1887 Standard Oil mansion where two hotel guests died in a 1944 fire, now home to America's first Ripley's museum
19 San Marco Ave, St. Augustine, FL 32084
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Admission charged for daytime museum; haunted investigation tours priced separately. See venue website for current rates.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic building with stairs; accessible entry available on ground floor
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1887 · First Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum in the United States · Abbott Tract Historic District · Standard Oil partner residence
William G. Warden arrived in St. Augustine at the height of the Florida land rush, building his coquina-and-wood mansion at 19 San Marco Avenue in 1887. Warden was a Philadelphia businessman who had built his fortune as a partner to John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler in Standard Oil's early operations. The Castle, as it became known locally, was his winter retreat — a structure sized for entertaining the industrial elite who came south each season.
The Warden family continued visiting through the 1920s but stopped after the Depression made Florida's glamour-resort circuit economically untenable. The building sat in partial disuse until 1941, when Norton Baskin purchased it and converted it to a hotel. Baskin's wife, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, had won the Pulitzer Prize three years earlier for The Yearling. She kept her primary residence in Cross Creek but spent time in St. Augustine during the hotel's operation.
On the evening of April 23, 1944, fire broke out on the third and fourth floors of the Castle Warden Hotel. Two women died: Bette Richeson, who had been staying in what is now the Theatre Room on the third floor, and Ruth Pickering, who occupied the penthouse apartment in the attic. Both were found in dry bathtubs with wet towels around their faces. Neither showed burn marks. The cause was never conclusively determined; a lit cigarette was suspected but not confirmed. Adding to the unresolved questions, a guest registered as Mr. X had checked in the night before, requested extra towels, and was seen carrying what appeared to be a rolled-up rug before the fire. He left and was never identified.
Ripley's Believe It or Not! opened in the building in 1950, making it the first permanent Ripley's museum in the United States. The building is part of the Abbott Tract Historic District.
Sources
The 1944 fire left two specific mystery focal points inside the building. Bette Richeson's room on the third floor — now the Theatre Room — is the site of reported cold spots, unexplained electronics behavior, and figures seen at the periphery of groups touring the space. Ruth Pickering's penthouse area in the attic produces the largest volume of visitor-logged incidents, including the sensation of being watched and disembodied sounds.
The identity of Mr. X, the guest who checked in under an alias the night before the fire and departed without explanation, has never been resolved. His presence figures heavily in the venue's evening investigation program, which presents the documentary record of the 1944 inquest alongside visitor accounts.
Paranormal investigators working the building over the years have catalogued reports of approximately 18 distinct entities, including the two female victims and what are described as residual impressions from the mansion's earlier social history. The investigations run with EMF meters and laser grids; Ripley's presents the lore as part of its public programming rather than as supernatural truth.
Notable Entities
Daytime self-guided tour through the converted Castle Warden mansion, housing Ripley's curio collection in the building where Standard Oil partner William G. Warden built his 1887 winter retreat. Exhibits include Sideshow Curiosities and the Cryptids gallery.
After-hours paranormal investigation of the building, running 9:30–11:00 p.m. Guests receive EMF meters and laser light pointers; a 3D film introduces the story of the 1944 fire and the two women who died on the third and fourth floors before guides lead an investigation through the attic spaces.
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