Midsummer Scream Panel Recap: Winchester Mystery House Presentation

In 1884, Sarah Winchester purchased an unfinished farmhouse in San Jose, California and continued its construction until September of 1922. During this time, the unfinished farmhouse became a seven-story mansion with staircases leading to nowhere and hallways with doors opening to the outside of the third floor. To this day, the Winchester Mystery House still holds questions unanswered and areas unexplored by the public. At this year’s Midsummer Scream, the Winchester Mystery House disclosed more information about what is to come to the famously haunted home his year.

Walter Magnuson, the General Manager of the Winchester Mansion, announced a few improvements that will be available by this fall. The “Explore More Tour” is getting additional, never-before-seen rooms added to it. The gardens, while often a skipped or passed over part of the original tour, are now getting a new ax-throwing area. This area is being based around the thought that it would have been an activity often shared by the live-in construction workers and gardeners in their free time.

The final reveal before the panel moved into its Halloween-time programming was that, during the recent restoration of the front dining room, a letter had been found in the wall addressed to Sarah Winchester from the manufacturer of the stained glass windows. This is the first documentation found of who the manufacturer was. For years, the popular rumor was that the stained glass was from none other than Tiffany’s, but this new discovery revealed that the true manufacturer was a local glass provider, now long gone.

Finally, Walter Magnuson introduced Donovan Friedman to talk about the long-anticipated new Halloween event for the Winchester Mystery House. Friedman is the producer of Theme Dream Productions, an immersive event company based in northern California that is overseeing the project. “Unhinged” will be an immersive walkthrough experience available select nights starting September 6th through November 2nd. Pricing ranges between $44/person and $54/person depending on the date. Nick A. Olivero, formerly of The Speakeasy, is directing this paranormal experience. Guests can expect a paranormal experience that will be “elegantly scary” and “unnerving, disturbing, but sophisticated”.

The last reveal of the panel came with the announcement of the “Unhinged: Light Show”. The light show is a 3-D mapped light show presented by Paintscaping, who will transform the front of the Winchester Mystery House into a storytelling canvas, every half hour starting at 7:30 pm on “Unhinged” nights.

Tickets for “Unhinged” are available now at www.winchesterunhinged.com.