Black-and-white photograph depicting a house on a hillside overlooking an industrial city. Factories with smokestacks, visible smoke, and a river cut through the city’s landscape in the background. Trees and foliage are present in the foreground. *AI generated alt text

Haunted History: What Happened in Your House?

Event Information

Date & Time
Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Location Heinz History Center 1212 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh PA, 15222
Ticketing $10 General Admission
$5 Members
Categories
Register

Have you ever wondered who previously lived in your home or what happened inside its walls?

This spooky season, join local historians Hollen Barmer and Miranda Crotsley to uncover the history hiding in your own house.

Learn how to follow the clues through historic maps, property records, newspapers, and more to reveal your home’s past – and the people who once called it home.

Whether you’ve heard a bump in the night, discovered a mysterious detail during renovations, or are just a little nebby about who lived there before you, Hollen and Miranda will show you how to conduct your own historical investigation.

Every house has a history. Are you brave enough to find out what happened in yours?

Admission

The program is $10 for non-members and $5 for History Center members with advance registration. The program will take place in the Detre Library & Archives on the museum’s sixth floor.

About the Speakers

Hollen Barmer and Miranda Crotsley are the co-founders of Land and Kin Collaborative, a business dedicated to history and genealogy for people and places. They have been working together on house histories and family tree mysteries since 2014, serving clients around Western Pennsylvania and the United States. Since 2022, they have presented public workshops and conducted consulting sessions on investigating house histories. In addition, they collaborate with partners to uncover, research, and present local history topics ranging from enslavement in 18th and 19th century Pittsburgh to mysterious explosions and sensational trials of the 1920s.

When they are not digging into the history of old houses or telling neighborhood stories, they work in fields that involve storytelling, investigation, and history. Miranda Crotsley is an educator and Program Coordinator in PA State Parks at Jennings Environmental Education Center where she researches and develops programming around park natural and cultural history including a reconstructed 1820s-era tavern inn, an original 19th century one-room schoolhouse, and a 20th century abandoned coal mine. Hollen Barmer is a strategic communications manager, working with technical researchers to tell the stories of their work.