{"id":2630,"slug":"belle-boyd-house-martinsburg-west-virginia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Belle Boyd House is the spy's — the '53 Greek Revival that she grew up in, the '61 shooting that started her. The soldier was the cursed — the Union man who insulted her mother, the acquittal that followed. The Jackson was the Stonewall — the '62 intelligence that she carried, the 15 miles that she rode.","The prison was the twice — the '62 and '63 that she served, the banishment to England. The memoir was the '65 — the 'Camp and Prison' that she wrote, the exaggerations that it held. The Belle Boyd House is the beginning — the mansion that's the museum, the spy who started there.","The file keeps the Belle Boyd House: the 1853 mansion, the '61 shooting, the Stonewall intelligence, and the prison.","The Belle Boyd House is the archive's Martinsburg file — the Rebel Spy's home."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Belle Boyd House is the archive's Martinsburg file — the spy's origin.","A house keeps its shot — the file's suggestion being that the Boyd House's hold is the beginning: the '61 killing that started her, the Jackson she informed, and the prison that held her."]}],"name":"Belle Boyd House","aliases":[],"type":"HOUSE","type_label":"House","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","HISTORIC_BUILDING","CIVIL_WAR"],"groups":["hauntings","historic-sites","legends"],"desc":"The Confederate spy’s Martinsburg home—where Belle listened through the floor.","full_desc":"Belle Boyd House is a house in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The Confederate spy’s Martinsburg home—where Belle listened through the floor. HauntHunt files it with the Civil War, local folklore and haunted places. Ask the file who haunts it and it answers: Belle Boyd. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Martinsburg","county":null,"state":"West Virginia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":39.457769,"lon":-77.978212,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Park / natural site","research_notes":"WV lore batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":2170,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"Belle is reportedly seen in the house. The lore gives it a name — Belle Boyd — which is what turns a report into a resident. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. The account has a collector's pedigree — written down as legend, which is the most honest status it can hold. Sources including 'Belle Boyd House' keep the claim in circulation. A ghost with a name outlasts a ghost without one; the reports keep it employed.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"Belle Boyd","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Belle Boyd House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":2171,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported a presence in the upstairs rooms. A house with Martinsburg's history behind it gives the reports a setting that needs no exaggeration. The file holds testimony rather than proof; the claim remains anecdotal. Sources including 'Belle Boyd House' keep the claim in circulation. The apparition is the file's anchor — every other report orbits it.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Belle Boyd House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Boyd’s 1861-62 espionage is documented; the house is a museum. A house in Martinsburg, West Virginia with this much documented history gives the dossier substance underneath the lore. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. Sources including 'Belle Boyd House' carry the record. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1861","date_end":"1862","confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Belle Boyd House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Belle is reportedly seen in the house. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. Sources including 'Belle Boyd House' keep the claim in circulation. It's the version the place will be remembered by, whether or not it's the true one.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Belle Boyd House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"Belle Boyd","claimed_identity":"Belle Boyd","verified":null,"summary":"Belle is reportedly seen in the house. The presence goes by Belle Boyd. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. The named presence is what turns a haunting into a household. It remains the site's standing claim. It remains the site's standing claim.","behavior":"Belle is reportedly seen in the house.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Belle Boyd House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic house; many are private residences—verify public access before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Belle Boyd House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}