![]() ![]() Doors led to nowhere, and elaborately patterned windows were installed indoors, where no light would shine through them.Īs I approached the house for the first time, it was not without some weight of expectation. As work continued (unceasing for 38 years), the house continued to grow, rooms and passages were built on in increasingly absurd ways. ![]() It’s said she worked continuously to house the ghosts of those killed by her husband’s rifle company. According to legend, Sarah Winchester (the widow and heiress to her husband, William Wirt Winchester, of the Winchester rifle company) began work on the house in the late 1800s and continued through 1922, when she herself died. The broad strokes of the mansion’s history are easy enough to find, whether it be through internet searches, various basic cable ghost hunting series, or the 2017 film, Winchester, featuring Helen Mirren. While the broad strokes of the mansion’s history are familiar, there are surely details and anecdotes that eluded me as I entered the house. However, the somewhat (at least locally) iconic location of the Winchester mansion precluded much prologue for Unhinged. Some productions go out of their way to familiarize audiences with the context of the location, whether it be within the text, in programs or literature, or in marketing material. In many site specific experiences, the history of the location is an integral component of the experience. I was a bit worried that my lack of experience with the house would be an impediment to appreciating Unhinged. And yet, I’d somehow avoided making the trek to visit all these years, in no small part due to one local author’s estimation that the house’s ratio of “house” to “mystery” was somewhat miscalibrated. It’s a mainstay of Bay Area tourism, as much as San Francisco’s wharf and Santa Cruz’s Mystery Spot. Its reputation certainly precedes it, as an inspiration for many stories, films, and (most important to this writer) theme park attractions. I approached the Winchester Mystery House encumbered by expectation. Its elaborate and labyrinthine passageways, nonsensical doorways to nowhere, and secret spaces are said to be a testament to the tortured soul of its wealthy owner - the agony and guilt of endless affluence earned though the suffering of others, in a region now infamous for both its soaring technological empires and its ever widening income gap. As the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment has skyrocketed out of range for working class denizens of Northern California, the enormous Winchester Mystery House stands tall with its immeasurable rooms (it was reported that a new one was just “discovered” in 2018) and vast complex spaces. A tourist attraction that has withstood the test of time and survived the transformation all around it. In San Jose, just past the movie theater, and around the corner from the shopping mall, sits a building that has attained a certain legendary standing in the Bay Area. The classic tourist attraction plays host to an elaborate, but disjointed, house of horror ![]()
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