The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-01-19
By SAM JACKSON
Feature Service wri.cr)

JAP Feature Service Wrncr)
 SAN JOSE, Cal, Jan. 19.-Having spent B years in the Winchester ghost house" Custodian John P. Brown and his wife say they afe experiencing phenomena they can t explain.
 When they moved into the weird 160-room structure in 1923, the Browns scoffed at the idea the spirlt of it's owner, Mrs. Sarah Pardee Winchester, Of the riflc-manufac- turing family, would cause them any trouble. Nor were they afraid of the floating faces and detached hands which a parlor maid declared materialized around Mrs Winehes- ter.
 Many mediums asked permission to hold seances, but the Browns turned them down and have been exhibiting the house merely as an architectural monstrosity.
 Footsteps Tn The Dark
 But now, after the 18th year
 There have been footsteps going through the house at night" says Brown. T get up and search and I can't find anything. It's happened time and again.
 Something keeps unlatching the door One day it happened three times-unlatched from the inside when I was the only person in the house"
 People think they hear voices in her old bedroom says Mrs. Brown, but we just hustle them along.
 Knows Of No Attraction
 Brown thinks of nothing that would attract human providers. It is true that obituaries stated Mrs. Winchester's $20oo0,o00 fortune had shrunk at her death to $4,000000, but Brown does not believe any of the vanished money is hidden on the estate. She handled her money by cheeks" he says.
 The income from what was left went to eight nephews and nieces, the residuary estate to the New Haven Hospital association.
 "Llanada Villa" as Mrs. Winches- ter called the place, was under con- struction continuously for 36 years.
 Sought Eternal Life
 Her husband, William Wirt Win- chester, son of the founder of the Winchester Arms company, died in Hartford in 1886 According to To- cal tradition, she was instructed by Ia Boston psychic immediately after ward to start building spirit pal ace, and was told that as long as she kept building she would remain alive
 The resulting operations, which continued until she died in 1922 at the age of 85, are estimated by Brown to have cost her $3,000,0O0.
 The structures 160 rooms con- tain hundreds of doors, windows and cabinets, AT fireplaces and 49 stairways. Some features are strange in the extreme. Stairs lead into a blank wall, into a cupboard or a useless balcony. A hall has four fire places side by side. Three other fireplaces are built one above an- other on single chimney.
 There are five kitchens, three elevators. One staircase has A steps and makes 10 turns to attain an elevation of 10 feet. Ornamental posts are installed upside down Costly stained glass windows and doors with trick knobs open on to blank walls.
 The motif 13 is repeated again and again in the paneling
 Neighbors who watched the work said several times as many rooms were built and destroyed as now survive. A marquetry floor it took three years to lay was ripped up the day after completion.
 "The spirits ordered it. they ex- plained.
 A niece, Margaret Marriot, was the only person to share the singu- lar builders company. Mrs. Win chester hid even from most of her servants and often wore a veil. Scarcely half a dozen persons have seen her in as many years" said news story appearing in 1903.
 President Theodore Roosevelt. who tried to call on her, was not even admitted to the grounds.