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  • Midget Mansion
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  • As the legend goes, in the early 1920s a wealthy family of little people, a father, a mother and two children, moved to San Antonio. The father had made a lot of money appearing as a midget in Hollywood films. He had always resented having to live in houses that were built for normal sized people, as this was inconvenient for him and his family. When he was wealthy enough, he designed a tiny mansion for his family. It was entirely built to scale, down to the last detail. There were tiny stairs, tiny toilets, and door knobs lower on the doors. He also had contractors build several tiny houses next to the mansion that were meant to servants’ quarters.
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abstract
  • As the legend goes, in the early 1920s a wealthy family of little people, a father, a mother and two children, moved to San Antonio. The father had made a lot of money appearing as a midget in Hollywood films. He had always resented having to live in houses that were built for normal sized people, as this was inconvenient for him and his family. When he was wealthy enough, he designed a tiny mansion for his family. It was entirely built to scale, down to the last detail. There were tiny stairs, tiny toilets, and door knobs lower on the doors. He also had contractors build several tiny houses next to the mansion that were meant to servants’ quarters. But, for some reason, he hired normally sized people as housekeepers and servants. This was possibly because of the discrimination they had faced all of their lives. The midget family was said to have hated normal sized people, as they had been (no pun intended) looked down upon by so many of them. They took their anger out on their servants, treating them very poorly. The servants were forced to live and work in tiny, cramped and very confined spaces that were intended only for little people. The midget family enjoyed watching their tall servants struggling to cope with their dwarfed surroundings. This mistreatment went on for a long time, until finally one of the servants snapped. In a fit of rage, he set fire to the mansion and unleashed an attack on the midget family with an axe as they tried to flee. As they lay dying, the crazed servant gathered up their bodies and stuffed them into a bedroom closet. Then he took his own life. Firefighters managed to quench the flames and the horrible deed was discovered. Maybe because of its bizarre history, the property remained vacant for many years. It came to be known by locals as Midget Mansion and neighbors said that it was haunted. They heard screams and saw figures moving about inside the house even though it was vacant and had been that way for a very long time. People who have visited the mansion claimed to hear strange sounds of scratching coming from inside the walls. The sounds seemed to be loudest in the bedroom closet.