Said to be The Most Haunted House in America ? it was nothing but a Lie The Congelier House on Pittsburgh's North side

before they redid the north side approaches to the West End Bridge  in Pittsburgh there sat a house  near an intersection where there where many horrific accidents.
This house would go on to be called one of the most haunted houses in America.

The first I heard of the Victorian era Congelier  House on Ridge ave  was on KDKA TV where a former KDKA personalty  Beth  E. Trapani wrote a book about hunted pittsburgh sites

http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Stories-Pittsburgh-Allegheny-County/dp/1880683059

It told of horrific story's of a mad scientists working out of the home and headless women's body's being found . How Thomas Edison had come to examine the house 

http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/history/a/congelier_house.htm

How a gas worker was killed by an unknown force  and how the house was destroyed and dissapered  in a violent natural gas tank explosion  .

the whole story thou appears to be nothing more than a string of lies thou. 

http://www.hauntinglypa.com/Congelier_mansion_debunked.html

http://www.prairieghosts.com/ridge.html

 Because I still remember the house standing when I was a kid and the explosion was in 1927 it  was not of significant style and looked more like one of the many common row houses for the time period

So who ever or where ever this story came from appears to be the real mystery.

A series of Bombings in 1931 Pittsburgh against Italian Organizations unsolved to this day

1931 was a year of turmoil in the Italian community's of the USA  as a wave of mysterious bombings around Pittsburgh and other large city's with Italian populations. Possibly by Anti Fascist's or Anarchists who where  opposed Benito Mussolini  absolute take over of the country of Italy. A sworn enemy of the (Mafia )  la Costra-Nostra  Benito Mussolini had many enemy's world wide.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19310812&id=52dTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=noUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1911,993412

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19311231&id=9m8bAAAAIBAJ&sjid=S0sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3634,3484218

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19320103&id=-78aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UksEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2057,175214

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19311231&id=9m8bAAAAIBAJ&sjid=S0sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6444,3431447

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19310812&id=27dRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OmkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5498,216581

One such bombing caused severe damage to the front of the Italian Consulate in oakland section of Pittsburgh

 at 511 North Neville Street as seen in the picture above

Although there was an arrest in Cleveland FBI was unable to tie the cases together and the individuals responsible are unknown to this day.  Where mafia sympathizers involved after Mussolini had many arrested jailed and tortured or deported very possible.  But this again is a case where the statutes of limitations has long run and those involved long dead and gone. It makes for an interesting foot note in Pittsburgh and US history. as many Italians where not welcomed in this country when they first arrived in this country seen as foreign invaders they where often discriminated against and at times paid even less than negro workers at the time when some coal mines etc paid Irish , Negroes and Italians much less than others.  so could anti Italians have been involved in the bombings ? this is also possible as well . Who ever did the bombings they covered there tracks well. 

A Real Life Alligator in Beaver Run . Reservoir in Bell Twp Pa. ?

Yes the summer of 2011 was an interesting one in Bell Twp in Westmoreland County when an Alligator was spotted swimming in the closed to the public Beaver Run Reservoir  by Reservoir employees. The waters which provide drinking water to parts of Westmoreland County .
I some times take Pa 286 as a short cut up to US 22 and one day while riding by there was all kind of news

 and police on scene so  I knew something was up and there surely was. 

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/10/25/alligator-at-beaver-run-reservoir-remains-elusive/

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/10/06/officials-will-try-to-rescue-alligator-in-beaver-run-reservoir/

 Apparently some one had a pet alligator which got too big and it was released into the reservoir. spotted twice during the summer of 2011 it has not been seen since and the extreme cold makes the chance it survived the winter of 2011 highly unlikely .  While the reservoir was off limits to public there was still plenty to worry about with family's which lived near it . Yes there have always been rumors of alligators in sewers which is nothing more than a myth they can not survive long in the waste water , but snakes have been found usually dead. the carcass of a very large python was found in a city of Pittsburgh  sewer in Overbrook when I was a kid  in the 60's I remember the picture in the Pittsburgh Press and knew the city worker who found it.

A strange looking building in downtown Pittsburgh with a smoke stack and a story to tell

Photo credit PACT Web Site

Thousands of people go by this strange looking building and smoke stack  along Fort Duquesne Blvd. on a daily basis and never give it a second thought  but it serves an important function and also saw a drama play out which would result in the rewarding of the Carnegie Heroes medal to a smoke stack worker who saved a fellow worker.






Once much taller when the smoke stack burned coal Now of days it burns Oil or Natural Gas this was one of 2 plants that produced steam to heat buildings and there hot water systems in the down town area.  which where once known as Allegheny County Steam Heat Company which was a subsidiary of Duquesne Light Company .

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19511115&id=ScNRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=m2oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1764,1166881

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19760229&id=5uAhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J1gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6474,3309755

Back in the day it was much more pollution wise and economic wise to have centralized steam provided by one stack instead of several hundred separate operating coal fired  boilers .


But as time and technology rolls on it became cheaper for some buildings to go it on there own and install there own boilers and disconnect from the system which ended up being rescued and now operates as a non profit   Pittsburgh  Allegheny County Thermal. Ltd.
http://pacthermal.com/about-us.html
 

How ever the real story of this building goes way back to 1948when the stack and building where being being repaired and scaffolding collapsed and involved tremendous courage and heroics by one of the workers to save another several hundred feet up in the air Which resulted in the awarding of the Carnegie hero medal 

http://www.carnegiehero.org/about-the-fund/history/

The rescue is unbelievable when a boatswain  chair collapsed and a worker from Avalon Ross Chapman  hanging by one leg on one rung of a ladder  rescued a fellow worker.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19480129&id=9lsbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H00EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5610,4195333

Ironically he saved the same worker Samuel Hopkins   years earlier in a flag pole mishap on a different job site on Private  Brunot Island which Duquesne Light maintains a large power plant .

While never considering himself a hero Mr. Chapman surely was.