Talk:Winchester Mystery House
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[edit] More images
On the house's official site there's a page of photos of the house, including an enormous photo of the house when it was still 7 stories tall (and one of Sarah herself). The page states:
- All photographs may be duplicated, but
- credit for photographs must be given to:
- Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, CA.
What do others say about adding some of these to the article? It could only improve it. :-) —Frecklefoot 14:59, Mar 16, 2004 (UTC)
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- Sure, if there's permission (and it seems there is). I'll add it to my "to do" list, but someone else will probably do it before I find time to do it. - Bevo 15:15, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)
If I can figure out the coding, I'll do it. :> [Larien]
- You can look here for information on how to use the image syntax. :-) — Frecklefoot | Talk 15:09, Feb 14, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Visit...
I'll be visiting it soon, I'll take some pictures. I plan on doing some EVP-recording there if they let me. :) ---J.S (t|c) 21:16, 25 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] 1
An awful lot of smiley faces for a haunted mansion ;}--Old Guard 05:07, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Historical Accuracy
Much of this article seems to copy from the "official" story of the Winchester House, most of which cannot be proven and can be disputed. Also, "Winchester Mystery House" is the commercial name of the property, and it obviously would have never been called this while it served as a residence.
While I haven't had a chance to read them, I know there are at least two Master's thesis projects in the San Jose State University library that dispute the validity of the Winchester Mystery House story.
- I'm not sure that thesis projects themselves would be considered proper sources, but they may have bibliographies that point to other published sources. However, that sort of information would seem valuable to include if you can find a good source for it. E. Ripley 02:52, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
I had heard the "official" story is totally untrue. There were claims that for some reason she wanted to keep the construction workers employed. Sorry I don't have any sources. --Lincoln F. Stern 20:16, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] The supposed-haunting
Are there any reports of actual sightings in this place? They always associate this place with ghosts, but I have yet to hear any stories about actual sightings. It looks more like a rather eccentric woman's project than a place of paranormal activity. I've never heard of Mrs Winchester claiming anything aside that her medium told her to build this awful waste of money. As far as I've learnt so far, she didn't see any ghosts, and no one else has. The house was built, but it doesn't prove (or even imply) that there was anything paranormal about this place, and the only thing unusual about it is that it's a rather eccentric venture taken by a woman who was probably deceived into doing this by her "medium." But, I might just be wrong and those things might be under-reported. Does anyone know about this? J.J. Bustamante 10:14, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
- The gift shop at the house has hundreds of books about the history of the house and Sarah Winchester. One, by John Rambo (not the Rambo of the Sly Stallone films) is short and pretty good and dispells many of the myths surrounding the house (it's also all hand printed!). I think the store would be a good place to look for books on sightings and such. — Frecklefoot | Talk 13:24, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
- There is a legend that while she was trapped in her room during the earthquake, some of the spirits visited her. Supposedly, one of the wings of the house was too close to being finished (I think it may have been the western one, but I am not sure). As soon as she was free of the room, she ordered that the wing be boarded up. Of course, this is just a story told on the tours and I have no source regarding its validity.--Sidhebolg 00:18, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] odd
I find it odd that this article makes no mention of the peculiar traits of the house. Just "the house had no master building plan"? Isn't it because the house is so strange that it is such an attraction? Novium 01:26, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
Read the "The House Today" section; it contains information about the traits of the house. Vsst 00:07, 16 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Images for article
Some orphaned images I found which might fit into this article: ~ BigrTex 22:52, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Who owns?
CAN ANYONE name the present owner of the house? This is the GREATES MYSTERY at present.
- I think it's owned & operated by the The County of Santa Clara Department of Parks and Recreation[1] now. But, their website doesn't say. — Frecklefoot | Talk 17:42, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
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- It's owned by a CA-based company, not by the state or local government. I worked at the WMH, and I STILL don't know who actually owns it! Dr. Mordecai 05:22, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Certified by US Government?
As being haunted? I didn't see anything about this in the article but while working at the WMH I was told that it is one of two places in California that is certified by the US Government as being haunted, the second place being in San Diego, I believe. Is there anywhere that this information can be verified? I'd really like to know if the Federal Government wastes it's time certifying places as haunted. Dr. Mordecai 05:30, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Cost of construction
The article states "[t]he cost for such constant building has been estimated at about US $5.5 million." Is that in 1922 (or earlier) dollars? What is the inflation-adjusted cost? BlueGuy213 00:06, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
- According to this page, the adjusted cost would be $6,002,577.97, which seems far too conservative. — Frecklefσσt | Talk 18:34, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
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- I can't get that CGI form to work properly. Still, if it's saying only $6 million then I agree with you, that's far too conservative. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which maintains the official website for the Consumer Price Index (the page you mention credits CPI as its source) has an inflation calculator too, and it says that $5.5 million in 1922 dollars = $68,255,654.76 in 2007 dollars. I would update the article to say so except that I doubt the construction cost was all paid in 1922. Most of it was probably done earlier, which means that there would have been even more inflation since the actual payment. Can we get a citation for the estimate? That would really help since it might reveal what years the payment was made during. I'll add the cite request. BlueGuy213 20:06, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
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- Well, someone added the citation for the original cost, but it doesn't say when the cost was paid, only that it was $5.5 million. Also, the BLS website's calculator now gives a slightly higher number for the value in 1997 dollars. (I think this is because of new data added for this year.) So I have added this note, with reference to the calculator: "If this cost were paid entirely in 1922, it would be equivalent to almost $70 million in 2007 dollars." (I used "almost" instead of a more exact amount in case further data causes a subsequent change within this year.) BlueGuy213 (talk) 00:37, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] citation needed
"Although this is disputed, many believe[citation needed] the Boston Medium told Sarah Winchester that she had.. " shouldn't the citation needed be better behind the "told", as in "Although this is disputed, many believe the Boston Medium told[citation needed] Sarah Winchester that she had.. " —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.210.231.72 (talk) 09:58, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] 2008 BLS data not available yet
Someone has changed "in 2007 dollars" to "in 2008 dollars", so I just linked 2008 to As of 2008 to help with keeping it up-to-date; but actually, the BLS has not provided any data yet for 2008. (How could they? January isn't even half over!) It seems reasonable to assume there will not be terrible inflation during this year, so it may not matter much; but isn't it a bit hasty to talk about 2008 dollars when the inflation calculator, which is the cited source, doesn't yet allow calculation for the year 2008?
Does anybody think we should change 2008 back to 2007 until more data becomes available? Or would it just tempt people who don't bother to read the talk page to "fix" it again? BlueGuy213 (talk) 04:46, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
On second thought, it might be better to keep 2008 because this is the time that people normally do new year's updating. And besides, the figure was padded upwards somewhat anyway. Maybe it should be left alone unless and until significantly contradictory information is released. And it's not like this is an article about economics.
Still, I would like to hear what other people think. BlueGuy213 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 05:20, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Game levels
I took the basic tour with a group, and my first thought was, "Wow, this would be a great place for a deathmatch." Does anyone know if the Winchester mansion has been turned into a map for any videogames? I think it would make an excellent level for Half-Life 2 -- or Portal! --75.173.4.172 (talk) 23:15, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] We do NOT know the year of construction cost payments
People keep trying to simplify the phrasing of the inflation-adjusted cost by assuming that construction costs were paid in 1922. The references do not provide any evidence either for or against this assumption. At this point, I'm thinking it might be best either to let the assumption stand or maybe even remove the inflation-adjusted figures entirely because so many people want to "streamline" away the distinction... ugh! --BlueGuy213 (talk) 21:33, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Horrible Article
Wikipedia articles should not be stories, they should be articles. This has second person narrative. Needs to be re-written.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Eric1985 (talk • contribs)
- Yes, that was due to vandalism by Thatdude008. Due to a lot of work by 24.14.156.34 , the article's been restored to its previous state. Take a look at it now (or, if he vandalized it again, this revision). — Frecklefσσt | Talk 13:07, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Semi-protected due to ongoing vandalism
I semi-protected the article due to ongoing vandalism. An unregistered user kept adding a personal speculation which was clearly OR. I kept removing, he ignored me and kept adding it back. I'll leave it protected for a while and see what happens. — Frecklefσσt | Talk 16:38, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Swamp Thing
I keep removing the following item from the "Popular Culture" section:
- The Cambridge House in Swamp Thing #45, "Ghost Dance" (DC Comics, February 1986) by Alan Moore, Stan Woch and Alfredo Alcala, is clearly inspired by the Winchester House legend.
I removed it because it appears to be complete original research. The other items, while some quite obscure, at least explain how the Winchester house is related or was an inspiration. This item just says the Cambridge House is "clearly inspired by" the house. How? How do we know they're not just similar? Did the authors say as much? Did the builder keep adding to the house? Or is it just a large, creepy house? Provide some explanation, please. — Frecklefσσt | Talk 18:49, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
- Since 212.54.183.10 seems unwilling to discuss this issue, I removed it again. — Frecklefσσt | Talk 17:12, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
