{"id":2039,"slug":"unitarian-churchyard-charleston-south-carolina","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The churchyard is the hoax's — the Annabel Lee that was invented, the '60s professor who made the romance. The Poe is the real — the '27 Fort Moultrie enlistment, the 'Annabel Lee' that came decades later. The Lady is the persistent — the wedding dress that the tours see, the sightings that continue despite the debunk.","The graves are the wild — the overgrown that the Unitarians keep, the roots that swallow the stones. The six are the father's — the unmarked plots that the legend claims, the Anna who never was. The churchyard is the double — the real Poe who was stationed, the fake Anna who haunts.","The file keeps the churchyard: the Poe stationing, the Anna hoax, the Lady sightings, and the overgrowth.","The churchyard is the archive's Charleston file — the invented ghost's ground."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The churchyard is the archive's Charleston file — the hoax that haunts.","A graveyard keeps its fiction — the file's suggestion being that the churchyard's hold is the Anna: the invented love, the sightings that persist, and the Poe who was real."]}],"name":"Unitarian Churchyard","aliases":[],"type":"CHURCHYARD","type_label":"Churchyard","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HISTORIC_CEMETERY","LITERARY_FOLKLORE"],"groups":["cemeteries","legends"],"desc":"Overgrown \"secret garden\" churchyard linked to Poe’s Annabel Lee.","full_desc":"A churchyard in Charleston, South Carolina, Unitarian Churchyard is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Overgrown \"secret garden\" churchyard linked to Poe’s Annabel Lee. HauntHunt files it with historic cemeteries, local folklore and literary folklore. Ask the file who haunts it and it answers: Annabel Lee figure. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Charleston","county":null,"state":"South Carolina","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":32.7778,"lon":-79.9333,"coord_kind":"EXACT","status":"HISTORIC_SITE","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":null,"research_notes":"New record from encyclopedia/official-source pass; VERIFY task auto-queued for primary-source corroboration.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":70,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0.85,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":1259,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"Local lore ties the churchyard to Poe’s Annabel Lee and reports a woman’s figure among the stones. The figure answers to Annabel Lee figure in the retellings. The reports at Unitarian Churchyard are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. Local lore carries the account; no documentation has ever caught up with it. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":"Annabel Lee figure","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Unitarian Church in Charleston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Church_in_Charleston","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The church dates to 1772; the churchyard’s wild garden character is deliberate. Unitarian Churchyard's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'Unitarian Church in Charleston' documents the entry. The date is part of the site's documented spine.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1772","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Unitarian Church in Charleston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Church_in_Charleston","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Local lore ties the churchyard to Poe’s Annabel Lee and reports a woman’s figure among the stones. Unitarian Churchyard in Charleston, South Carolina carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. It circulates as local folklore — the kind communities keep rather than verify. The account appears in 'Unitarian Church in Charleston'. The retelling is the record now — the legend metabolized the facts long ago.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Unitarian Church in Charleston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Church_in_Charleston","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"Annabel Lee figure","claimed_identity":"Annabel Lee figure","verified":null,"summary":"Local lore ties the churchyard to Poe’s Annabel Lee and reports a woman’s figure among the stones. The presence goes by Annabel Lee figure. The site in Charleston, South Carolina gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. 'Unitarian Church in Charleston' carries the account. The file keeps Annabel Lee figure on the roster; the sightings keep the name alive.","behavior":"Local lore ties the churchyard to Poe’s Annabel Lee and reports a woman’s figure among the stones.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Unitarian Church in Charleston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Church_in_Charleston","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify 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":"Unitarian Church in Charleston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Church_in_Charleston","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}