Answer: Winchester

In San Jose, California there is a beautiful but rather curious mansion. Known as the Winchester Mystery House, it was once the home of Sarah Winchester, the widow of renowned gun designer and entrepreneur William Winchester.

Sarah began construction on the mansion in 1886, five years after her husband’s death. While, officially, her reason for moving west and beginning construction on the home was a change of pace and locale after the death of William Winchester, unofficially, it has been speculated that there was an additional motivation behind the mansion project. Sarah had allegedly visited a famed Boston medium and been told that she would find no peace until she had built a home that could house all the souls of those killed by her husband’s rifles.

Building a house big enough for everyone killed by a Winchester rifle would certainly be no small undertaking, but it’s one that Sarah apparently took very seriously. From the ground breaking in 1886 until her death in 1922, construction on the mansion continued with periodic breaks to allow Sarah to rest since she tired easily.

When construction ceased in 1922, the house was 24,000 square feet in size and had 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 160 rooms, 52 skylights, 47 stairways and fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, and a variety of very modern amenities for the time. The total construction cost, adjusted for inflation, is estimated at approximately 70+ million dollars.