After the death of her husband and child, Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester repeating arms fortune, became convinced she was cursed by the spirits of those killed by the famous rifle. According to legend, a medium told her that to appease these ghosts, she must never stop building her home. From 1884 until her death in 1922, construction on the San Jose mansion continued twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The result is a sprawling, 160-room labyrinth filled with architectural anomalies. There are staircases that lead directly into the ceiling, doors that open onto sheer drops to the garden below, and chimneys that stop just short of the roof. Sarah often held seances in a dedicated room to receive instructions for the next day's work. The house was designed as a maze to confuse vengeful spirits who might try to follow her through the halls. Despite the bizarre layout, the house featured modern luxuries of the time, such as indoor plumbing, elevators, and silver chandeliers. The Winchester Mystery House is a monumental example of grief and superstition manifested in wood and stone, leaving behind a structural puzzle that historians still struggle to fully understand.