The Summerlin House

One of the frequently used settings in both my Women in the Sun novels is the Summerlin House (aka the Salas House). This is a completely fictional building on the Naples beach, a little north of the pier. I don’t specify exactly how far north but we can assume two to four blocks; of course, there is no such real house at any of those locations (though one may find similar houses along the beach).

The house was—or so my protagonists understand—built in the late Twenties. That makes sense but if it was a few years later, it’s not going to hurt anything. The Salas family, wealthy Cubans, purchased the place in the Forties. When Maria Salas’s husband passed, she inherited and a little later married local lawyer Preston Summerlin. Hence the Summerlin House name.

All that matters to our story is that the Summerlin twins, Angelica and James—know as Jelly and Jam—make our ‘triumvirate’ of young women welcome there. Outside more than in; it becomes a site for goofing off when they want to go to the beach and more than one summer party is held on the spacious lawn. Fairly spacious, that is. Beachfront property is dear and folks are not likely to waste a lot of space on grass.

Nor is the house itself that large. Two stories, stucco over block, tile roof—very ‘Spanish.’ Remodeled from time to time, of course, since its original construction. It’s the sort of house that’s likely to get torn down and replaced these days, with the land under it being more valuable than the house itself.

We have drawn up a house plan. Very useful in helping to visualize the story! I think it is a pretty accurate rendition of what I had in mind. The Summerlin House will most definitely appear in future novels of my trio, though I suspect it will become less central to their lives.

For now (i.e. the late Sixties) it remains a place they will still be able to get together with their friends, beneath the tall coconut palms and hibiscus, and forget the tumultuous outside world for a little while.

the Summerlin House