King House (Mayport)

King House is a historic building at 4627 Ocean Street in Mayport, Florida, standing on ground once used as a Spanish graveyard. The earliest documented structure on the site burned in a fire on 25 April 1881; it had served as a boarding house for sailors. William Joseph King rebuilt the house in 1907, and it later housed a Catholic church at times through the 1940s. The building is locally known chiefly for its reputation for hauntings, including reports of a self moving rocking chair and unexplained footsteps, sightings described as a little butler, an aggressive kitchen maid and a bride, and investigations by researchers from Duke University's Rhine Institute and other paranormal groups; the hauntings inspired Bill Reynolds's 1999 book Jetty Man. The house now serves as the headquarters of the Mayport Cats Program, a local group that assists feral cats.