Little Known Dam System which protected Turtle Creek valley at one time. Now sits abandoned due to failure to maintain it properly

If you travel over the Tri Boro Expressway Bridge  PA 130 which runs next to the Westinghouse Bridge and  carefully stop your car and look over you can see the giant walls which where once lowered to protect the Turtle Creek Valley from flooding after the flood of 1936  and others caused devastating damage.
to the Westinghouse Electric plant and other facility

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19460315&id=bDEbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=x0wEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2419,851430

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19560306&id=ZOZFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=u-gMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5333,3818729

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19641018&id=r7wbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ME8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5961,378860

But enough was enough and the Corp of Engineers built the gates but left it to local authority to maintain them.

How ever by late 80's because the turtle creek basin was not properly maintained the gates where abandoned after it would have cost millions to make them work properly .

http://www.abandonedonline.net/locations/locks-and-dams/westinghouse-flood-gate/#!

http://www.abandonedonline.net/2014/03/05/westinghouse-flood-gate/

http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_625512.html

You can change the name and purpose of a building but ghosts still follow it seems at the Pitt Student Union Building and Cathedral of learning.

I first heard the  tragic story of a ballerina when I was helping at an exhibit the Pittsburgh  Mineral and Lapidary Society I belonged to was holding in the grand hall of the Pitt Student Union Building  across from the main Cathedral of Learning Building and at one time was known as The Schenley Park Hotel which saw many a famous guest in its day.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19560925&id=6plRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1msDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5046,3745149

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19301026&id=uiEbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=l0sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1652,1556805

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19830908&id=ftYeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qGEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3819,3056387

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19830908&id=ftYeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qGEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4563,3054419

Including Diamond Jim Brady and Lillian Russel as well as Presidents and holly wood celebritys.

But it also has a sad story of a ballerina .

as shown in a excerpt  from Wikipedia

Legends

The Tansky Family Lounge in the William Pitt Union formerly served as the Schenley Hotel's lobby

A ghostly legend passed down among students begins with the story of a visit by the Russian National Ballet where it took up accommodations in the historic Schenley Hotel prior to opening its tour of the United States in Pittsburgh. The prima ballerina, tired from travel, decided to rest before the premiere performance, drifted off, and slept through her curtain call and the whole of the performance. The companies director, either so incensed by her missing the premiere, or so impressed by the stage presence of her understudy, decided to replace the prima ballerina with the young upstart for the remainder of the tour. The ballerina was so distraught that she took her own life that night, ashamed and humiliated that she would be replaced by the young understudy. It is now said if you were to ever take a nap or fall asleep for whatever reason in the Tansky Family Lounge, also known as the Red Room, you will always wake up just in time for whatever exam, class, meeting, appointment, etc. you may have missed. The Prima Ballerina haunts the room to make sure you never succumb to her same fate.^[16]
Another tale tells of a ghost haunting the Lillian Russell Room, room 437 within the offices of The Pitt News, in the area of Lillian Russell's former residence when the union served as the Schenley Hotel.^[17]
A notable infamous incident at the Schenley Hotel occurred on July 12, 1950, when a hotel night guard went on a shooting spree that resulted in the deaths of two men and the wounding of another.^[


Is there anything to the story and legend yes there have been apparitions reported in the Red and other rooms of the Student union but is it students pulling pranks or real paranormal activity ?

Then there is the case of ghosts who have followed  their former class rooms to the cathedral of learning  at Pitt.
An imposing multi story building  built in 1927

http://www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu/about/cathedral-learning

 Which as it was being built the local nationality's where asked if they would help in the location and donation of class rooms from around the world which would be part of the Cathedrals
and many different nationality arranged to have the class rooms imported to America and they are now viewable  in the cathedral of Learning  . Except in some rooms its seems the former students and teachers came with them as some are said to be haunted.

as apparitions and strange things have gone on in the rooms.Particularly the Early American Colonial class room

http://www.post-gazette.com/life/lifestyle/2009/10/31/Does-Pitt-s-Cathedral-of-Learning-host-a-ghost/stories/200910310198

Ghost or not many of the rooms are simple to spectacular like the Ukrainian room 

The Ukrainian room

SO if your ever in Oakland be sure to check them out and Pitt is not the only haunted place also The Pittsburgh Playhouse is haunted as well which I will talk about in a future article.

Did a Black Witch have the power to flood a creek and make a whole family deathly ill in Franklin Twp. Beaver County ? Sure seems so.

When my dad was working at J&L Steel Mill a friend of his C. Jackson  invited us up to stay at his summer home along Connoquenessing Creek  Which in Native American means " Long way Straight" in Franklin Twp. Beaver County. Along Mckim Way.
We stayed on the property in our pop up tent trailer and spent many a summer for several weeks at a time.
It was great  swimming fishing and playing in the woods we would make friends with the Grahams who lived along the road next to  Mr. Jackson.
 They even had a pontoon boat he took us out on as every summer they would dam the creek with sheets of steel near the bridge  along Pa 65   and my dad bought us a row boat which the grahams borrowed one year when the bridge was out so they could get back and forth and they lost all the accessories to it and did not give my dad one dime to replace them. I also got the horrifying call one night that my summer friend Tim Graham  had died from a brain bleed  at 15 the result of a car accident .

Although summers where always fun it was after Mr.Jackson died and we would stay along the creek and visit with Mrs Jackson when things got very strange a family moved in up the road a small distance and the woman  who was head of the  family Betty Ross was said to be a practitioner of the dark arts she was a Black Witch.
One time they showed up at Mrs. Jackson to perform a say-once and brought the necessary props in a baby's coffin. Dee claims during the session she could smell her grandmothers perfume and heard her voice 
OK so we all got a laugh out of it  saying she was set  up and they where playing mind games with her and for most part no one bothered the Ross's and they seemed friendly when you went by there place if they where sitting out. I kept my distance and always said hello as I walked or biked by .

Charlies house now has a garage cut into the front of it

But then rumors spread of a fight Mrs. Ross had with a nearby family and she cast a spell on them throwing feathers in their yard and the whole family got deathly ill that summer.

Then the following year the creek flooded  the whole valley but just high enough so water did not go in their doorway they had little damage while others had a lot of damage. Supposedly again she was behind it because of a fight with neighbors and she spilled water in the middle of the street and read out a curse.

But after the flood we did not see them again  and we stopped staying at the property after the Manz's which where   Dee Jackson's relatives started getting very strange  with their behavior and getting nasty towards us for no reason. When Dee died and my mom went to her funeral they gave her the cold shoulder. and totally disrespected my mom and Dee after years of friendship.

Unfortunately all the little cottages and most of what I remember from when I was a kid in the 1960's has been destroyed and some caught fire and are in total disrepair when you ride down Mckim Way now it looks like a Ghetto and the Flood. of 2004 when Hurricane Ivan came thru  took care of what was left standing many cottages where destroyed including Betty's cottage  when water went over their roofs. when you look at mckim way on Google earth you can see all the patches of bare ground where a cottage stood.

Yellow Pins show some of the missing cottages.

Did Betty Ross have the power to make people ill and cause the flood  sure seems a coincidence then again maybe it was all in the family's minds they where cursed  and the flood that was gods doing but when rumors start flowing there is no stopping them. Look at the Salem Witch trails which where based on nothing.