Haunted Houses & Ghost Tours in Pittsburgh, PA

The history

Pittsburgh's haunted map runs on two kinds of remains: the steel the city was built on, and the dead the movies made famous.

The steel is the Carrie Blast Furnaces, in the Monongahela River Valley communities of Swissvale and Rankin. Rivers of Steel, which runs the site, describes the furnaces on its own tour page as a remnant of the legendary U.S. Steel Homestead Steel Works and "a vestige of Pittsburgh's 20th-century domination of the steel industry." The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006, per Rivers of Steel, and its guided industrial tours run seasonally from May through October, highlighting the iron-making technology, the workers, and their culture. Rivers of Steel's visitor notes call it a 118-year-old site under ongoing stabilization and historic preservation, and give its address as 801 Carrie Furnace Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

The movie dead are documented by the haunted-attraction trade press. InPark Magazine's 2011 report on ScareHouse's then-new Pittsburgh Zombies attraction notes that the Living Dead films were "shot in and around the Pittsburgh area over the last 40 years," and quotes ScareHouse creative director and co-founder Scott Simmons — a Pittsburgh native — calling his home town "The Zombie Capital of the World." The attraction built on that legacy recreated iconic Pittsburgh landmarks, in InPark's words, "now infested with legions of the walking and hungry dead."

The third anchor is a building rather than a business. Haunted Pittsburgh's downtown ghost tour starts, per the operator's own site, outside the City-County Building at 414 Grant Street, below the statue of Mayor Richard Caliguiri — the operator is careful to note it does not start at the County Courthouse next door.

The legend

This section is folklore — reported by the sources cited, and never asserted as fact here.

Pittsburgh's best-known tour tale comes with its own warning label. It is included here at exactly that strength: a story the tour tells, labelled by its own teller as unconfirmed, not a documented event.

At the Carrie Furnaces, the paranormal claims belong to Rivers of Steel's own ticketing page for its after-dark ghost tour: alongside "a bit of the industrial history of this landmark location," visitors "will also hear first-hand stories of paranormal experiences and evidence captured on these hallowed grounds."

The zombie haunting, by contrast, is openly manufactured, and its makers have always said so. Pittsburgh Zombies was a created attraction — set designers and scenic artists recreating city landmarks for a fictional living-dead infestation drawn from films, per InPark — and ScareHouse's own current site describes its whole body of work in the same honest register: immersive storytelling, original storylines, custom-built environments and actor performances. No part of ScareHouse's horror is presented by its creators as a real haunting, and none is presented that way here.

Haunted today

Hountix lists 9 places in Pittsburgh, PA. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.

• Carrie Blast Furnaces Historic Landmark — ghost tour, 801 Carrie Furnace Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15218
• Cathedral of Learning — haunted place, 4200 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
• Clayton (The Frick Pittsburgh) — haunted place, 7227 Reynolds St, Pittsburgh, PA 15208
• Haunted Pittsburgh — ghost tour, 414 Grant St, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
• Old Allegheny County Jail — haunted place, 436 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
• Omni William Penn Hotel — haunted place, 530 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
• Portals of Fear Haunted Attraction — haunted house, 25 Majka St, West Mifflin, PA 15122
• The Church Brew Works — haunted place, 3525 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15201
• The Haunted Mine — haunted house, 748 Bull Creek Rd, Tarentum, PA 15084

Attraction stories

Carrie Furnaces Ghost Tour

The Carrie Furnaces ghost tour is a special event, not a standing attraction, and its own ticketing page, collected, sets the format honestly. "Are you ready to explore Carrie Blast Furnaces after dark?" the page asks. "After the classic horror film concludes, take a ghost tour of this storied site. Sure, you'll learn a bit of the industrial history of this landmark location, but you'll also hear first-hand stories of paranormal experiences and evidence captured on these hallowed grounds. Bring your courage and a flashlight!"

The documented ground under the stories is Rivers of Steel's own industrial-tour page: the Carrie Blast Furnaces are a remnant of the U.S. Steel Homestead Steel Works, a vestige of Pittsburgh's 20th-century steel domination, declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006, standing in Swissvale and Rankin at 801 Carrie Furnace Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15218. The regular guided industrial tour runs two hours, seasonally from May through October, covering the iron-making process, the site's technology and significance, and the culture of its workers.

Practically, per the ghost-tour ticketing page sampled: the ghost tour is a one-hour after-dark add-on, capped at 20 participants, sold only in advance and only to attendees of the Carrie Carpool Cinema screening beforehand, with no tickets at the door; the sampled listing — a Saturday, October 30 date, 9:00–10:00 p.m., $10 general admission, marked sold out — shows the format rather than a current booking, so check Rivers of Steel's calendar for any upcoming date before planning around it. Site rules from the operator apply on any visit: the grounds are mostly outdoors and uneven, open-toed shoes and high heels are prohibited, photography is permitted but videography and drones are not, and the grounds are not wheelchair accessible. Confirm all details on the site before going.

*Website: https://riversofsteel.com/experiences/tours/industrial-tour/*

Sources

• Haunted Pittsburgh — official website, homepage ("North Side and a South Side… dark side"; "greatest encounters with the unexplained"; Pittsburgh Magazine "isn't a tacky tourist trap" quote; contact email and phone as published there), read directly 2026-10-23 after the automated collector timed out on every path of this site — gap recorded: http://www.hauntedpittsburghtours.com/
• Haunted Pittsburgh — Downtown Ghost Tour page via the homepage link (start at City-County Building, 414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, below the Caliguiri statue, not the County Courthouse; Halloween season to early November, Fri–Sat 7 p.m., 75–90 minutes, rain or shine, extra October tours; $20 adult / $12 kids 12 and under; no public restrooms on route; press extracts incl. Allegheny County Jail, Carnegie Library of Oakland, Cathedral of Learning): http://www.hauntedpittsburghtours.com/
• ScareHouse — official website, homepage (founded in Pittsburgh in 1999; immersive storytelling / scenic design / effects / actor performances; Good Morning America, CBS News, ABC News, Travel Channel, The Daily Show and BuzzFeed coverage; Del Toro and Dougherty visits; The Basement; "remain on hiatus in 2026" and "ScareHouse will return"; two-night 18+ Halloween weekend promotion; Needs More Fog; 118 Locust Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15223): https://www.scarehouse.com/
• InPark Magazine — The ScareHouse Presents Pittsburgh Zombies: A New Haunted Attraction Based on Pittsburgh's Living Dead Legacy (PRNewswire release, July 28, 2011: Pittsburgh Zombies ran Sep 23–Oct 30, 2011 alongside The Forsaken and Delirium 3-D; landmark recreations; Living Dead films shot in and around Pittsburgh over 40 years; Scott Simmons "Zombie Capital of the World" quote; Travel Channel / Haunted Attraction / Fangoria rankings): https://www.inparkmagazine.com/the-scarehouse-presents-pittsburgh-zombies-a-new-haunted-attraction-based-on-pittsburghs-living-dead-legacy/
• Rivers of Steel — Industrial Tour of the Carrie Blast Furnaces (remnant of U.S. Steel Homestead Steel Works; vestige of Pittsburgh's 20th-century steel domination; National Historic Landmark 2006; two-hour guided tours May–October; 801 Carrie Furnace Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15218, in Swissvale and Rankin; 118-year-old site, ongoing stabilization; uneven outdoor grounds, footwear and photography rules): https://riversofsteel.com/experiences/tours/industrial-tour/
• Rivers of Steel — Carrie Furnaces Ghost Tour ticketing page (Blackbaud; after-dark one-hour ghost tour following the Carrie Carpool Cinema; "first-hand stories of paranormal experiences and evidence captured on these hallowed grounds"; advance tickets only, cinema attendance required, max 20 participants; sampled listing Saturday October 30, 9:00–10:00 p.m., $10, sold out): https://17919.blackbaudhosting.com/17919/tickets?tab=2&txobjid=987a1ebc-d9b1-4905-a0bf-0a61ed899745
• Haunted Pittsburgh listing page (Grandview Avenue acid-fiancé tale as retold by the operator, which itself notes no other confirmation — carried as labelled legend in the story above): https://www.schoolandcollegelistings.com/US/Pittsburgh/92169769071/Haunted-Pittsburgh-LLC