My Experiences During the Rossetti House Paranormal Tour

On Friday, Oct. 3, I participated in the Pitt-Greensburg Blue and Gold Celebration Paranormal Tour of Rossetti House. 

Once belonging to Mary Lynch Quinn, daughter of Commander Charles McKenna Lynch, the Rossetti House has a collection of ghosts, according to the paranormal investigators. Mary Lynch Quinn, her daughter, Michaele Quinn, and “Juan” are three ghosts the investigators mentioned by name during the tour.

When we first entered, there was a large table full of various paranormal-detecting devices (pictured). There was also a real human skull named Jackie in a glass box. The investigators brought Jackie along to “bring good energy into the house.” They also brought along three voodoo dolls that I made eye-to-button eye contact with right before drawing my eyes down to the printed out sign “do not make eye contact.” 

Oops. 

Someone else had also made this unintentional mistake, too. They asked the tour guide what would happen if they hypothetically did make eye contact with the dolls. The guide assured them (and me) that if we did, we just needed to think good, positive things towards the dolls  and wish them well. 

Before we left the room, the investigators told us each to take one white rose with us on the tour. It was imperative to our journey, an investigator said.

We continued on to the next room, where other guides informed us of their initial investigation. They had used light-up tripwires and light-up cat toys to interact with the spirits. 

They informed us of the history of the house itself. It was originally called Quinn Hall, but was changed to Terra House in 1998 when it became housing for Pitt-Greensburg’s international students. Finally, it was changed to the name we know today, Rossetti House, in honor of Dr. Guy Rossetti, a former professor at Pitt-Greensburg.

The investigators also informed us of the fate of Mary Quinn, former owner of the house. Mary Quinn enjoyed swimming and had a heated swimming pool very close to the Rossetti House. Unfortunately, this pool would be her demise. In 1997, Mary Quinn was found dead in her pool at the age of 83. The pool has since been dug up, but the location remains. 

The most active room that we experienced was the last. This room was actually the room that held Mary Quinn’s body during her wake. I sat next to a prop casket–also supplied by the investigative team–near the far end of the room. The casket was covered in white roses.

Investigators started up a machine that turned mechanical energy into electromagnetic energy. Spirits, the investigators explained, would use this newly generated energy to interact with one of the many devices that were set up around the room. 

One investigator turned the crank of the machine, and little bursts of electricity crackled from its metal prongs. The investigators then introduced us to two tools they would be using to communicate with the ghosts. One was a word bank app, designed for spirits to pick words from to communicate or to respond to any questions. The other was called “Necrophonic,” an app that did not have words but had syllables for the ghosts to use to form words. 

The first word that came out of the word bank app, unprompted, was “Hell.” 

The next thing the app relayed was the phrase “Iron, I wanted.” One of the investigators joked, asking if the spirit was a vampire or if the spirit was being sarcastic. The app responded, “funny.”

Many more voices came from the word bank app, such as a spirit asking for “you,” “girl,” and “Dorothy” back to back. There was no one in the room named Dorothy. One of the investigators said that this was the first time the app said “Dorothy,” but they did say they thought they kept hearing the name “Lisa” throughout the night. There was no one in the room named Lisa either.

Another story the investigators told was the story about a spirit that identified itself as Juan. The investigators believe that Juan was an international student who lived in Rossetti House back when it was Terra House. There was a couch in this last room that was apparently Juan’s couch. There was an EMF detector, a device that detects electromagnetic fields, on the coffee table near the couch. One investigator asked Juan to set off the EMF detector, and the light went from being off, up to green/yellow.

A voice from the app, Juan, I’m assuming, said “hello” and “that’s mine” when asked if that was his couch. The rest of the room was amused and intrigued by these responses. The people sitting on his couch were less amused.

Around now was when I noticed a bit of a chill. I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, so maybe that is why I might have felt colder in the room than some of the other sweatshirt and jacket-wearing participants, but it was very sudden. Later, I asked a couple other people who were on the tour afterwards if they were cold in the room, but they all said it was actually too warm.

After this incident, an investigator asked if Commander Lynch was with us. The word bank app responded with “Move it.” They then asked, “Are you okay with us being here?” The response was “Angry.”

“Do you want us to leave?” the investigator asked. 

“Leave here… Yes”

I think that was our cue to leave.

After that, we heard something from the Necrophonic. It sounded like “Lisa.”

Then we heard “It’s warm” and “annoying.”

These were the last words we heard from the spirits before the tour ended. As mentioned, there was a casket at the far end of the room, near the exit. The investigators said that we could either keep the white roses we got at the beginning or we could place them on Mary’s “casket.” I placed my rose on top of the coffin’s lid out of respect and because I didn’t want to get haunted, and exited the Rossetti House.