up the next 11 on the other side, you are still technically on the second floor - but you are 3 feet higher than where you started,” Carroll said. Winchester’s niece and secretary, Marian Marriott, which accesses three different levels of the house. ![]() Two particularly unique areas of the house are three adjoining rooms known as the “Hall of Fires” because they contain seven sources of heat - four fireplaces and three hot-air registers - and the “Seven Eleven Staircase” from the bedroom of Mrs. “Did you know that the perfect daisy has 13 petals?” Winchester used the daisy so much to decorate her house that we think it was her favorite flower,” Carroll said. Other aspects of the home gave additional hints about its mysterious creator. In addition, Winchester’s favorite spiritualistic motif - the spiderweb - can be seen throughout the house, as can her obsession with the number 13, particularly noticeable in the house’s 13th bathroom, which is accessed by 13 stairs and contains 13 windows. The staircase consists of 44 steps that travel 100 feet in length but rise only 9 feet to the second floor above. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Because Winchester’s height was only 4 feet and 10 inches, she also built the house according to her size, with low doorways and unusual “easy riser” staircases, such as the “Switchback Stairway” that leads from the carriage house to the hay loft.We took a 65-minute tour through 110 rooms of the unique estate."Some of them love the architecture, some want to see the ghosts, some like the history," Janan Boehme, the historian at the house, told Business Insider.Since 1923, tours have been taking curious visitors through the gargantuan mansion, which remains a famous tourist attraction today. ![]()
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