The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-17
AN EccENTRICs CASTLE.

| - Millionaire's Luxurious Home Behind
 Iron Fortiffcatfons in squalid AL
 ley.
 The story of Washington's most ec- centric millionaire, the late Dr. Leroy M. Taylor, who for three years made his home in an impregnable fortified castle in the. heart of an alley in the northwest section, has Just become public by reason of the fact that the Washington Loan and Trust company has undertaken the settlement of his estate.
 Owning more than one hundred and thirty houses in the city, Dr. Taylor, who was man of wealth, refinement and education, chose to make his home during the latter years of his,lffe next door to a stable and in narrow court inhabited by negroes.
 l When the executors of his will made an examination into his intimate pri- vate affairs on Saturday last they found the most remarkable place of residence in the capital. Ills house Is a feudal palace, protected by all the in ventions of the twentieth century. I Two stories in height, solidly built as a fortress, with heavy sheet iron doors and windows, and iron bars at. every aperture and steel wire netting lamped upon the inside of each open ing, the weird habitation stands at an angle of a blind court in Browns Alley, between Fourth and Fifth and l. and M streets northwest, surrounded 1 by shanties, like medieval chateau lfrowning upon a neighboring peasant village. The exterior is as grim as a dungeon or madhouse, which it resem- bles.
 | Inside are luxuriously furnished apartments, containing costly fllrni- ture most unique, and one of the most l valuable libraries in Washington, tro- phies of the chase, weapons and curios from the Orient, rare engraylngs and etchings, rugs and draperies from India "a whimsical collection of art, litera- lture and sciences from the -four corners Q. the world.
 I When the officials of the trust com. \ pany treaded their way through the al- Hey to enter the queer building they stepped from the squalor of a metro politan slum into an atmosphere-of occultism. pr. Taylor was student of the mystical religions of the east
 where he was frequent traveller, and back to Washington to a dingy alley he brought 8 picturesque assortment of
 books and decorations which would at tract none but a man of peculiar sensi- bilities and discriminating taste. In 1896 Dr. Taylor, grief stricken at the death of his wife, who was the daughter of the late Charles w. Uter- lmehle, and from whom he inherited his T fortune in Washington real estate ap, .Iproximating one million dollars, built after designs of his own, strong dou. l blc walled structure in Browns Alley \ He moved there the furnishings of his lhandsome home in Massachusetts ave. lnue and took up his. residence in tht iplace. It was said he did not care fol lsociety after the death of his wife, ant lthat he selected the alley as his hom, to escape all but a chosen circle ot friends. ...
 The building which he erected Is a. difficult of access as a safe deposi
 vault. There are three outside doors
 on the first floor, one to the kitchen one to cement fioored cellar, and on, to hallway leading to the library, ev lidently the room which most pleased tho tenant. All of these doors are dou
 ble. The outer doors are constructed
 of single plates of riveted iron which lwhen closed, entirely block the open Iings and clamp securely to the wall On the inside of each door opening is { heavy, massive oaken door, doubl