National Aviary

America's only independent indoor nonprofit national aviary, home to more than 500 birds representing 150 species. The building is located on land that was once part of the Western State Penitentiary, torn down in the late 1800s but not forgotten.

The land where the National Aviary now stands was once the site of Western State Penitentiary, built in 1826 and torn down in 1882. During his 1842 American tour, Charles Dickens visited the prison and saw shackled inmates, an experience scholars believe later inspired the chained ghost of Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol. During the Civil War, 118 Confederate soldiers captured from Morgan's Raid were held in the overcrowded, unsanitary prison from 1863-1864. Many died in captivity, and their spirits are believed to still wander the grounds.

After the prison was demolished, a plant conservatory was built on part of the property but burned down around 1927-1929 due to a gas explosion. In 1952, Pittsburgh rebuilt the indoor gardens and added birds, creating the National Aviary. Shawn Kelly, founder of the Pittsburgh Paranormal Society, says "The Aviary is extremely haunted," making it perhaps the least-known of Pittsburgh's paranormal locations.

In Patty A. Wilson's book "Haunted Western Pennsylvania," Aviary staff report seeing shadowy figures darting around, hearing phantom footsteps through the halls, and experiencing banging noises in the basement. Birds react to unseen phenomena and radios malfunction without explanation. The most common sightings are apparitions in Confederate Civil War uniforms wandering the corridors, still prisoners centuries after their deaths. Paranormal investigators classify this as a "residual haunting" where spirits are trapped in a loop, unaware of anyone's presence.