The House That Built Itself Into Nowhere

In San Jose, California, the Winchester Mystery House sprawls across six acres — 161 rooms, 40 bedrooms, staircases that climb straight into the ceiling, and doors that open onto blank walls. For 36 years, from 1886 until her death in 1922, Sarah Winchester kept construction crews working around the clock. She added room after room with no architect, no blueprint, no unifying plan.…