Things that go “Ooomph” in the night: The Ann Sheridan Haunted House Story!
Ann Sheridan House Reputed To Be Haunted
HOLLYWOOD (AP), April 1, 1956 – Ann Sheridan recently got a good deal on a big house in the San Fernando Valley. After she moved in, she learned why.
She bought a haunted house complete with Chinese ghost.
“After the escrow papers were all signed and my stuff all moved in, then the caretaker told me why I got the house at such a discount,” laments Ann.
According to the caretaker’s story, it seems that the big Mediterranean-style house was a gambling casino in the days when the valley was wide open and far in the country from Los Angeles. The owner was in love with a beautiful Chinese girl.
In fact, it was the young Oriental beauty who designed the exquisite landscaping on the four-acre estate. She died tragically before the flowers bloomed.
The caretaker said that many subsequent owners reported hearing mysterious clop-clop sounds, like Oriental sandals running over the tiled floors and over the brick pathways of the garden.
Ann, fortunately, doesn’t believe in ghosts and has no intention of moving. Even if she hears the clop-clop?
“When the time comes,” she reports, “I’ll bury my head in the pillow and probably smother myself to death.”
The facts:
Ann Sheridan’s Encino home at 17100 Rancho St. was originally built between 1928-29 at a budgeted cost of $20,000. The architect was Frank M. Tyler.
British oilman Sidney B. Mitchell paid for the house. Once completed, he lived there with his wife, Alice.
In 1930, the Mitchells had two male employees living on the grounds. One was a cook, the other a gardener. Both were Filipino, not Chinese. According to the the 1930 U.S. Census, the property’s value was $75,000.
Real estate transactions, however, suggest that the Mitchells did not live there long. In fact, the house and property sold every ten years at prices far below $75k.
Below are listings from 1939 and 1948.
Sheridan didn’t live there long either. In 1959, she sold it for $53,500 to G. David Schine, owner of the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel. Schine then sold it in the 1960s.
The house was lost sometime after 1986.
Below is a video from 2010.
