The Back Porch Steps and Pre '06 Kitchen

Leaving the fourth floor, the tour will descend all the way back to the first floor. On the way down, you'll pass through the heart of the mansion, and get another glimpse into the Seance Room through a window that looks in from a hallway.

Back on the first floor, you'll find your guide waiting patiently at the top of a short set of steps, reportedly the original steps of the farmhouse Mrs. Winchester purchased in 1884. Again you'll find that Mrs. Winchester traveled through here regularly, as a set of Easy Riser stairs run next to the original steps. These would have taken her to the laundry room and a kitchen used before 1906, but boarded up after the earthquake. Although the laundry room apparently remained in use after the 1906 Earthquake, this kitchen marks the first floor boundary of rooms that were sealed off.

It was once believed that Mrs. Winchester invented and patented the design for the sinks (pictured above) in this room (the counters "save" water by having slanted grooves cut into them), but more recently the tour operators confirmed that Mrs. Winchester had no patents to her name. This means that there is almost nothing of substance to say about this room, and I can tell you I dreaded this stop on every tour I gave. Unfortunately, the distance between the Back Porch Steps and the next stop on the tour necessitates an intermediate stop, so I was stuck explaining that we used to think there was something interesting about this room, but we were wrong.

I consoled myself by remembering that the script for the next stop included a story about Teddy Roosevelt, and nothing livens up a tour like Teddy Roosevelt. Read all about it tomorrow as we visit THE GUEST RECEPTION HALL!