About Winchester Mystery House and Downtown Castro Street

Accommodations Near Winchester Mystery House Mystery of Winchester House Mystery House Museums Tickets & Schedules Downtown Castro Street

Located in San Jose, California, the Winchester Mystery House was the home of wealthy widow Sarah Winchester, heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune. Construction on the home began in 1884, and continued non-stop until her death in 1922. This unique, 160-room Victorian mansion was designed by Sarah Winchester, and is filled with a wide range of amenities, like heating systems, button operated gas lights, forced air, elevators, and other extras that were state-of-the-art for the time. The home cost over $5 million to build, and was decorated and furnished with fashionable and costly parquet flooring, gold and silver chandeliers, Tiffany art glass windows, and more.

The Mystery of Winchester Mystery House.

Winchester Mystery House got its name because of the many unusual features inside the home. The mansion boasts 47 fireplaces, 40 bedrooms, five kitchens, 52 skylights, and two ballrooms. The home also includes 40 staircases, some of which lead into walls or doorways that drop off into the rooms below, windows built into in floors, incomplete chimneys, and more. Sarah Winchester kept her carpenters and builders busy working 24 hours per day, believing that she could escape death as long as the building project kept going.

Mansion & Garden Tours.

 Winchester Mystry House offers daily tours of the mansion and gardens. Mansion tours take visitors on a walk through 110 of the mansions 160 rooms and offer a glimpse into the bizarre mind of the Winchester Widow and her never-ending building quest. The beautiful Victorian gardens at Winchester Mystery House have been restored to the glorious time when Sarah employed eight full-time gardeners. The gardens feature a wide range of imported trees, shrubs, and flowers, plus statuary, fountains, a green house, and more.[Top]

Mystery House Museums.

The Winchester Mystery House is also home to two museums, the Winchester Firearms Museum and the Winchester Antique Products Museum. The Firearms Museum features one of the largest Winchester Rifle collections on the West Coast, plus other antique guns and rifles, and more. The Antique Products Museum contains a rare collection of antique items originally manufactured by the Winchester Products Company, including gardening supplies, hardware, military products, cutlery, flashlights, lawn mowers, wagons, fishing tackle, and roller skates.

Cafe & Gift Shop.

 The Winchester Caf offers visitors a variety of snack items, desserts and beverages served in the shadow of the stunning Winchester Mansion. Visitors will enjoy perusing the Winchester Gift Shoppe for souvenirs, unusual gifts, jewelry, glassware, maps, snacks and candy, postcards, and more. Admission to the caf and gift shop is free. [Top]

Tickets & Schedules.

 Winchester Mystery House is open daily from 9am-3pm, with extended weekend and summer hours. Tour tickets range from $20-31, depending on tour choice, and children under age 5 enter free. Visitors can enter the gift shop and caf at no charge. For more information on the Winchester Mystery House, visit www.winchestermysteryhouse.com.

Castro Street Mountain View California.

 The Comfort Inn Mountain View is the closest Silicon Valley hotel to the pedestrian friendly downtown that sits along Castro Street. Bordered on the west by the bustling El Camino Real and the east by the Cal Train station, the six blocks of tree-lined sidewalks offer more than two dozen restaurants and cuisines to choose from. City Hall, the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, the Mountain View Public Library and Pioneer Park are located together as the hub of a bustling area in central downtown. As well, the shopping is eclectic and offers everything from brand name to boutique-style shopping. Downtown Castro Street also serves as the home to the oldest art and wine festival in California, the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival, which is held every year on the weekend after Labor Day. [Top]