Catherine P. Ricker was born on December 1, 1867, and died on December 25, 1967. According to the following Florida Times-Union (
visit link) article, she is said to now haunt the house known as the Queen Victoria in the Riverside area of Jacksonville.
"The Queen Victoria, ghost and all, moved to what will likely be her final resting place this week.
A crowd of youngsters came not to bury her, but to celebrate the Riverside house's tedious 500-foot journey across a playground.
You see, there's plenty of life left in the 106-year-old landmark, which has housed a succession of shops and restaurants.
The eye-catching canary-yellow house with the distinctive tower, decorative gables and profuse gingerbread trim was moved from Post Street to a spot on the opposite corner of the same block. There it will be converted into admissions, development and business offices for Riverside Presbyterian Day School.
Next door is the school's new 9,500-square-foot early learning center, housed in the former First Guaranty Bank.
The Queen Victoria's move gives the school an administrator and an admissions director close to its kindergarten department.
"Most of the children who enter Riverside Presbyterian do so in kindergarten, and I literally will be able to walk out the door to show them the early learning center," said admissions director Mary Lee Pappas.
Renovation of the Queen Victoria should take about four months, said architect Ted Pappas, Mary Lee's husband. It will include a new roof, repainting, rewiring, replumbing, some interior work and a ramp to make it handicapped-accessible.
"It will be challenging, but we are primarily concerned with maintaining the historical features of the building," he said. "We will take existing spaces and use them pretty much the way they are."
Meanwhile, the Queen Victoria's former and future occupants anxiously watched Tuesday as it safely made its journey over a curb and across a playground.
The day before, the house had to be turned 90 degrees, so that it now faces Oak Street instead of Post.
Cathy Bowyer Fine, who operated Bowyer's Restaurant in the Queen Victoria from 1993-96, was one of those who came to record the move and take more pictures for a scrapbook she has compiled on the house's history.
"I'm glad it's not being destroyed because that's what happens so many times," Fine said.
This is the second move for the Queen Victoria, which was built on Oak Street in 1893 for the family of Ernest Ricker, a dealer in wines, liquors, coffee and cigars.
The Ricker family lived there until December 1967, when the house was bought by Riverside Presbyterian Church. Two years later, the church needed the land and offered the house to preservationist Helen Lane.
In 1969, Lane had it moved to Post and converted into shop space. It subsequently housed such restaurants as the Creole Queen, Bowyer's and A Tasteful Cafe, which closed in December when its lease ran out.
Lane recently donated the Queen Victoria to the school, which has named it The Lane House in her honor.
Lane was out of town for both moves but has said she was glad it was preserved because it is one of the few remaining examples of Victorian-era homes to survive Jacksonville's Great Fire of 1901.
Albert Boyles, retired owner of Hygema House and Building Movers, oversaw both moves. Boyles, who has since turned the business over to his sons, said it's rare to have a repeat move. The one this week was less complicated because there were no utility lines or trees to worry about, and it was done during the day, he said.
Riverside Presbyterian's students also turned out to cheer the house's journey.
"Well, I think it was very cool that they could put those wheels under it and haul it across the block," said Olivia Donalson, 6.
To Chase Acree, 5, it's where he will find his grandmother, Mary Lee Pappas. "That's where Mimi's work is."
As for the ghost, Fine tells the tale. It seems that the house's matriarch, Catherine Ricker, still inhabits its rooms. She died in the formal living room on Christmas Day in 1967.
"She wanted to live to be 100, and she did," Fine said. "She turned 100 on Dec. 1 and died Dec. 25."
Fine said Catherine Ricker is a benevolent ghost who never bothered her but let her presence be known in a subtle way.
"You just had the sensation of somebody right behind you," she said. "The people who had the Creole Queen told me about it, and I didn't give it a lot of thought until we had our experience with her."
Fine and her family were in the dining room when they heard a sound like thunder and went outside to see if it was raining.
"There wasn't a cloud in the sky," she said. "It was Catherine. She was a little annoyed. So I talked to her and told her we would be taking care of her house and would be her friend."
And because a Christmas tree was very important to the matriarch, Fine made sure the restaurant had one up by her birthday.
"I think Catherine will be happy now, too," Fine said.
"I understand she will inhabit my office, and that's a good place to be," Mary Lee Pappas quipped."