Winchester house of mystery?

[billygrippo]

Driving along I-5 tomorrow with a group of friends. is this place tight? is it expensive? should we go?

[Million$$$Man]

I saw the Travel Channel show on . . .looked like good stuff.

[Sooga]

My parents took me there when I was like 12 or something. Don't remember much specifically, but I do remember it was pretty freakin cool.

[whiskeytown]

mostly a weird house -

woman who inherited the Winchester rifle fortune was told she was going to be haunted by the spirits of everyone who was killed by Winchester rifles unless she built a house for them - and she built this weird place with stairs that go to the ceiling, windows into other rooms, and stuff.

sorta interesting - not as much as you might think - I'd wait for the DVD [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Rb

[kibble420]

If you take the entire tour of the house it is actually about 1 1/2 miles I think... I was out there a few yrs ago, pretty cool stuff. Supposedly there were 13 laborers who had to constantly keep building rooms to appease the spirits, until the day the widow died and construction ceased.

Cost of admission was a bit pricey though.....

[Dickie Manley]

went a few times for field trips during elementary school. interesting place, admission is prob pricey. and i remember there being a random dude dressed in a gorilla costume running around the house trying to scare the kiddies. bfd.

cliffs notes: interesting house built by rich crazy lady married to guy who made guns. exploited for tourism.

[By-Tor]

It's fun to see at least once, but nothing extra special. It's fairly large, but not huge. Afterall, it is right in the middle of an Interstate (280), a very busy street (Winchester) and a movie theater (Century)...so it is seemly squeezed in at every angle.

I've actually heard rumors of it getting closed down (again), so you may want to catch it while you can...

[___]

If you're into touring strange buildings this is a must see, but I can imagine a lot of people not being that interested. I went when I was younger (around 15-16 maybe) and enjoyed it. You can't see the whole thing, but you do get to see most of it. I'd go again if I was in the neighbourhood.

[I.Rowboat]

[ QUOTE ]
Driving along I-5 tomorrow with a group of friends. is this place tight? is it expensive? should we go?

[/ QUOTE ]

Um...it's near downtown San Jose, which is quite a distance from I-5. You're looking at a solid hour to get from I-5 to San Jose (via Hwys 152 and 101), and that's if the traffic gods favor you, and it could easily be two hours if they hate you. I live in the area and took the tour once, years ago, and haven't felt the need to go back. I think it's OK as a tourist attraction if you're already in SJ, but definitely not worth the hassle of getting there from I-5. I would pass.