Winchester Mystery House

Basic Information

The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in Northern California built by Sarah Winchester, the widow of the gun magnate. According to legend, a medium in Boston told her to go to the West and "never stop building" the house - for she would live forever if she continued to build it, but die if she stopped. According to other accounts, continuing to build it would also prevent ghosts from inhabiting it. As a result, the mansion gradually increased to a truly vast size, with more than 160 rooms (40 of them bedrooms). Construction began in 1884 and ended immediately with her death, on September 5, 1922.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia entry

2. Winchester Mystery House home page

3. Arcana Wiki Map entry

Game and Story Use

• This house makes for a great template for "strange dwelling place of an eccentric millionaire".
• Clearly the prophecy didn't hold out… unless someone or something stopped her.
• Maybe the building process attracted ghosts at the same time as it kept them from taking up residence, and now the house is full of lost ghosts.
  • Alternately, suppose the building had continued after her death. She would probably be attached to the house… but prevented from entering it.