Talk:Winchester Mystery House

Improving the page

I am in the process of overhauling this page as I have found citation links that are broken, the citation does not say what is said on the page, or the citations were from unreliable sources. Dates have been found to be incorrect and information false according to reliable sources. I have also found some new information which will be added. I hope to be finished by the end of August. I look forward to feedback at that time.Hippopotenuse72 (talk) 19:13, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for this! There are still a lot of citations that are needed for this article if anyone wants to help. This page still needs quite a bit of cleanup and citations. MMiller324 (talk) 01:20, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

What an interesting rewrite...but more work than I anticipated. I have published and look forward to seeing people make it better by correcting my grammar etc. My next project is to rewrite Sarah Winchester's page. Hopefully it won't take me as long. Hippopotenuse72 (talk) 03:00, 10 September 2022 (UTC)

Edit war

User Historybuff 5674 is reverting well-sourced edits and replacing them with a copy and paste of this website I am not sure how to request an admin. Please help. Thank you Hippopotenuse72 (talk) 00:30, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

I have blocked that editor for 72 hours. Let me know if the disruption resumes, and I will pageblock them from this article. Cullen328 (talk) 00:39, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

Thank you!! Hippopotenuse72 (talk) 01:15, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

Number 13

There are many modern references to Winchester's apparent love of the number thirteen. The chandeliers hold thirteen candles, there are thirteen bathrooms, thirteen windows, thirteen ceiling panels, and thirteen coat hooks in the home. However these items were added to the home after her death and the first mention of her apparent love of thirteen was recorded in 1929, seven years after her death.

That's just not believable. There's only 13 windows in this huge house? Valgrus Thunderaxe (talk) 07:49, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Thirteen in one room. The owners of the home are cherry-picking in order to find hits to the number 13. Sgerbic (talk) 20:50, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

But is says thirteen in the house. Valgrus Thunderaxe (talk) 06:15, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Tour guides have described feelings of being watched I had to laugh when I read this. - LuckyLouie (talk) 21:41, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

HAHA - That is funny. About the windows - obviously there are not only 13 windows in the entire house, but in some rooms. The rooms that the tour guides point out as having 13 windows, which of course means they have 13 windows. Someone could take a whack at improving that bit if they wanted to. Words can be funny things. Sgerbic (talk) 17:26, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

If there is an easily accessible source that clarifies the individual room window count vs. total house window count I would fix it. Found 'em and fixed it. - LuckyLouie (talk) 17:38, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Official Source Updates

Hi All! I will be making edits to this page due to some incorrect & inaccurate information. This page is the "Winchester Mystery House" page which should only be touching on the house as an official historic landmark in the state of California. I am an employee at The Winchester Mystery House and many of the recent edits were made using one of the only biographies written about Sarah Winchester. Many of these sections that have been added would be better fitted for the Sarah Winchester page. The edits and the biography do not include information from our archives and discoveries the Winchester Mystery House staff has found over the 100 years of operation. The author did not interview anyone affiliated with the house and many of the edits to this page are opinions.

For over 100 years, the Winchester Mystery House has been sharing Sarah's life story, the odd design features of the home and the rumors, legend and lore that plagued her during her lifetime.  We are very respectful of Sarah and her home, and take great pride in what we do.  We invest millions of dollars and countless hours of labor to upkeep and restore her home and are an official city, state and national historic landmark.  We employ an Historian on the estate who aids our tour department in creating and updating our tours when new information emerges within the home or Sarah's story.

Any claims of the paranormal that have been documented for the last 100 years by visitors, paranormal investigators, mediums, psychics and caretakers of the estate are presented as claims, not fact.

The fact is that stories of seances and spiritualism appeared in newspapers during Sarah's lifetime.  No personal correspondence or articles have been found from Sarah denying or confirming her beliefs or these rumors.

Evidence of the life after death, the paranormal or supernatural has not and can not be proven nor disproven. We ask guests, fans and readers to visit the estate and come to their own conclusions about why Sarah built the house the way she did. Ameliar029 (talk) 19:29, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

This page has no single author, it's been written by many Wikipedia volunteer editors over the past 19 years. As an employee of the house your talk page input on inaccuracies and omissions is in the article is welcomed, but Wikipedia conflict of interest guidelines would discourage your from editing the article directly, and particularly adding content in a promotional tone. I've left a note on your talk page regarding the conflict of interest policy.

Wikipedia generally doesn't take a "can not be proven nor disproven" middle ground on a question such as whether ghosts exist, per WP:PSEUDOSCIENCE, although ghostly stories can be presented in context in an article such as this one. --Belbury (talk) 20:39, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi @Belbury! Thank you for your guidance. Our primary concern is the phrase "It is sometimes claimed to be one of the “most haunted places in the world”, however there is no evidence to support this belief. Much of the lore regarding the Winchester House and its owner is fanciful, unverified, and often proven false." - as you mentioned wikipedia does not generally take a proven or disproving stance but this line remains unchallenged by you and other contributors. 100s of articles have been written over the years listing Winchester Mystery House as one of the most haunted places in the world - would it be best to site these articles in order to keep it fair? Thank you! Ameliar029 (talk) 20:50, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

As Belbury mentioned, Wikipedia can't give credibility to the supernatural per WP:FRINGE. Claims of the house being "most haunted in the world" etc. are WP:SENSATIONAL and are not given WP:UNDUE weight. The lead section summarizes what has been cited in the article body, and accurately identifies various legends, lore, and hyperbolic claims as factually untrue or unsubstantiated. Also, please keep WP:COI on mind. “we ask guests, fans and readers to visit the estate and come to their own conclusions about why Sarah built the house the way she did”…Also see WP:NOTADVERTISING. - LuckyLouie (talk) 21:04, 25 October 2022 (UTC)