Some places never
let their stories rest.

Westmoreland County · Historic homes

West Overton Village near Scottdale grew around the Overholt family's farm and distillery. A 2007 Tribune-Review report collected ghost stories associated with several of its surviving buildings, including two different barns and the family homestead. At the museum's first haunted-house program, a volunteer in the small barn dragged a chain across the upper floor to create a frightening sound. When he stopped, the noise reportedly continued. A separate story came from reenactors camping near the big barn: they saw a shadow shaped like a man in a stovepipe hat pass their tents, but found nobody when they investigated. Inside the Overholts' house, staff described brief glimpses of figures moving between rooms and footsteps when no one was nearby.

Allegheny County · Historic homes

Radio news anchor Lisa Alexander heard stories about earlier tenants after moving into an apartment on North Lincoln Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny West neighborhood. The couple reportedly came home to find children’s shoes arranged in a row, and the wife once heard someone whispering for help at night. Alexander invited John DuMaurier to investigate, with Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Gretchen McKay accompanying the visit. From the second-floor living room, DuMaurier looked toward the dark stairwell and said he could picture a small brown-haired child in a corner. Alexander’s friend Gracilynn Cloud also described the boy, imagining him as about five years old with trousers he had outgrown. McKay recorded their impressions and Alexander’s account of the former tenants in a February 22, 2000, article.

Philadelphia County · Historic homes

The Betsy Ross House on Arch Street in Philadelphia is a museum associated with the upholsterer credited in American tradition with making the first United States flag. Its small rooms present the domestic and working world of eighteenth-century Philadelphia. They have also attracted visitors looking for a different kind of connection with the past. In its published investigation of the house, the group Phantom Detectives reported thermal-camera images that it considered unusual, sounds interpreted as voices, and motion sensors responding when no visible person was nearby. The investigators also described apparent figures in camera imagery. Their account is a modern ghost-hunting report, rather than a story tied to a single identified former resident.