General[]
Richard Spier and Sharon Spier got married in Mary Anne and the Great Romance. Mary Anne and Richard moved into Dawn and Sharon's house because it was bigger.
In Keep Out, Claudia!, Mary Anne mentions some of her ancestors are Russian. In Aloha, Baby-sitters!, some of her ancestors are listed as German and Norwegian as well.
In The Fire at Mary Anne's House, Sharon mentions that her great-great-great grandfather immigrated from Ireland.
In in Mary Anne Saves the Day, she says Richard's father was a mailman and his parents died by the time Mary Anne was in first grade. Mary Anne mentions her grandfather had shingles in Claudia and the Genius of Elm Street. Since the events of Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic don't happen until later chronologically it's likely this is Richard's father.
Richard and Sharon aren't interested in having a baby together, but tell Mary Anne and Dawn that they may get another pet (an offer the girls quickly turn down, saying Tigger's enough) in Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies.
In The Baby-sitters Remember, it’s said that Pop-Pop and Granny helped Sharon find her house when she moved back to Stoneybrook.
The property used to be called "Wood Acres" in the late 18th and early 19th century. It was located next to the Symthe property. It was described as a clapboard house in The Ghost at Dawn's House.
Family Members[]
Extended Family[]
- Verna Baker and Bill Baker (Mary Anne's maternal grandparents)
- Pop-Pop Porter and Granny Porter (Dawn's maternal grandparents)
- Unnamed grandparents (Richard's parents)
- Amy Porter (Dawn's second cousin)
- Ed and Rochelle Porter (Amy's parents, Ed is Sharon's first cousin)
Pets[]
House Rules[]
The family makes a chore chart, dinner schedule, and promises to be more honest with each other to ease their adjustment in moving in together. They put up their Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.
In Mary Anne and the Search for Tigger, Richard had a rule about no boys inside the house when he wasn't there. When Sharon and Richard married, the rule extended to Dawn as well.
House[]
General[]
Sharon purchased the house in a run-down condition; nobody had lived on the property in two years. There's an apple tree in their front yard. The house has a porch on the front.
They live near the Barrett/DeWitt Family's old home.
Current Home[]
After the home burns down in The Fire at Mary Anne's House, they move briefly into the house next to Claudia Kishi while the barn is being remodeled.
When the barn is remodeled there are two entrances. There is the front door with a knocker and a doormat with a flagstone walkway. There's a back door which opened into the herb garden. The old barn doors could slide open to show off the kitchen.
Inside there are huge white windows and woodwork. Sharon and Mary Anne made the curtains with small pockets sewn in rows that hold a lead, dried flower, and a cluster of berries. They plan to change the objects in the pockets each season.
When you walk in the front door you can see the dining room near the kitchen, living room at the other end.
An off-white couch, huge and comfy, sits welcomingly across from a small cobalt blue wood stove they use for extra heat in the winter. A matching arm chair, big enough to seat two people, sits near it at an angle. A rag run in deep shades of purple and scarlet makee the area seem warm and inviting. A side table stands at one of the couch.
Upstairs are four bedrooms. Mary Anne along with Richard and Sharon have big rooms for themselves. Dawn and Jeff each have a small bedroom for themselves. Sharon and Richard have a bathroom adjoining their room. There is a bathroom near the other three rooms that Mary Anne mainly uses.
Previous Home[]
Inside[]
The house was an old farm house. The kitchen and bathrooms had been remodeled but there was still an old outhouse in the backyard with cobwebs in it. Dawn notes that there was an old smokehouse in Dawn and the Older Boy. There were narrow stairways and hallways, low ceilings, a big brick fireplace, and wobbly panes of glasses in the windows. A doorway led to the attic, with a light switch at the top of a steep and narrow flight of stairs. Weak sunshine came through a dusty window at one end of the attic, which had many boxes and a big chair. Boxes held old photos or Christmas decorations. There was a garage attached to the house.
Richard had installed fire alarms as soon as he and Mary Anne moved in as mentioned in Mary Anne and the Memory Garden.
The house had a secret passage that went from Dawn's bedroom to the barn. Part of the passage went by the kitchen as mentioned in Beware, Dawn.
There was a bulletin board in the kitchen and a mud room as noted in Mary Anne and Camp BSC.
Jeff's room had kung fu posters, Dodgers picture, Boston Red Sox dartboard, marvel superhero stickers, and Darth Vader bed sheets as mentioned in Stacey and the Bad Girls.
Outside[]
Mr. Spier has a hammock in the backyard and Mary Anne rakes leaves in the front yard. The front porch has a roof. The barn had bales of hay sitting around and rope to swing on. The barn was divided into two rows of horse stalls. Tools had been removed but here and there a nameplate remained, as did old feeding troughs, a hayloft, and a ladder.
House History[]
It was built in 1795 and used to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. The owners, the Mullrays, fell deeply in debt to banker Mathias Bradford. Old Man Mullray and the family moved to Peacham, Vermont except for 30 year old Jared Mullray, who wasn't "right in the head". He mysteriously disappeared and legend has it that Jared's ghost still haunts the property in search of trinkets and things he could sell to pay pack Mathias Bradford.
Trivia[]
- Granny and Pop-pop hosted Thanksgiving in Claudia and the Friendship Feud.
- Most of the BSC events were hosted in the barn minus a few events (such as Claudia's art class in Claudia and the Sad Good-bye, which is held in the Kishis' basement).
- The family participated in the Run for Your Money event in Dawn's Big Move.
- Mary Anne mentions that the family goes to a Presbyterian church in Keep Out, Claudia!.
- Dawn notes that her maternal grandparents have a lot of money in Dawn and the Impossible Three.
- Ed Porter is an executive for a meat packing company as mentioned in Stacey and the Bad Girls. He doesn't get along with Jack Schafer and the family lives in Chicago. Ed and Sharon have been talking to each other a lot lately.
- Dawn mentions her great aunt in Baby-sitters on Board!; she wears (and temporarily loses) her antique charm bracelet. While it's not explicitly stated which side of the family she from, it's likely to be Sharon's as Dawn states she would be very upset to hear that the bracelet was lost.
- Richard is the only one in the house who drinks coffee.
Gallery[]
