History & local legend
Papa J’s Centro occupied 212 Boulevard of the Allies in downtown Pittsburgh, a building once associated with Mary “Mazie” Cavanaugh’s boardinghouse and brothel. Restaurant employees later told stories about a young maid who had lived and worked there.
The girl was said to appear near a hallway display of children’s portraits. People described giggling and a figure passing through a wall. In the restaurant’s lore, she was an orphan who had remained attached to the house.
A more tangible discovery came when a later owner found a box of signed customer cards hidden behind bricks near a cupboard. That surviving trace of the building’s earlier life accompanied its ghost stories until the houses at 212 and 214 Boulevard of the Allies were demolished in June 2019.
Sources
- CBS Pittsburgh, Best Haunted Bars in Pittsburgh, identifies the teenage maid tradition and the restaurant at 212
- Pennsylvania Haunts & History, retired local collection preserving the hallway, portraits and disappearance reported in the Point Park Globe
- Pittsburgh Magazine, April 2011, identifies Papa J’s upstairs ghost stories and contemporary address
- Sean D. Hamill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, interviews the previous owner, records the surviving box, building addresses, history and 2019 demolition
