Pitchforks and Rocking Chairs: King House Mayport

Reviewed by Josh N · Updated August 15, 2026 · How we verify

A weathered frame house at 4627 Ocean St in the old fishing village of Mayport, Florida, King House Mayport is described as a historic building believed by some to be haunted by the spirit of a sailor. What makes it worth a paragraph in any guide to Florida’s strange addresses is not one dramatic story but the sheer number of them stacked on a single lot: a burned boarding house, a rumoured Spanish burial ground, a chair that reportedly moved by itself, and a cast of ghosts that includes a butler, a maid and a bride.

The Fire of 1881 and What Lay Under the Lot

Nobody knows when the first house went up here. The earliest surviving record of the building dates from 25 April 1881, and it is a record of destruction: the place burned down. Those same records note two things about what came before. The building had been used as a boarding house for sailors, and the land it stood on had previously served as a Spanish graveyard.

That combination, transient seamen above and unmarked graves below, is the seedbed for everything that follows. It is worth saying plainly that the graveyard claim comes from the same historical notes rather than from any excavation described in the sources, and no burials are documented by name.

William Joseph King’s 1907 Rebuild

The house standing today is a reconstruction. William Joseph King rebuilt it in 1907, and his son lived in it until his death in 1977. Seventy years of continuous family occupancy is the spine of the story, because it is during that stretch that the reports accumulate and attract outside attention.

The Chair, the Aunt and the Duke Researchers

The single best known claim attached to the house is a rocking chair said to move of its own accord. Attached to that chair is a grim piece of family lore: that an aunt of William King was pitchforked to death on it by a jealous sailor ex-boyfriend. This is reported tradition, not documented history. The sources record it as something that had been said, with no inquest, date or victim’s name to check it against.

The reports were persistent enough that the house was investigated by researchers from the Rhine Institute of Duke University, along with several other paranormal research groups. No findings are given. The visits themselves are the fact worth knowing: this was a house that outsiders came to look at, not just a story neighbours told each other.

High Heels Over a Congregation

In the 1940s the house did double duty as the local Catholic church, with mass held there every week. Congregants reported hearing high heels moving about in the attic when nobody was up there. It is an unusually specific detail, and an unusually well witnessed one, in the sense that the people describing it were a regular weekly gathering rather than a lone visitor after dark.

The Butler, the Maid and the Bride

Three other presences are attributed to King House. A figure known as the Little Butler is said to open doors for visitors and steer them towards the living room, which makes it one of the more courteous ghosts on record anywhere. A maid has been reported in the kitchen, described as acting aggressively towards anyone using what is taken to be her space. And a bride said to have died in a car crash outside the house on her wedding day is rumoured to haunt the building too.

None of these has a name, a date or a supporting record in the source material. They are traditions rather than events, and should be read that way.

Jetty Man and the House’s Reputation in Print

Bill Reynolds published Jetty Man in 1999, a book about the hauntings and the house. Local ghost stories tend to harden once someone writes them down, and the book is the reason many of these details travel in a fixed form rather than shifting from teller to teller.

Cats, Not Tours: King House Today

The building is currently used as a centre of operations for the Mayport Cats Program, which assists feral cats. That is a working use, not a visitor attraction. The sources describe no tours, no opening hours and no public access, so treat King House as private property to be looked at from the public street in Mayport rather than a site to walk into. Anyone hoping to see inside should approach the cat program directly rather than turning up expecting a ghost tour.

Address: 4627 Ocean St, Mayport, Florida

Sources

• Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore: North Florida and St. Augustine
• Spooky tales of Mayport's King House known far, wide
• GeoHack – King House (Mayport)
• Wikipedia: King House (Mayport)

Ghost Tours Nearby

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