26 October 2011

H. P. Lovecraft and Other Writers in College HIll, Providence, Rhode Island: Literary New England #14


'SAMUEL MUMFORD
HOUSE
1823-28
Moved from College St. 1959'
This house, now at 65 Prospect Street, was Lovecraft's last home, and was moved to make room for the Art List Building. He described this as Robert Blake's home in 'The Haunter of the Dark'.

 The Lovecraft monument, Prospect Street.

'Howard Phillips Lovecraft
(1890 – 1937)
U.S. Author

I never can be tied to raw new things,
For I first saw the light in an old town.
Where form my window huddled roofs sloped down
To a quaint harbour rich with visionings.

Streets with carved doorways where the sunset beams
Flooded old fanlights and small window-panes,
And Georgian steeples topped with gilded vanes –
These are the sights that shaped my childhood dreams.

Dedicated on the centennial of his birth
August 20, 1990
by
The City of Providence
Brown University
and
Friends of H.P. Lovecraft'

'Built for
HENRY SPRAGUE
                         1902'

100 Prospect Street is the address Lovecraft uses as 'Ward House' in 'The Case of Charles Ward Dexter'.

88 Benefit Street is the former home of the poet Sarah Helen Whitman.

The Stephen Harris House on 135 Benefit Street is the model for Lovecraft’s 'The Shunned House', which he called the Babbitt House.

144 Benefit Street has been mentioned as a possible model for Dr. Elihu Whipple's house in 'The Shunned House'.

But it's now called The Old Court, which offers bed and breakfast.

161 Benefit Street is to the left of the photo, and was the home of Lillian D. and Franklin C. Clark, Lovecraft's aunt and uncle.

Lovecraft greatly disliked the Colonial Apartments at 175–185 Benefit Street, which had replaced the countryside.

The funerals of both Lovecraft and his aunt Lillian took place here, at the former Knowles Funeral Home on 187 Benefit Street.

The Providence Athenæum at 251 Benefit Street was a favorite of Lovecraft's, and where Poe courted Sarah Helen Whitman.

Both Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe were fascinated by the graveyard of the Cathedral of St John on North Main Street.

Lovecraft often went to the small park in Congdon Street, where a huge statue of Roger Williams (1603–83), the founder of Providence and the author of A Key to the Language of America (1943), overlooks the city.

Williams was originally from Cowley, Middlesex, England, with a great interest in Native American languages.

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