Southwestern Pennsylvania, especially Greene County, is no stranger to things that go bump in the night. The area is brimming with legends and tales of ghostly encounters, creature confrontations, and other supernatural activity. Many tales of Greene County’s paranormal activity have been covered in Kevin Paul’s Haunted Hills and Hollows book series, as well as other authors and historians.
And sitting amongst the legends and stories, on ground that has seen battle and bloodshed, are the many homes and businesses that make up the county seat of Waynesburg. Many of these locations have their own ghostly apparitions and activity to tell, and the Denny and Huffman houses of Waynesburg are no different.
The Denny House has been a part of Waynesburg since before the Civil War. Its stately lions guard its entrance along High Street, and its unique architecture catches the eye of drivers and pedestrians alike. The house of Elezear and Louise Denny, and the couple’s three daughters – Mary, Josephine, and Helen – has recently been restored to its full glory thanks to new owners.
The much simpler two-story house grew into the three-story Victorian landmark we see today, thanks to the additions of its original owner, Eleazer Luse Denny, funded by the gas and oil boom of the 1890s. The additions and renovations made the house a one-of-a-kind beauty.
“By 1902, workmen were busy adding the three-story facade with its Flemish design… Its parapets were appointed with terra cotta and opened into a vestibule tiled in hand done mosaics, then on to rooms and rooms of Victorian finery.
No expense was spared – trim, stairways, balusters and wainscoting throughout the house were rare, quarter-sawn tiger oak; parlor walls were covered in hand painted canvas and hand painted motifs decorated the ceilings. There were one-of-a-kind terra cotta fireplaces, and the ornate chandelier was a stunning feature in the front parlor.” (GreeneScene Magazine, “I Love This Place”, July 2021)
Eleazer died in 1910, leaving his family to maintain the estate. The last Denny in the home, his daughter Josephine, died in 1992. Over the next thirty years, the estate changed ownership multiple times, serving at times as a bed and breakfast, a private home, and a business. The newest owners, Pam and Kent Marisa, purchased the house in May 2021 and began immediate renovations to restore the house to its former glory. “As soon as we walked in, my husband and I fell in love with it. We had to have it!” Pam says.
Renovations on the Denny House were carefully completed to maintain the proper look and feel of the house’s original period. The furniture and fabrics of the newly restored home bring the feel of the period alive. “It’s like a museum and we want to keep the history of the Denny family alive,” Pam says.
The Huffman House, located a short walk from the Denny House, is also a grand piece of historical architecture, although in a more advanced state of decay. Thomas Jefferson (T.J.) Huffman had the house built in 1907. Adding to the atmosphere of the house, Huffman was organizer and CEO of Huffman Furniture and Undertaking Company until his death in 1937. The house passed to his daughter Inez and her husband C.W. Parkinson. The Parkinson would own the home until the Toothman family bought it and turned into law offices. The house sat vacant after the law offices moved, falling into disrepair. The Marisa’s saw another opportunity to revitalize downtown Waynesburg and purchased the house in 2022. “While our vision is still evolving, we plan to restore it to its former elegance. We hope this adds yet another element to the revitalization of the west end of High Street in Waynesburg,” Pam says.
Is it any wonder that homes built and remodeled during the turn of the century might have some otherworldly anecdotes of their own? Wanting to learn more about their new houses on a deeper level, the Marisas connected with local paranormal investigators Outsider Paranormal SWPA during the spring of 2022.
The founders of Outsider Paranormal, Damon Keys and Fred Tennant, had their interest in the paranormal sparked by individual experiences in their youth. In 2011, the cousins investigated Hill View Manor in New Castle and, after an encounter there, formed their own investigation team. Since then, the team has gathered over a decade of experience and expanded to include new members, as well as merging with Chuck and Kim Kruezer of Pursuit of Paranormal SWPA to become Outsider Paranormal SWPA. “They knew it would be hard to do it with just the two of them, and we were looking to expand and get a more diversified team,” Damon shares. “We’re better for it.”
The Marisas opened first the Denny House and later the Huffman House to the investigators. Upon their first visit to the house for a tour, while visiting the wine cellar, the group picked up a disembodied voice saying, “We don’t serve water here.”
“We started off with visits to the Denny House, once a week, maybe twice a week, just getting a profile of the place and building its story,” Damon says. “We got the history from Pam and Farley [Toothman], as well as the articles of Colleen [Nelson]. Over time, we started to build the paranormal profile of the house, thanks to lots of investigating. In this case, the investigation was extremely beneficial. It yielded more results than our research did. We were often getting answers to questions we hadn’t asked, only to discover the relevant information when doing more historical research.”
A situation that occurred multiple times were mentions of “fire” and the “barn”. (The Denny House has a carriage house as opposed to a barn.) The confusion over the answers they were receiving was cleared by Farley when he shared that the Denny sisters referred to the carriage house as “the barn.”
During their investigations at the Denny House, the groups contacted multiple female and one male spirit through the portal box, witnessed a woman in white upstairs, glimpsed shadows, caught light anomalies, heard disembodied voices and unexplained sounds, and more. They’ve spotted a hairy black shadow and later learned that there was a little black dog that was on the property. There also seems to be a little boy named Jack that plays in the basement.
They also investigated the falling candelabra/sconce story that had been told to them. While on a visit to the house to interview Farley, they heard a bang, and the candle was laying on the floor. They attempted to recreate it but could not. Once they fixed it so that it wouldn’t fall out, the other candle fell out.
“This house feels busy,” Damon says. “I feel there is so much untold history that we don’t even know, that we’re just discovering.”
During their first investigation at Huffman House, Damon moved an object from the basement and placed it on a shelf where it would take force to move. He went outside to answer a phone call while the others continued to set up for the investigation. While he was outside, the others came out, alarmed, and asked if he was okay. They had heard a bang inside the house. They went down to the basement and the object had been moved across the shelf. They also captured what they believe to be a boy playing peek a boo in the steps on the second floor.
The houses, built during the same era, also seem to share a connection. “If we bring up the Huffman House at the Denny House, we get good activity. If we bring up the Denny House at the Huffman House, it’s the same,” Chuck says.
“[The Denny House] recharged my batteries. I felt supernaturally dead with investigating and coming in here made me feel like I had something in me again,” Damon says.
“This place has a feel. There are days that you are here that you feel that you have a draw to this place. There are times that we’re just driving through when we’ll feel the need to stop and have a spur of the moment investigation,” he adds.
The Waynesburg Estates Ghost Tours provide three-hour tours of both the Denny and Huffman houses on most Fridays and Saturdays starting September 30 and going through the end of October. There will also be a Halloween Party on Saturday, October 22.
“It’s haunted, it’s exciting, maybe a little spooky. Buy a ticket and come out and have a good time!” Damon says.
Interested in exploring and possibly experiencing your unearthly encounter? FMI about the tours and either houses, please find The Denny House on Facebook, email pam@directresults.us or call 724-998-0243.
