
Not only did the paint treatment on the walls match the sides of the door, but the hand painting and graining matched too. Sure enough, she found a door frame, which had been converted to a window, that fit the dimensions of the stained-glass door perfectly. (Maximo Vazquez / Xpress Magazine)īoehme came across a red-stained glass door sitting in storage–also called the $25,000 room based on the value of its items at the time–and asked the house for help to show her where it fit.
#San jose mystery house windows
So, if the door actually fits in the doorframe, there’s a good chance that’s where it went.” One out of 24 original stained glass windows in an upstairs room of the Winchester House in San Jose on March 8, 2022. “None of the doors are standard,” Boehme said. However, during these endless renovations, she would leave clues behind as to where these original pieces once sat through their intricate and odd details. (Maximo Vazquez / Xpress Magazine)īoehme explained that these windows would have been removed and placed in storage during Winchester’s time due to her constant need for change. Sarah Winchester was the original owner and creator of the now-famous historical Bay Area landmark. Sarah Winchester’s bed in the master bedroom of the Winchester House in San Jose on March 8, 2022. In the past six years, Boehme and her team of restorers have returned 24 of the original stained glass windows to their original spots in the house.

The discovery of clues and puzzle pieces found scattered throughout the house did not stop there.

The green and black geometric block designs were still legible even through the many chips and cracks, and the red and gold floral designs were as vibrant as they had been in their day.

“It was a much older room, even before Sarah’s time, so I didn’t feel bad about kind of taking it back to an older design,” she said.īoehme carefully extracted the 8-inch wide by 9-feet tall sliver of original wallpaper that had been perfectly preserved inside the walls of the mansion. What they found changed the course of the whole restoration. Boehme and her team of restoration experts reached into a hidden pocket-door wall that had been left untouched since 1884. In 2019, the renovation of the North dining room was underway, and the secrets of the house came alive.
#San jose mystery house how to
Many believe that Winchester would channel these spirits in her seance room, and they would instruct her on how to alter the house. Legend has it that Winchester believed she was being haunted by the ghosts who met their demise at the hand of a Winchester Rifle, also known as “The Gun That Won the West.” During the 38 years of nonstop construction work, Winchester turned the eight-room farmhouse into an elaborate fortress with zig-zag staircases, endless corridors and doors to nowhere in an effort to confuse these spirits. A fountain located on the front lawn of the Winchester House in San Jose on March 8, 2022. Whether it be through an old piece of wallpaper found in the walls or a treasure trove of stained glass windows hidden in storage for years, the house’s keepers are constantly uncovering clues to the house’s past hidden in the labyrinth-like architecture the Winchester Mystery House is so famous for. These secrets are revealed through old, original items within the house that, when mixed with modern technology, serve as blueprints for what the house once would have looked like. These houses hold secrets of their past which, when revealed, can show modern generations how to take care of them. Renovation experts say that for old homes like the Winchester House, there is always something that needs to be done. Once engulfed in darkness, these rooms are now lit by stained glass skylights and elaborate chandeliers. The uneven wood boards that covered parts of the unfinished walls in the North Twin dining room are now swathed in green, embossed lincrusta wall coverings and decorative wallpaper with gold flowers, matching green leaves and birds. The exposed wood ceiling beams coated with spider webs became a detailed cream-colored paneled ceiling with green molding with symmetrical gold line designs. Ninety-five years after original owner Sarah Winchester’s death, Boehme decided to bring these dining rooms back to life.

The twin dining rooms of the 160-room house had been stripped down to their bare bones and left untouched for over 100 years. “This room used to embarrass me when I would bring people through,” said Boehme, a historian at the San Jose landmark. The hallway leading to the bedroom of the original owner of the Winchester House, Sarah Winchester, in San Jose on March 8, 2022. As Janan Boehme walks through the intricately decorated adjacent twin dining rooms of the 136-year-old Winchester Mystery House, she remembers what the rooms looked like for most of her lifetime.
