History & local legend
The third floor of S.W. Randall’s Smithfield Street toy shop in Pittsburgh housed its doll department. During the fall it opened to shoppers; in quieter spring months, employees might escort a customer upstairs to find a particular doll.
A former manager and buyer, writing as Maco5555, recalled feeling a hard grip on the right arm while climbing from the third to the fourth floor. The employee shouted and ran the rest of the way upstairs. It stood out precisely because they had spent so many other hours alone among the dolls without anything unusual happening.
The man who ran the doll department, Jack L., had his own account. He said he sensed two women, one at each end of the floor. The former employee associated the shop’s haunting reputation with these experiences rather than with any particular doll.
Sources
- Maco5555, self-identified former store manager and buyer, first-person account of the stairs and doll department
- Pittsburgh Magazine, Six of Pittsburgh’s Supernatural Spots Hidden in Plain Sight Downtown, describes the third-floor doll room
- S.W. Randall Toyes and Giftes, official downtown store
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2021 interview with owner Jack Cohen
