{"id":2717,"slug":"centre-hill-petersburg-virginia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Centre Hill is the presidents' — the Lincoln who visited '65, the Taft who lunched '09. The tunnel is the slaves' — the 300 feet that brought them in, the hidden entrance that's the back. The siege was the Petersburg — the Hartsuff who made it the HQ, the '65 fall that came.","The Bollings were the builders — the '23 mansion that they raised, the tobacco that was the wealth. The ghost watch is the January — the 24th that the soldiers march, the staircase that's the sound. Centre Hill is the layered — the Federal and the Greek, the presidents and the slaves.","The file keeps Centre Hill: the 1823 mansion, the Lincoln visit, the slave tunnel, and the ghost watch.","Centre Hill is the archive's Petersburg file — the presidents' house."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Centre Hill is the archive's Petersburg file — the three presidents' mansion.","A house keeps its tunnel — the file's suggestion being that Centre Hill's hold is the hidden: the slave passage that's the back, the Lincoln who was 11 days from death, and the soldiers who march."]}],"name":"Centre Hill","aliases":[],"type":"HOUSE","type_label":"House","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","HISTORIC_ESTATE","CIVIL_WAR"],"groups":["hauntings","historic-sites","legends"],"desc":"The 1823 mansion where Lincoln visited—and the ghost steps sound.","full_desc":"A house in Petersburg, Virginia, Centre Hill is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The 1823 mansion where Lincoln visited—and the ghost steps sound. HauntHunt files it with the Civil War, local folklore and haunted places. The presences in its file go unnamed: the centre hill ghosts, the record says. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Petersburg","county":null,"state":"Virginia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":37.20473,"lon":-77.392368,"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":"Historic site","research_notes":"VA2 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":2312,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The ghost procession is reportedly heard on the stair. The accounts name only a collective — the Centre Hill ghosts. Centre Hill in Petersburg, Virginia is the kind of old house where every sound eventually gets a name. 'Centre Hill' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. A ghost with a name outlasts a ghost without one; the reports keep it employed.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The Centre Hill ghosts","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Centre Hill","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Hill_Mansion","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":2313,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported figures in the mansion. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. The file holds testimony rather than proof; the claim remains anecdotal. The report is preserved in sources like 'Centre Hill'. 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":"Centre Hill","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Hill_Mansion","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Built 1823; Lincoln visited April 1865. Centre Hill's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. Sources including 'Centre Hill' carry the record. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1823","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Centre Hill","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Hill_Mansion","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The ghost procession is reportedly heard on the stair. Centre Hill in Petersburg, Virginia is the kind of old house where every sound eventually gets a name. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. Sources including 'Centre Hill' keep the claim in circulation. The story outranks the documentation, which is how you know it's folklore.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Centre Hill","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Hill_Mansion","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The Centre Hill ghosts","claimed_identity":"The Centre Hill ghosts","verified":null,"summary":"The ghost procession is reportedly heard on the stair. The presences go by the Centre Hill ghosts in the file. A house with Petersburg's history behind it gives the reports a setting that needs no exaggeration. The account appears in 'Centre Hill'. A named spirit outlasts an anonymous one; the file's name is The Centre Hill ghosts.","behavior":"The ghost procession is reportedly heard on the stair.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Centre Hill","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Hill_Mansion","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":"Centre Hill","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Hill_Mansion","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}