The House Sarah Winchester Built

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to the first episode in our October series we're calling BOO Curious! We're kicking off this month of stories about creepy places in the Bay Area with a trip to a tourist attraction that's steeped in ghostly legend: the Winchester Mystery House. This unusual, sprawling Victorian mansion was built by Sarah Winchester, who is said to have kept building onto the house for decades in order to keep the spirits at bay. Is there any truth to this story of paranormal paranoia? Reporter Carly Severn went to find out. Additional Reading: After 100 Years, the Mysteries of the Winchester House Endure Read a transcript of the episode Get tickets for our walking tour at the AIDS Memorial Grove Vote for us in the listener's-choice Signal Awards! Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Carly Severn. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Amanda Font, Christopher Beale and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Cesar Saldana, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Attila Pelit and Holly Kernan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED. Where are we, Olivia? We are just outside the entrance to the mansion tour at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose and I'm so
0:16.4	excited to be here. I have been here before but it's been a really long time.
0:22.4	The Winchester Mystery House is one of those places that's in all of the
0:26.4	tourist guidebooks. A spooky historic attraction that's kind of like
0:31.0	Alcatraz or riding a cable car in that many people who grew up here know about it, but have never visited.
0:39.0	The Lost, Spirit 2 at 1210 is departing at the front of the house on the front of the front of the porch. On a crisp
0:43.7	crisp fall day in the south bay with Halloween just around the corner
0:47.8	reporter Carly Severn and I braved a tour of the sprawling house to see if we could uncover the home's secrets, to see if it's really haunted.
1:00.0	It's disorienting maze of rooms, staircases leading to nowhere, and then there are the ghosts. This is Boo curious, your tour of the Bay Area's creepiest places.
1:20.0	Today on the show to kick off our month-long series we're taking you inside the
1:25.5	eerie Winchester Mystery House and unpacking the ghostly legend that's apparently
1:32.0	behind it all.
1:33.6	I'm Olivia Allen Price, now stay close.
1:36.4	You don't want to get lost. Support for Bay Curious
1:48.0	Bekirious is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company,
1:50.8	still family owned, operated, and argued over.
1:54.2	Explore their brews wherever fine beverages are sold,
1:57.4	and taste how trailblazing runs in the family.
2:00.5	Visit Sierra Nevada.com to find your new favorite beer today.
2:05.0	The Winchester Mystery House may be internationally famous for its bizarre, other- architecture and stories about the ghosts who still
2:16.4	stalk its corridors. But almost 140 years after its construction, the real mystery of this place is actually about the woman who lived and died here, Sarah Winchester.
2:29.0	Let's go over the threshold with reporter Carly Severn and our tour guide Alexis.
	...

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