History & local legend
The Depreciation Lands Museum in Hampton Township includes the former Pine Creek Covenanter Church. Its best-known ghost is called the Deacon, a figure described in a long coat and old-fashioned boots who is remembered for helping people.
Stories collected by Made in PGH credit him with catching a painter's ladder when it became unstable and catching a woman who fell while cleaning. In these accounts, someone receives assistance but cannot explain who supplied it. The Deacon's name and appearance connect the supposed helper with the site's earlier religious use.
The character has also become part of museum storytelling. For its 2017 lantern tours, the museum invited anyone who thought they had seen him to mark the location on a map in the tavern.
