{"id":2718,"slug":"trapezium-house-petersburg-virginia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Trapezium is the '17 — the 'O'Hara' that's the Irish, the 'no right angles' that's the built. The 'West Indian' is the servant — the 'evil spirits' that's the corners, the 'trapezium' that's the ward. The 'converge' is the vanishing — the 'elongated' that's the inside, the 'lintels' that's the tilted.","The 'Rat Castle' is the called — the 'pet rats' that's the kept, the 'eccentric' that's the bachelor. The '1815 fire' is the rebuilt — the 'Federal' that's the brick, the 'private' that's the not open. Trapezium is the odd — the 'no parallel' that's the walls, the 'Petersburg' that's the quirk.","The file keeps Trapezium: the 1817 O'Hara, the no right angles, the West Indian advice, and the Rat Castle.","Trapezium House is the archive's Virginia file — the angled ward."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Trapezium House is the archive's Virginia file — the spirit's geometry.","A house keeps its angles — the file's suggestion being that Trapezium's hold is the unparallel: the 'no right' that's the ward, the 'converge' that's the elongated, and the 'rats' that's the kept."]}],"name":"Trapezium House","aliases":[],"type":"HOUSE","type_label":"House","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","ARCHITECTURE"],"groups":["hauntings","historic-sites","legends"],"desc":"The 1817 house built without right angles—to keep the spirits out.","full_desc":"Trapezium House is a house in Petersburg, Virginia. The 1817 house built without right angles—to keep the spirits out. The presence its accounts keep returning to is the one they call the trapezium legend. 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":"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":2314,"type":"LEGEND","description":"The fortune-teller warning is documented folklore—the geometry is real. The lore gives it a name — The trapezium legend — which is what turns a report into a resident. A house with Petersburg's history behind it gives the reports a setting that needs no exaggeration. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. Legends accrue where records go silent; this one filled the gap and stayed.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The trapezium legend","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Trapezium House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezium_House","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":2315,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported a presence in the angled rooms. A house with Petersburg's history behind it gives the reports a setting that needs no exaggeration. The file holds testimony rather than proof; the claim remains anecdotal. It is the sighting the place is known for, and it hasn't stopped. The reports keep the address on the map.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Trapezium House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezium_House","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Built 1817; the no-right-angles construction is documented. Trapezium House's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The detail is preserved in 'Trapezium House'. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1817","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Trapezium House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezium_House","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The fortune-teller warning is documented folklore—the geometry is real. A house with Petersburg's history behind it gives the reports a setting that needs no exaggeration. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. Legends accrue where records go silent; this one filled the gap and stayed.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Trapezium House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezium_House","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The trapezium legend","claimed_identity":"The trapezium legend","verified":null,"summary":"The fortune-teller warning is documented folklore—the geometry is real. The trapezium legend is what the reports name it. Trapezium House in Petersburg, Virginia is the kind of old house where every sound eventually gets a name. The account appears in 'Trapezium House'. Named presences persist where anonymous reports fade — the file's name here is The trapezium legend.","behavior":"The fortune-teller warning is documented folklore—the geometry is real.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Trapezium House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezium_House","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":"Trapezium House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezium_House","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}