Explore More of the Winchester House for the Very First Time! Expanded Tours on their Way!
With the story of Sarah Winchester (and her attempt to thwart a “curse” placed on her by the spirits of those killed by the Winchester rifle, the latter invented by her late husband, William) soon to flicker on the silver screen (Michael and Peter Spierig are nearing completion of principal photography on their written and directed, Helen Mirren-starring supernatural vehicle, entitled <i>Winchester</i>), the Winchester Mystery House itself is set to further pull back the curtain on the infamous California mansion.
The powers-that-be have announced the “Explore More Tour,” and we have an early peek for ya!
From the Press Release:
Starting May 25, 2017, tour guests at Winchester Mystery House can experience the Explore More Tour, the first all-new tour to debut in more than two decades at the venerable California landmark. It’s a new tour that is both unconventional and unprecedented.
For the first time in its 94-year history of providing public tours, sections of the mansion that have NEVER been accessible to the public before, plus areas that have been off-limits for decades, will finally be open. This intimate and unique tour experience (only 10-12 guests per tour) unveils many of the famed mansion’s most hidden hideaways and unexplained areas. The tour is being offered for a limited time only and is subject to availability.
Tour guests start their journey by being escorted through the front doors (a first for Winchester tours – the lady of the house, Sarah Winchester, never used the front doors). From there, guests proceed to the third and fourth floors to visit such intriguing locales as the South Turret Witch’s Cap Room; the North Wing, where remnants of the original seven-story tower remain from the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906; and the once ravishing Crystal Bedroom, plus lonely, dark corridors and the foreboding basement where paranormal activity has been experienced.
This new tour replaces the Grand Estate/Behind-the-Scenes Tour that included both the base Mansion Tour and the Behind-the-Scenes Tour. The Explore More Tour will only be available in tandem with the Mansion Tour (it is not offered separately) and temporarily replaces the Grand Estate/Behind-the-Scenes Tour. The overall new tour experience lasts 2 hours and 15 minutes and provides the most comprehensive exploration of the mansion ever offered at Winchester Mystery House.
Explore More Tour ticket prices are: $47 (adults), $42 (seniors and active military, police/fire/rescue) and $20 (children 10-12 years old – children under 10 years old are not permitted on the Explore More Tour). Ticket sales can be purchased by visiting WinchesterMysteryHouse.com
“The Explore More Tour is the most distinctive and unconventional tour we’ve ever offered,” states Walter Magnuson, General Manager of Winchester Mystery House. “On this new tour we take guests from the highest points of the mansion all the way down to the depths of the basement, stopping in many rooms and areas that have rarely been seen over the past nine decades. From the intimacy of the tour to the locales visited its truly unconventional in every way.”
About Winchester Mystery House:
For nearly 100 years the Winchester Mystery House has stood as a testament to the ingenuity, persistence of vision, and lore that surrounds its namesake, Sarah Winchester (heir to the Winchester Repeating Rifle fortune). Sarah Winchester lives on in legend as a grieving widow who continuously built onto her small farmhouse to appease the spirits of those killed by the guns manufactured by her husband’s firearms company.
The estate is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a California Historic State Landmark, a San Jose City Landmark, and one of the leading attractions in the Bay Area (welcoming over 12 million guests from all points of the globe since 1923).
The Winchester Mystery House is located at 525 S. Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, California, between Highways I-880 and I-280, and is open daily to the public and group events.
The period paranormal thriller Winchester is due in theaters on February 23, 2018.
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