The Real Story Behind "Winchester".

The Winchester Mystery House, located in San Jose, California, is a sprawling mansion of 160 rooms. The subject of the movie, "Winchester", is certainly a strange place, but is it as haunted as the movie suggests? Here is what you need to know about this fascinating building and the person responsible for its creation.

1. It was built to appease spirits.

After the death of her husband (and their infant child years earlier), Sarah Winchester believed that they were taken from her by the spirits of those killed by the Winchester Rifle. A spiritual medium told her that she would be next, unless she began construction on a house for the spirits - construction that could never stop.

2. Construction continued 24/7/365.

Workers hammered, sawed, and sanded all hours of the day and night, every day of the year. Even holidays were workdays for the builders of the mansion. This continued for nearly 38 years, ending when Sarah died in 1922.

3. She had an obsession with the number 13.

There are 13 bathrooms in the house, the last having 13 windows. There are windows with 13 panes of glass, ceilings with 13 panels, stairways with 13 steps, and closets with 13 coat hooks.

4. The house has a dedicated seance room.

Sarah would hold seances nightly, just her and the ghosts, to receive instructions for the continuing construction of the house. She held the only key to the room which had one entrance and three exits.

5. The house is full of architectural oddities...

There are doors that open to solid walls and doors that open to two-story drops. One door reveals a cupboard that is half an inch deep, while another cupboard reveals more rooms. Staircases end at ceilings, or take 7 switchbacks and 44 steps to rise only 9 feet. There is even a priceless Tiffany window that will never see sunlight... because it was installed on an interior wall.

6. ...and architectural wonders.

There are three elevators in the home, including one of the first automatic elevators on the West Coast. There are servant call boxes that allowed her to signal which servant she was calling, identified the room she was calling from, and included voice tubes that connected the rooms allowing her to speak to them. She even held a patent for sinks with built in washboards and soap holders.

Most impressive of all, though, is the Grand Ballroom. Its hardwood floors were installed without using nails (a new technique at the time). The entire cost to build the room was $9,000. That may not seem like much today when that would barely put a dent in your kitchen remodel, but at the time it was enough to build 9 homes.

7. Helen Mirren's veiled appearance is significant.

Sarah Winchester was reclusive. She was rarely seen by anyone, including most of her servants and the workers building the house. The only known photograph of her was apparently taken by a gardener hiding in the bushes.

Now, the big question: Is the Winchester Mystery House the most haunted house in history?

In my opinion, no. I think it is a fascinating place and the story behind it is interesting, but I have never thought of it as haunted. In fact, when I was there in the 80's, the tour guides specifically said it was not haunted. I never heard anything about it being haunted until all of the ghost hunting shows started popping up.

I'm not saying that there is no activity there. But in my opinion the movie, "Winchester," goes a little too far with the haunting. As far as I know, there were no stories of ghosts terrorizing Sarah Winchester. I get that it was probably necessary in order to make the movie more successful, but the whole point is that the ghosts were supposed to leave her alone as long as the construction continued.

Maybe it would be more accurate to say that Sarah Winchester was the most haunted person in history.