History & local legend
Café Victoria occupied the former Torrance family house on Western Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny West neighborhood. Francis Torrance built the brick residence between 1875 and 1877. Much later, its restaurant staff supplied stories collected by Pittsburgh ghost-story writer Sally Cech.
One recurring report concerned tables that had already been set for diners. Employees would leave the room and return to find a knife and fork crossed into an X, sometimes when the doors had been locked. Cech also described a male figure in nineteenth-century clothing with a seemingly familiar route through the property: by day he crossed the rear courtyard and disappeared near a side entrance, while at night he was seen in the front hallway.
Upstairs, accounts mentioned an elderly woman and a cat, sometimes appearing separately. The house’s documented history also includes its use as a home for blind women between 1928 and the early 1960s.
Sources
- Sally Cech, “Cafe Victoria,” contributor’s account submitted to Janet and Samuel Spitzner’s story collection and archived in 2007
- Allegheny West Civic Council, 946 Western Avenue, chain of title and documentation of Torrance’s construction in 1875–77
- Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation News, May 1995, p. 10, identifies the café on Western Avenue opposite the Sampson home
- Commercial property listing for 946 Western Avenue, including the ground-floor restaurant and courtyard dining
