History & local legend
The John Blythe House at 808 West Main Street in Monongahela once housed Collectiques, an antiques shop operated by Donna Baran. Its ghost stories came from people working and shopping among the old objects, including a visitor who singled out the room known as the green room.
Alissa Tomasy was visiting her mother, one of the shop’s dealers, when she felt a sudden chill there. She told her mother she could see a young girl. After returning home to Florida and developing her photographs, Tomasy believed one image showed a figure against a wall.
Baran recalled a different incident while she was alone downstairs. Hearing repeated banging above her, she went up to investigate. An old toy robot was walking back and forth and striking the wall. What puzzled her was that no one at the shop had previously been able to make it work. The two accounts were reported during coverage of Monongahela’s 2006 candlelight ghost walk.
Sources
- Lynda Guydon Taylor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 8, 2006, named accounts of Alissa Tomasy and owner Donna Baran; green room photograph caption identifies 808 W. Main
- ExplorePAHistory, Collectiques, historic address and antique dealers occupying the house
- Esri World Geocoding, 808 West Main point address
- KartaView, dated street-level photograph centered on the house with the 808 entrance plaque
- Monongahela Area Library, October 2024, identifies the homeowners and the John Blythe House on its tour
- Christine Somales, 150 Years Haunted, October 2025 event at the house, with the 808 W. Main address
