The Winchester Mystery House: Architecture of the Damned

Original Construction Records and Building Permits

San Jose Building Department records from 1884-1922 document continuous construction permits issued to Sarah L. Winchester at 525 South Winchester Boulevard. Building inspector James Patterson's reports from 1906 and 1918 detail structural violations including staircases terminating at ceilings, doors opening to exterior walls with no support, and rooms built within rooms that violated city building codes. Winchester estate executor Frederick Marriott's 1922 inventory lists expenditures totaling $5.5 million for construction materials and labor. The permits reveal 24-hour construction schedules with multiple work crews employed simultaneously. Inspector Patterson noted that carpenters worked in shifts and were instructed to never stop building. His reports document architectural plans that changed weekly and room dimensions that defied standard measurements. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake damaged the house's seven-story tower, but construction resumed immediately with identical anomalous features rebuilt. These records are held in San Jose Historical Archives and many documents have been digitized. The permits provide undeniable proof of the house's bizarre construction timeline, but they raise more questions: why did building inspectors continue issuing permits for structurally impossible features?