Pittsburgh Ghost Walks

Get spooky on a Pittsburgh walking ghost tour

http://www.pittnews.com/article/2009/10/13/get-spooky-pittsburgh-walking-ghost-tour

Haunted Pittsburgh: Ghost Walks

September — 7 p.m.
October — 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m
Starting from the Carson Street Deli.
1507 E. Carson St., 412-381-5335
Tickets — $15 purchased at the Carson Street Deli

Most of us may snore through history lessons, but we usually perk up at the mention of ghost stories.

But what do ghost stories and history have to do with each other? It turns out that in Pittsburgh, the answer to that question is quite a lot.

This October, the newly formed organization Haunted Pittsburgh will tell Pittsburghers the spooky stories of the city through Haunted Pittsburgh: Ghost Walks.

The group recently launched walking ghost tours in the South Side, with plans for dinners at Gypsy Café in October.

The group is the pet project of attorneys Michelle Smith and Tim Murray, who shared a vision of Pittsburgh ghost tours.

“We noticed that most large cities and lots of not-so-large towns have successful ghost tours,” Murray said. “A lot of these places regard ... ghost tours as civic treasures, and we wondered why Pittsburgh didn’t have a permanent, ongoing ghost tour in a big neighborhood.”

It’s certainly not because Pittsburgh’s devoid of ghosts. According to Murray, the city is full of stories.

“We began doing research, and we found that Pittsburgh has a plethora of wonderful ghost stories, a lot of them involving some of this town’s most important historical figures,” Murray said.

This includes the powerful Henry Clay Frick and Roberto Clemente, he said.

“[We] learned Pittsburgh is an absolute treasure trove of great stories — stories that few people are telling nowadays, because there just isn’t a venue for it,” Murray said. “We decided to start Haunted Pittsburgh to fill the void.”

According to Murray, Haunted Pittsburgh stands out from haunted houses in its style and message.

“We are more akin to historians and storytellers as opposed to paranormal investigators,” he said. “We focus on the ghost stories themselves and the history and tradition that surround the stories.”

Haunted Pittsburgh uses the South Side neighborhood for its walking tour and dinners. It’s impossible to have tours in every neighborhood with ghost stories, but the South Side has its benefits.

“South Side is unique because of its big population and heavy concentration of ... mid-19th-century homes and ... because of its sheer vitality,” Murray said.

“If you’re looking for ghost stories, ironically enough, you usually have to go where there’s a lot of life, and in Pittsburgh, that’s South Side,” he said.

In Pittsburgh, history and ghost tales will always include the old steel industry that gave Pittsburgh its nickname, “The Steel City.”

“South Side was a steel mill neighborhood,” Murray said. “The mills are imprinted on our town’s DNA, and they provide for some creepy ghost tales. Pittsburgh has famously been called ‘hell with the lid off.’ Our city’s character was forged in vicious labor strife and in pig-iron furnaces so hot that men and women sometimes forget their fear of hell. Any town that has lived through the turbulence and tumult we’ve experienced can’t escape its ghosts.”

These days, the friendly atmosphere in some restaurants allows introductions to other people in the community, including paranormal believers and real-life mediums, Murray said. He added that there is a medium who regularly attends the ghost walks and dinners.

“People are naturally curious, and they love to ponder mysteries,” Murray said. “There is no greater mystery than what lies beyond. Our ghost tour and dinner taps into that curiosity. Interest in what lies beyond predates recorded history. It really comes down to personal belief — religion grapples with these questions, and we’d defer to the theologians on these matters.”

People might struggle with the answers, but perhaps the answers are best left alone for now. It lends more mystery to the ghost tours.

“The good thing for us is that people coming to the walking tour or the dinner know going in that we’re not going to solve the great riddles of life after death for them,” Murray said. “They’re just looking to us to give them an hour of chills and goosebumps and maybe learn some damn interesting things about Pittsburgh’s great history.”

Haunted Pittsburgh’s tour guide is historian James “Woody” Cunningham, a true raconteur. He has done his research, and he thinks there’s something special about Pittsburgh.

“What makes [Pittsburgh] different from most [cities] that I’ve been to is that the more research you do into it, the more true they seem to be,” Cunningham said.

True or not, tours do not guarantee a ghost sighting. This is story time. Cunningham still warns any non-believers on the tour: “If you don’t like cats, they’ll sit on your lap. It seems to be the same thing with ghosts.”

The walk down several streets goes past old houses and businesses, while presenting a view of the river and city. Cunningham picks which stories to tell from his memorized bank of tales.

Tales include sweet hospital nuns, as well as unfortunate steel workers who fell into the vats.

The tours and dinners always end with what Haunted Pittsburgh calls “the 1129 Ridge story” — a tale about one of the nation’s most haunted houses.

It’s a chilling, graphic and even potentially dangerous legend. Decades ago, when Thomas Edison took one of his inventions — that could supposedly talk to the dead — in a house, he left and told residents to leave it alone.

This house no longer stands, which is probably for the best.

In the end, its demise leaves Haunted Pittsburgh with one hell of a tale to share.

Reservations for Gypsy Café ghost dinners can be made through the restaurant. Check the website for specific dates at hauntedpittsburghtours.com.