The Haunted Manrow House

## **History**

The Manrow House was named after the man who built it in 1851, J. P. Manrow, a civil engineer for the New York railways who came to California and made his wealth in real estate. The small Swiss-style house was located at 1908 Chestnut Street at the northeast corner of Chesnut and Larkin Streets. The site, on the northern edge of Russian Hill, had a commanding view of San Francisco Bay. The grounds included a stable and garden and were surrounded by a high fence for privacy.

Manrow enjoyed a good reputation as a smart businessman with a Scientific bent. Handsome and distinguished, he was often seen about the peninsula riding with his wife and bloodhounds. He was named judgeadvocate of the local vigilance committee, a group of private citizens who served as vigilantes to protect the public against crime. The committee forced criminals out of town and even hanged some accused murderers.

The Manrow House survived the great fire of 1906. In 1927, it was demolished to make way for a 13-story co-op apartment building at 1090 Chestnut Street. A 19-story high-rise was built at 1080 Chestnut in 1961.

## **HAUNTING ACTIVITY**

In 1851, wealthy California real estate magnate J. Munrow (J. Munrow), an excellent civil engineer and mathematician, builds a stately house in the Swiss style on a picturesque hill in San Francisco.

The house is very beautiful and is surrounded by a lush garden with a breathtaking panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay. Looks like a perfect place to live. But soon the house is taken over by evil paranormal forces, which turn it from a dream mansion into a "paradise" for nightmares.

It all begins shortly after the Manrows move into their new home. At first, with relatively innocuous things like objects disappearing from their usual places and finding them in completely unexpected places. For example, the plates on the table change places, and sugar is replaced with pepper.

Then, the residents of the house begin to hear knocking sounds coming from the ceiling, walls or under the floor. At first, people think it's rodent activity, but when the sounds get louder and the "drumming" becomes almost constant, both day and night, the residents begin to understand that something strange is going on.

The poltergeist is rapidly increasing its activity. Objects start not only moving on their own, but also hitting people.

#### The most terrible incident of this kind is the moment when Manrow himself miraculously escaped an ax flying at him.

Over time, however, the members of the Manrow family gradually began to get used to the moving objects. What's more, many of them think it's funny... As if it's some kind of children's joke. Manrow 's wife admits that these strange things didn't scare her so much as tease her because of their childhood.

> She says: "I bought an expensive hat in the city center today, and when I got home I put it on the piano. The next moment I turned around, and when I looked at her again, she was torn!”
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For quite a long time, the Manrows didn't tell anyone about what was going on in their home.

But, at one point, the head of the family told about the poltergeist to his friend Almarin Brooks Paul, a mining engineer, and then to his acquaintance, lawyer William Rhodes. They both advise Munro to hold a séance in his home to contact these spirits and find out what they need.

On September 19, 1856, the entire Manrows family, as well as Paul and Rhodes, gathered at the Manrowhome. They sat around a large table and lit many candles. Suddenly there was a loud and insistent knock.

After a few moments, the objects on the shelves "came to life" and began to fall to the floor, the books opened and closed, and an invisible creature attacked all the participants of the session, pinching them hard.

But that didn't scare anyone enough to leave the house. The people calmed down and asked the spirits who they were. The answer is immediate...

A voice is heard out of nowhere saying it is James King William. But then she "changes her mind" and says she was once a Haitian woman who died of old age.

Mr. Munro was not satisfied with these answers. In a loud voice he called the spirit a liar and called him to appear before everyone. The spirit is angry at these words.

Manrow had barely finished his speech when something hit the window with a loud crash. Then, in front of the window, everyone sees a dark figure standing. People rushed there to see her, but the figure immediately disappeared.

Meanwhile, while the séance is taking place in the living room, a servant is resting in the next room after a day's work. Suddenly, everyone hears his frightened cry, after which the servant runs into the living room and announces that there is a monster in his room.

At that moment, the dark figure reappears at the living room window, and this time it is very clearly visible.

William Rhodes describes this encounter thus:

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> > *"This terrible vision was the most horrible figure that the human eye could see. No language can describe her. It stood there in the moonlight, silent and motionless, majestic in its terrible ugliness.*
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> > *It's as if all the fantastic inhabitants of Hell have united in one masterpiece of hideous ugliness. But, even they wouldn't have such a horrible face as this creature.*
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> > *He was blacker than the blackest midnight, and over his head and body was a snow-white robe, like a cloak of freshly fallen snow. Sin personified seemed to have seized the robes of the seraphim and thrown them over his lightning-wounded body and the flames of Hell.*
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> > *His face was turned towards us in profile, and in his features I saw an expression of cruelty and revenge, darkened by the frown of eternal despair.*
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> > *There was no hope in him. His face was so terrible, so repulsive, and so menacing and black, that the whole party fled in terror.”*
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> > After staring in horror at the “goblin,” everyone in the group except Paul rushed out of the room. The library erupted in activity. Chairs, tables, rugs, and pokers danced about and flew through the air. Rhodes was struck on the head by a cushion, and one of the women was struck on the head by a flying chair cover that released a huge cloud of blinding dust. Rhodes went to the front door, but found the gate torn open and laid as a barricade across the threshold. The group then tried to exit through the kitchen at the rear of the house, even though that is where the apparition appeared. But when they opened that door, they found that the hideous form had vanished.
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> > The group then decided to summon up “spirits of the beautiful and good” to counteract and dispel the “goblin.” They returned to the Séance table in the library.
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> > Immediately benevolent spirits manifested: they felt cool hands touching them, gently stroking their hair and faces. Paul said he could see spirit hands fl itting among them. Rhodes then perceived them as well, for about five or six minutes. He said there were about a dozen of them, and they looked as real as flesh and Blood. According to Rhodes, the good spirits seemed to be trying to make amends for the preceding frightful events. Manrow, who was at the time suffering from a severe cold and toothache, asked for relief. Spirits hands caressed his jaw until his pain went away. The pleasant phenomena continued until the group reluctantly ended their session around 1 A.M.
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> > They met for a second circle the next evening. Different spirits appeared, visible outside in the bright moonlight. First the ghostly form of a girl about age 10 to 12 came to the library window. The figure was stooped and fl itted back and forth. Then another figure appeared, so close to the window that Mrs. Manrow screamed. The figure was human in form, tall and thin, and “resembled a shadow more than substance.” (See Shadow People.) It came inside the house, passing through the wall. It disappeared and reappeared several times, always passing in and out of the solid house wall.
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> > During the appearances, Paul was repeatedly upset out of his chair in a remote corner of the room, as though pushed out by invisible hands. The group asked for a Demonstration, that Paul be lifted up and tossed onto the Séance table. This was done immediately. Paul said that he felt first grasped by the collar of his coat, then lifted up off the floor and hurled forward onto the table. He was not hurt.
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> > The group ended its second circle again around 1 A.M.
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> > They reconvened for a third and final Séance on another night. After a few minutes of stillness and silence, violent activity erupted. Rolled-up maps and world globes were thrown from bookcases; the globe rolled around the floor. One globe increased in speed and crashed into a window, breaking the glass. The group asked to see the forms of the spirits responsible for the activity. At once a form like a WILL-O’-THE-WISP appeared outside the library window. It looked like a globe of wavy light and did not cast a SHADOW. It moved back and forth and changed shape into an oblong and irregular blob. As it withdrew from the window, Paul said he could see it clearly, and it changed into the shape of a newly dug grave and lay upon the ground, glowing with a pale light. Then it changed into a thin line and gradually melted away.
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> > After the Séances, poltergeist activity continued in the house for several months. No cause was ever determined. There are no records of paranormal activity by other owners of the house.
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