History & local legend
Church Brew Works occupies the former St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood. The church’s cornerstone was laid on June 1, 1902. After the parish closed in 1993, the building was restored and reopened as a brewpub in 1996. Original pews were shortened for restaurant seating, wood salvaged from them became part of the bar, and brewing tanks were installed in the former sanctuary.
The ghost stories concern a woman in white, unexplained sounds, and objects reportedly moving without anyone touching them. VisitPittsburgh includes these accounts in its collection of local hauntings, but does not identify the woman or connect her to a documented death.
The location attracted the television program Ghost Hunters for a 2022 episode titled The Haunted Brewery.
