Late at night, Edgar Allan Poe relative might haunt Cathedral

Next time you’re walking alone on the third floor of the Cathedral late at night, don’t… Next time you’re walking alone on the third floor of the Cathedral late at night, don’t forget to look around. Though the hall looks empty, you might have company.

You might be sharing the space with Martha Jane Poe, the ghost of the Early American Room and a relative of Edgar Allan Poe.

Maxine Bruhns, director of the Nationality Rooms and Martha Jane’s granddaughter, likes to tell the tale.

She says the spirit lives in the Early American Room, located at room 327 of the Cathedral of Learning. It’s a space with 16th century décor, including a table with chairs and a large fireplace. At first glance, it appears to be the only room. But on the right side of the room, a secret wall panel reveals a narrow passage leading to a staircase and a hidden bedroom above.

When climbing to the bedroom, the stone steps exhale with force, sighing in relief as the visitor reaches the doorway. This bedroom is decorated with 19th-century-style furniture, much of which was donated by the Poe family. Grandma Poe’s wedding quilt is draped over the bed, with her framed picture next to it. There is also a cradle with bedding that Bruhns used when she was a baby.

But how did this room become haunted? Bruhns said the ghost stories started in 1979, when former Pitt janitor John Carter was in the bedroom for routine cleaning. The quilt on the bed was turned down, which was odd, but Carter quickly remade it, dismissing the coincidence. He turned around and started to clean another part of the room. A few minutes later, he turned back to the bed and could barely believe his eyes.

The quilt was once again turned down, as if he had never made the bed. But what really chilled Carter was an imprint on the pillow that looked like someone had been resting her head.

Carter waited an entire year to tell anyone the story because he didn’t want to seem crazy, Bruhns said.

But Carter wasn’t the only custodian who flirted with the unknown.

Floyd Clawson, one of the current custodians in charge of maintaining the room, was never a believer in spirits until about a year ago. Clawson said he was walking up the stairs to clean the bedroom when a shadow glided past him, too close for comfort. Clawson stopped in his tracks and turned to his partner, Ruth Mullen, who knew he must have seen something.

“You don’t shock Floyd,” Mullen said.

After hearing these stories, Bruhns thought that something had to be done. In hopes of communicating with her grandmother’s spirit, Bruhns decided to spend a night alone in the bedroom on her grandparents’ wedding anniversary.

Bruhns said she curled up in her sleeping bag at the foot of the bed and placed her purse on a chair beside her. As she lay there, she listened to the Cathedral breathe around her, moaning with creaks and groans.

Bruhns was just about to fall asleep when she suddenly awoke to a “swishing” sound above her head, similar to that of moving material, she said.

Seconds later, she heard a loud crash.

Huddled in the silent darkness for a few minutes, Bruhns grabbed her flashlight and scanned the room to find the source of the noise.

What she saw freaked her out. Her water bottle had fallen from its secured spot in her bag on the chair. It was as if someone, or something, had moved it.

“That’s when I picked up my belongings and said, ‘Grandma, you can have this damn room!’” Bruhns said.

There are more eerie stories. When the University was renovating the Early American Room a few years ago, someone carefully wrapped the picture of Grandma Poe and placed it in a drawer. After the room repairs were complete, Bruhns took the picture out to find two large cracks in the middle of the frame. The contractors insisted they were careful with the picture and didn’t break it.

So who was responsible? The room can only be opened with a key for guided tours. Bruhns blames it on her phantom ancestor.

If that story doesn’t make you want to run into your dorm and hide under the covers, then maybe this next one will.

This story is about a female ghost who might live a bit too close to some Pitt students. Before Bruce Hall was a dormitory, it was an apartment building that belonged to the man who built the Schenley Hotel, which is now the William Pitt Union, Bruhns said. The story claims that both his wife and mistress committed suicide in room 1201. One woman was found hanging from the stairway behind the fireplace. The other is said to have jumped to her death from the building’s stairwell. Though these reports cannot be confirmed, it is interesting to note that the building’s entire staircase is now caged in, indicating that perhaps something dangerous did happen.

Whatever the reason for the protection, many believe that a woman’s spirit, often referred to as “Harriet,” haunts the 12th floor of the building.

The floor is now used as a rentable catering facility for special events. However, on some late nights, employees served more than just party guests.

According to “Ghost Stories of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County,” many of the room’s waitresses complained about strange and unexplainable incidents, like hearing footsteps and voices.

On one occasion, a waitress was in the room cleaning by herself cleaning. She was putting away the last items when she heard a loud noise coming from the staircase, according to the book. The waitress said the noise grew so loud that she ran to the kitchen, grabbed the phone and locked herself in the bathroom, trying to persuade someone to come get her. The noise eventually stopped, but it started again every time she walked out of the kitchen.

There have also been reports of people feeling like “they are being watched,“ according to the book. In fact, night waitress Pat Castelli believed that the spirit Harriet had followed her home. The incident started when she was cleaning up by herself but got the feeling that someone was watching her. When she came home, she walked into the house with a lingering eerie feeling.

Like most nights, she turned out the kitchen light and began to walk down her dark hallway until she bumped into someone’s chest. Castelli thought she had collided with her husband, so she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t even see you there.” She continued down the hall only to find her spouse in a deep sleep.

But what do the students actually living in Bruce Hall think of Harriet?

Jordan Frank, a Pitt sophomore who lives on the eleventh floor of Bruce Hall, was skeptical of the ghost story until strange things started happening around him. He’s heard weird noises and doors opening and closing, he said, and items in his suite would suddenly go missing.

But those episodes were nothing compared to the one that really creeped him out.

“I came home late one night, around three in the morning. A weird lady got on the elevator with me,” Frank said. “She was wearing a neck brace. I asked her what floor she was going to, and she said 12.”

A bit freaked out by the brace, Jordan got out of the elevator on his own floor, leaving the woman to ride to 12 alone. He hasn’t seen her since.

So are these stories fact or fiction?

Ask Bruhns what she thinks, and she’ll tell you.

“I’ve had enough experience here for the past 20 years to make me a believer,” she said.