Posted By auntie on June 19, 2019

3.37 miles; Providence, RI

Today I revisited the Lovecraft walk I did a few years ago with my friend Jenn. It was a great day and we saw lots of interesting stuff. I’ve been a Lovecraft fan since the days when I lived on Providence’s East Side. I used to pass the Providence Atheneaum often. And the “Shuttered Room” house, and the place where Poe used to visit his paramour. You can’t help but be steeped in that stuff when you live up there.

Fleur De Lys Studio

This is on Thomas Street, and is now part of the Providence Art Club. Lovecraft hated the thing so much he used it as a setting for one of his horror stories, “The Call of Cthulhu.”

Public Spring at the Athenaeum

This place is said to be haunted by Poe’s ghost. I think there’re a few locations in Baltimore that might dispute that, but who knows?

Lovecraft Plaque

This plaque is at 22 Prospect St. It reads:

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 from 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

It’s a really evocative description of Providence.

Wildlife!

Bunny huddled on the gravel there. This is hardly a walk I where expected to see actual wildlife.

First Church of Christ, Scientist

This site, one of the highest points in Providence, was used for a warning beacon against Indians in 1667 and against the British in 1775. It was claimed that the beacon could be seen as far away as Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Another Providence Vista

Yet another view of the city, this time from one of my favorite places on the East Side, Prospect Terrace. Poor old Roger Williams was buried here for a while. Apparently, he got moved around a lot after he died.

WPA Plaque

I didn’t realize until this visit that Prospect Terrace was yet another Works Progress Administration project.

Barnes Street House

Lovecraft lived here from April 1926 to May 1933. It seems somehow appropriate.

Track (click for details)

You can find this walk at The Lovecraft College Hill Walking Tour website. There’s also a link to a pdf file you can download. As always, click the image above for details about this hike and to download the gps track.

Categories: Rhode Island, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 2–5 miles, Providence RI, RI