Thought there might be some interest in a recent field trip I made to the Florida home of Robert H. Barlow where HPL visited for some months back in the 1930s.
There has been some recent scholarship on the location published as "H. P. Lovecraft in Florida," by Stephen J. Jordan, in Lovecraft Studies 42-43.
Bobby Barlow's father Colonel Everett Darius Barlow received a military homestead for the property near Deland and Mt. Dora, FL and the two story home with handsome cypress log siding was built circa 1933-35.
One neglected detail about the area: Bobby's mother Bernice Leach Barlow, while reportedly having returned to the Leavenworth, KS area after her separation from Col. Barlow ca. 1936, returned to their Florida home, died there in 1962 and is buried in the local Seminole Springs Cemetery, Cassia, FL.
The lake behind the house where Bobby and HPL reportedly spent many afternoons rowing and talking has nearly gone dry.
Here are some images for consideration...
exterior 1:
exterior 2:
cypress siding:
Bernice Leach Barlow gravestone:
Col. Barlow biography:
Barlow homestead satellite image from Google maps:
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 7 Nov 07 | 06:49PM by Vance Pollock.