{"id":1488,"slug":"woodburn-dover-delaware","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Woodburn is the governed — the '1798' that's the house's year, the 'Hillyard' that's the builder's name. The 'preacher saw' is the guested — the 'Lorenzo Dow' that's the visitor's name, the 'powdered wig' that's the description's match. The 'wine left' is the tested — the 'empty glass' that's the morning's sign, the 'Jeanne Tribbitt' that's the governor's wife who tried.","The 'Penn grant' is the rooted — the '1683' that's the tract's date, the '3,000 acres' that's the family's land. The 'Patty Cannon' is the raided — the 'Entailed Hat' that's the novel's name, the 'kidnappers' that's the gang's trade. Woodburn is the state's — the '1965' that's the purchase's year, the 'eight governors' that's the residents' count.","The file keeps Woodburn: the governed house, the preacher's guest, the tested wine, and the raided lawn.","Woodburn is the archive's Delaware file — the governor's mansion with a resident ghost."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Woodburn is the archive's Delaware file — the state house whose builder never left.","A mansion keeps its ghost — the file's suggestion being that Woodburn's hold is the official: the 'Hillyard' that's the apparition's name, the 'wine' that's the test's bait, and the 'governors' that's the house's living residents."]}],"name":"Woodburn","aliases":["Woodburn Mansion"],"type":"GOVERNORS_RESIDENCE","type_label":"Governors Residence","cats":["HAUNTING"],"groups":["hauntings","institutions"],"desc":"Governors residence associated with published local folklore.","full_desc":"Woodburn is a governor's residence in Dover, Delaware. Governors residence associated with published local folklore. Its signature presence is Charles Hillyard III — the figure the file’s accounts keep returning to. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend and 1 named or described presence — all telling, no verified spine yet, and the file says so plainly. Access details are unverified — research before visiting.","address":"151 Kings Highway","city":"Dover","county":null,"state":"Delaware","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":39.160602,"lon":-75.521659,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"UNKNOWN","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":"https://woodburn.delaware.gov/","phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Discovery record. Coordinates, earliest legend source, independent history and current visitor rules require further verification.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"LOW","score":48.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":716,"type":"APPARITION","description":"The official residence recounts an 1815 sighting attributed to Charles Hillyard III. Woodburn in Dover, Delaware carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. Sources including 'The Woodburn Ghost' keep the claim in circulation. The figure remains the site's most-repeated sighting.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"Charles Hillyard III","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.75,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"The Woodburn Ghost","url":"https://woodburn.delaware.gov/ghosts-legends/woodburn-ghost/","publisher":"Office of the Governor of Delaware","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The official residence recounts an 1815 sighting attributed to Charles Hillyard III. Woodburn's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. The legend does what legends do — it explains the place in a way the records can't.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"The Woodburn Ghost","url":"https://woodburn.delaware.gov/ghosts-legends/woodburn-ghost/","publisher":"Office of the Governor of Delaware","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"entities":[{"name":"Charles Hillyard III","claimed_identity":"Charles Hillyard III","verified":null,"summary":"The official residence recounts an 1815 sighting attributed to Charles Hillyard III. The site in Dover, Delaware gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. The account appears in 'The Woodburn Ghost'. The lore has a face now: Charles Hillyard III. It remains the site's standing claim.","behavior":"The official residence recounts an 1815 sighting attributed to Charles Hillyard III.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"The Woodburn Ghost","url":"https://woodburn.delaware.gov/ghosts-legends/woodburn-ghost/","publisher":"Office of the Governor of Delaware","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access details are unverified; research 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":"The Woodburn Ghost","url":"https://woodburn.delaware.gov/ghosts-legends/woodburn-ghost/","publisher":"Office of the Governor of Delaware","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":0,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}