Ghost Tours Popular in PA Town
[Original headline: Listen to this tale ... if you dare! ]

For the second straight year, the president of the Monongahela Area Historical Society [Pennsylvania] will be leading a series of Ghost Tours through downtown Monongahela. If last year's turnout is any indication, the tickets will disappear fast, so Bowers is taking reservations at 258-2377 after 5 p.m. Tickets are $5.

Bowers promises to recount the same favorites for visitors who participated in the tours last year.

She has also collected a few new ghost stories. In addition to leading the tours through the downtown area, Bowers will recount some stories involving houses throughout the city as she leads the tour.

Patterned after similar tours in Williamsburg and Gettysburg, the local tours are the product of endless research conducted by Bowers.

The tales told on the tour are true, as related to her by members of the city whom claim to have come face-to-face with ghosts.

Bowers hopes the research will one day lead to a book. She hopes to collect at least two dozen tales before proceeding to write the book.

Here are a few examples of the stories told by Susan Bowers during the Ghost Tours last year:

• The row houses along Main Street, across from Transfiguration Church, were built by John Blythe in the late 19th century. One of those houses once held the historical society museum. One historical society member was taking boxes to the museum one night. She fumbled with the boxes and her keys before opening the door. A staircase lies directly inside the door and, as she entered the building, she looked up to see the ghost of a woman with a baby in her arms walking down the stairs.

• Edward Acheson was a famous inventor who was a student of Thomas Edison. The current owners of his house and their daughter have all seen ghosts or aberrations. Two years ago, their daughter was headed down a hallway when she began to see a little girl in a dress.

One night while her husband was away, the woman who lives in the house said she saw a short man with glasses walking toward her wearing a jacket and a cap. She jumped up to turn on the lights and the man disappeared.

• Before the new library was built, the site was home to the Borland House. After the death of Mark Borland, his granddaughter heard footsteps one night on the third floor of the house and, when she went up to see what was going, a door that was always locked to keep out the cold in the drafty house was open. She locked it and ran back to her room, not stopping until she was in bed and under the covers. The next morning she went to check it out, and found the door open again.

One night in 1960, Marcia awoke to the sound of someone calling her name. She went into one room to find an old rocking chair rocking back and forth. No one was in it.

[Source published - Valley Independent / By Chris Buckley | October 1 1999]