IS THE BLAZIER HOUSE HAUNTED?

The following article is from "Baden's Sesquicentennial News" special supplement to "The News" copyright 1988 R.A. Palket Co. Inc., December 15, 1988.

Stories about Captain Calvin Blazier's house on State Street abound.

One former resident swears that it is haunted, but by good ghosts, and another had strange things happen there, but he doesn't think the house is haunted.

The house at State and Bryan was built by the Machesney family in the 1870s and sold to Blazier, a riverboat captain.

Rick Katterson, president of Olde Economie Financial Consultants, Ltd., which now occupies the house, says that if it is haunted the haunters are friendly.

William J. Bowan, who has a number of pictures of the house at various stages of its history, reports that Blazier bought the property from the Machesneys about 1890.

"The spacious front porch faced his beloved Ohio River and from there he could wave to the other riverboat pilots who would blow the heavytoned steam whistles when passing," Bowan said.

He reports that in 1941 Charles and Anthony Pascuzzi purchased the house and lived in it until 1975. In 1985-86 the house was modernized by David Kowalski. The current owners are Rick Katterson and John Toth.

"Some of the special features originally built into the house include the large reception hallway with an open staircase. On the landing between the first and second floors is the exquisite stained-glass window. The oval-shaped room on the second floor was once the captain's bedroom," Bowan commented in his information concerning the house.

"The bay windows were at one time oval shaped also, having a set of three on the down river side with each having curved glass panels. In the recent house renovation, these pains were replaced with flat glass ...This home, as do many older homes, has a fireplace in nearly every room..."

Bowan is one of those who scoffs at the haunted theory.

"That is attributed to every old house," Bowan told a Times reporter who wrote about the "haunted house."

In that story it was reported that a boy was told in a dream about a white piece of cardboard under a black mat in the hallway. The cardboard was there, but there was nothing behind the black stove, as the note indicated.

Another former resident reported that papers would be rearranged on his desk when he returned, but he was skeptical about ghosts.

Captain Blazier retired about 1931 after spending about 60 years on the river. After his retirement he would wave to the riverboats as they went by. He was known as "The Patriarch of the Mississippi," for the many years he spent plying his trade between Pittsburgh and the Gulf of Mexico.

If he is the haunter of his former house, he would be sticking around to be close to the river he loved.

511 State Street Baden, PA 15005-1738 Phone: 724 - 869-7526 Fax: 724 - 869-3794 Toll Free: 800 - 727-6332