Winchester Mystery House — Sarah Winchester's labyrinth of spirits, San Jose

The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, is a 160-room Victorian mansion built continuously from 1886 to 1922 by Sarah Winchester, widow of firearms magnate William Wirt Winchester and heir to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune. According to legend, a medium told Sarah that she was haunted by the ghosts of all those killed by Winchester rifles and that she must continuously build rooms to appease the spirits. The result is an architectural marvel of bewildering design — staircases that lead to ceilings, doors that open onto walls, windows built into floors, and hallways that narrow to nothing. Sarah reportedly held nightly séances in a special blue room to receive building instructions from the spirits. Since the house became a tourist attraction, visitors have reported seeing a gray-haired woman in Victorian dress in the hallways, hearing footsteps and hammering in the empty wings, and feeling cold spots in the séance room. Staff have described doorknobs turning on their own, windows slamming shut in rooms with no breeze, and the scent of chicken soup emanating from the kitchen despite the room being unused for a century. The house receives over 1,000 visitors daily, making it one of the most-visited haunted locations in the world.