Aunt Flo's Victorian

Aunt Flo's Victorian home, sitting on the banks of the Pocomoke River near Snow Hill, Maryland, is one of the major settings of the Gabe Bergeron mystery books. The inspiration for this fictional structure was the parsonage of Immanuel Methodist Church in Crisfield, Maryland. The parsonage itself was torn down in 1973 and lives on in a few photos and antique postcards.

The home was introduced in Book #1, "Death on Daugherty Creek"

“Great-aunt Flo lived in an old Victorian pile on the banks of the Pocomoke River. There was a cypress swamp nearby, and Neal loved everything about the river and the swamp.

He'd had his doubts. It had seemed like another world when he'd first come to live with her.

The gate was closed so he couldn't drive up to the house. The air was motionless, thick and oppressive with heat and humidity and mosquitoes. The river was flowing languidly without a ripple on its surface. A foursome of young people in canoes floated past.

It was another world compared to Philadelphia.

Neal got out of the car and surveyed the Victorian pile with its porches and balconies and turret. “It looks just the same.”

It had five trim colors now instead of six. “Pretty much.”

 

He checked the parlor and her office, but no Aunt Flo. She was probably in the garden or the greenhouse. She liked to putter around with her flowers before the sun got too hot.

She was sitting in the shade of an ancient oak, as placid as the river flowing past. The mosquitoes didn't seem to bother her.”

The home started out as just Ezmeralda's kitchen, Aunt Flo's parlor and office, and Gabe's turret bedroom with a hallway and stairs to connect them. And a greenhouse. The rest was inchoate and without form, but over the years, and especially with the coming of the B&B, it's become better defined; currently there are floor plans for the house, from groundfloor to attic, and a map of the property.

The outside of the house is still a bit vague. It began as a basic square, but it's elongated over the years to fit the demands of the plot as only imaginary spaces can do. The porches and balconies have never really become fixed.

And there's a panic room which appeared in Book #2 and has gone missing ever since. It may be on the ground floor near the kitchen, but no one really knows at this point. It was almost refurbished when Freddie Crowe came looking for Gabe in Book #13, but it remains quasi-ready should it be needed in the future.

From Book #2, "Foreseeable Harm"

Aunt Flo said, “Are you all right, Gabriel?”

“Fine. Are you all right? Where were you? I looked all over the house?”

Aunt Flo smiled. “When Ezmeralda and I settled here for good, before you came to live with us, she convinced me to have a panic room built.”

“Yeah? Where is it?” The ambulance was pulling into the lane. “Never mind. Just so you're fine; both of you are fine?”

The backstory of the house and general location was firmed up in Book #4, "Deep is the Chesapeake"

Great-aunt Flo, who was Florence Barnes, lived in the home of her grandparents, Elijah and Rachel Barnes. It was an enormous, three-story Victorian pile on the banks of the Pocomoke River. The house was white if you ignored the five trim colors and the slate roof.

He turned off Nassawango Road and drove up the lane.

 

Postcards