This ridiculous yet fascinating Victorian mansion is filled with 160 mostly non-utilitarian rooms with dead-end hallways and a staircase that runs up to a ceiling. The standard hour-long guided mansion tour includes a romp through the gardens plus entry to an exhibition of guns and rifles.
Sarah Winchester – heir to the Winchester-rifle fortune – spent 38 years constructing this mammoth white elephant. No expense was spared in the construction, the extreme results of which sprawl over 4 acres. Apparently, it was commissioned because she claimed the spirits of the people killed by Winchester rifles told her to.
The house is west of central San Jose and just north of I-280, incongruously across the street from the upscale Santana Row.