9 Real Haunted Houses Across The United States — And The Horrifying Stories Behind Their Ghosts

Published October 27, 2021
Updated June 10, 2024

The Winchester House: A Real Haunted House

Most Haunted House In America

PixabayFrom the outside, the Winchester House looks normal — but it’s totally different once you walk indoors.

Normally, haunted houses are regular homes that become haunted. But the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, is an American haunted house built specifically as a haven from — and for — spirits.

The idea for the house came from a New England woman named Sarah Winchester. A wealthy widow, she’d once been married to William Winchester, whose family produced Winchester rifles. When William died a premature death from tuberculosis in 1881, Sarah sought the help of a spiritual medium.

The medium told her the family was cursed, haunted by the spirits of people killed by the company’s guns. The only way to appease these ghosts and avoid becoming their next victim, the medium said, was to build a great house for them out west. And as long as construction never stopped, she would be safe.

So Sarah got to work. For her, money was no object. She’d inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from her husband, and thousands more poured in every day from Winchester Arms. Indeed, she couldn’t spend it fast enough — but not for lack of trying.

Sarah Winchester threw money at the house she wanted to build. As a result, the Winchester House began to grow and grow.

Sarah Winchester

San Jose Research LibrarySarah Winchester built a house to allegedly appease people killed by her husband’s rifles.

However, her house didn’t make much objective sense. Without a concrete plan, construction advanced haphazardly — this way, then that, a staircase here, a door to nowhere there. And as the house grew, so did its legend.

A February 1895 article in The San Francisco Chronicle claimed that Sarah kept building the house to avoid death. Others say the confusing layout was meant to confound the spirits that haunted her.

“The sound of the hammer is never hushed,” the article said. “The reason for it is in Mrs. Winchester’s belief that when the house is entirely finished she will die.”

Sarah Winchester did die in 1922, after working on the house for 38 years. Today, it’s a maze of abruptly ending hallways, floors with windows, and stairways that ascend into the ceiling.

Many claim the place to be extremely haunted. Guests and employees of the Winchester Mystery House — now a popular tourist attraction — claim to have seen strange shadows, felt a mysterious tug, and heard unexplainable footsteps.

author
Kaleena Fraga
author
A senior staff writer for All That's Interesting since 2021 and co-host of the History Uncovered Podcast, Kaleena Fraga graduated with a dual degree in American History and French Language and Literature from Oberlin College. She previously ran the presidential history blog History First, and has had work published in The Washington Post, Gastro Obscura, and elsewhere. She has published more than 1,200 pieces on topics including history and archaeology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.
editor
Maggie Donahue
editor
Maggie Donahue is a former assistant editor at All That's Interesting. She has a Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a Bachelor's degree in creative writing and film studies from Johns Hopkins University. Before landing at ATI, she covered arts and culture at The A.V. Club and Colorado Public Radio and also wrote for Longreads. She is interested in stories about scientific discoveries, pop culture, the weird corners of history, unexplained phenomena, nature, and the outdoors.
Citation copied
COPY
Cite This Article
Fraga, Kaleena. "9 Real Haunted Houses Across The United States — And The Horrifying Stories Behind Their Ghosts." AllThatsInteresting.com, October 27, 2021, https://allthatsinteresting.com/real-haunted-houses. Accessed July 26, 2025.