Caliente Pizza & Draft House (Crafton) – History

Caliente Pizza & Draft House

288 W Steuben Street

Crafton, Pittsburgh, PA 15205

 

At the corner of West Steuben Street in Crafton stands a three-story brick building that has served food, drink, and stories for more than a century. Constructed around 1900 as a neighborhood tavern, the structure was designed to be a gathering place with an open interior, a liquor license, and an outdoor patio that invited conversation and community. Today it is home to Caliente Pizza & Draft House, but beneath the clatter of dishes and the hum of conversation lingers something older and quieter. From whispers in the basement to sudden gusts of unseen force and fleeting shadow figures, the building’s past refuses to be silenced. What began as a place of hospitality has, over time, become one of Crafton’s more curious and, to some, haunted landmarks.

 

 

Past

 

The property at 288 West Steuben Street has retained much of its original character despite changes in proprietorship and use. The Victorian building was originally constructed in the late 1880’s for Fritz Schenneller who ultimately took up residency here in 1889. It’s assumed that he had it constructed for he and his family but without proper and thorough documentation from that era there is no true telling if he had children or a spouse. The property was then sold to the Fortwangler family in 1899, but once again without extensive documentation, it’s unknown the family’s individual names and who was actually a part of this family. It was documented by locals that this was indeed a family, however, who lived in this gorgeous house until 1908. The local professional golfer James (Jimmy) O’Donnell who lived here with his family until he passed away on the property in 1975. This ultimately ended the property’s residence tenure as one of Jimmy’s aunt’s sold the home in 1979 after attempting to open an antique shop inside the building to limited success.

 

 

Historical records indicate at this point, the building became a continuous restaurant and tavern throughout the decades. It began as Cecelia’s Restaurant in 1980 transitioning to Maggie Mae’s Creek House in 1983. This restaurant was given a face lift in the early 1990’s as it became Maggie Mae’s Sports Grille before the property was sold to 288 West Steuben Associates for just over two million dollars in 1992. In December of 1998, Jeffrey and Sherri Walewski purchased the building for $365,000 and continued to operate it as a restaurant, the Sharp Edge Creekhouse. In October of 2021, the building was transferred to Bogacz Buildings Two LLC for $358,100, the current owner. While no records indicate major structural renovations that altered the building’s historic footprint, local archives and directories leave gaps in the early tenant history, names and businesses that occupied the address prior to the more recent gastropubs are largely lost to time. That absence contributes to the building’s layered, partially undocumented history and the sense that some stories remain untold.

 

 

In recent years the address housed a succession of popular neighborhood dining establishments: the Creekhouse, remembered by patrons for its casual atmosphere and, since 2019, Caliente Pizza & Draft House brought a renewed energy to the space while preserving the building’s communal purpose. Minor renovations about three years ago included painting and new floors, but the core structure remains the same as it has been for over a century.

 

 

Paranormal Experiences

 

Where documentary history falters, firsthand accounts from staff, patrons, and local workers fill the silence with experiences that are difficult to dismiss. A delivery driver who served the building for three decades described it simply as “haunted as f***,” a reputation earned over years of unexplained moments. On one occasion, a handprint appeared on the front door after closing, even though an employee had personally secured the building the night before. In the back kitchen area, another handprint appeared after fresh paint was applied and remains visible to this day.

 

 

Experiences inside the building have been just as unsettling. Employees have described shadowy figures darting in and out of sight, most often in the basement and attic. Motion alarms have been triggered with no one present, while witnesses reported a distinct impression of movement passing through. Sudden gusts of wind have swept through the dining room strong enough to rattle decorations, and one former employee recalled hearing a deliberate “Shhh” while working alone, followed immediately by a rush of air so forceful it drove them out of the building, never to return.

 

Energy shifts and sensations are reported on the upper floors as well. On the second floor, near the front threshold, one investigator felt a sudden change in atmosphere. In a small nook toward the front of that same floor the sensation grew stronger, accompanied by a tightening in the chest. The attic contains a similar nook, but here the effect was even more pronounced. The same investigator described chest tightness and the distinct feeling of something brushing against his ear, as though he had walked through a cobweb. That same location produced an odd audio clip captured during our walkthrough, but was not heard or reviewed until later on, and sounded as though this was a woman’s voice attempting to come through and speak to us. That very clip is attached below. 

 

 

The former owner of the building reported seeing a shadow move past the attic window in this very nook, adding another layer of corroboration. To our astonishment, as we reviewed images from our walkthrough, we captured what looked liked a full shadow figure peering out that nook where shadows have been seen as well as the location we felt uneasy and touched. As we looked further, we actually noticed three distinct faces! One of a taller man in a hat, the second of a woman on the far side, and the third of a shorter child-like figure in between these two!

 

 

Taken together, the accounts suggest a variety of phenomena: visual sightings of shadows, auditory experiences like whispers, tactile sensations, unexplained gusts of air, and even physical traces in the form of handprints. These reports cluster around the basement, second-floor threshold and nook, and the attic’s front nook with transitional, liminal spaces where light and air already behave strangely, but where witnesses consistently describe much more than simple drafts or old-building quirks.

 

Caliente Pizza & Draft House occupies an intersection of community life and historical memory: a functioning neighborhood restaurant built on the bones of a century of local use. The building’s documented transactions and preserved layout tell part of the story, while staff, patrons, and longtime visitors supply a living, unsettled present. Whether explained as residual echoes of the past, intelligent presences, or something else entirely, the persistence of these experiences gives this Crafton landmark a reputation that extends beyond food and drink, marking it as one of the area’s most intriguing and possibly haunted spaces. Perhaps even captured in this image below where we noticed a shadowy figure and unsettling faces peering out the middle pane of this nook on the second floor.

 

 

Even small details like decorations disturbed, or an unexplained sound, seem to echo a pattern: the suggestion that unseen company still makes itself known in the quiet corners of Caliente.