Real ghost stories: Winchester mystery house

(Great Big Stories) – Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, is one of the most haunted places in America.

The Victorian mansion, built by Winchester Repeating Arms heiress Sarah Winchester, has more than a hundred rooms with mysterious architectural features like staircases that lead to the ceiling and doors that lead to nowhere.

According to legend, Mrs. Winchester enacted a nightly séance to help with her building plans and for protection from “bad” spirits. While she sometimes drew up simple sketches of the building ideas, there were never any blueprints or building inspectors! In the morning, she would meet with John Hansen, her dutiful foreman, and go over new changes and additions.

During the early years of construction, this resulted in some awkward and impractical concepts such as columns being installed upside down – though some suggest this was done deliberately to confuse the evil spirits.