Views of Providence

Presenting the best of the architectural shots from the Providence trip. Regular readers will know how much I enjoy an arcade so it was a thrill that the public headquarters of NecronomiCon—Lovecraft Arts & Sciences— was located in the oldest arcade in the United States.

Lovecraft Arts & Sciences combines a shop with a mini gallery displaying a variety of artworks and curios, the latter including many aquatic specimens. The Lovecraft plaque is the work of Gage Prentiss.

Assorted Lovecraftiana with a convention poster by The joey Zone on the wall.

A selfie moment with a partial view of Gage Prentiss’s Medusa head.

The Fleur-de-Lys Building again, with my rendering from The Call of Cthulhu below.

The Call of Cthulhu (1988).

The steeple of the First Baptist Church which HP Lovecraft called “the finest Georgian steeple in America”.

One of the buildings on the corner of Angell Street and Benefit Street.

Above: one of the many distinctive houses on Benefit Street; below: Lovecraft’s “Shunned House” looking more salubrious than the decayed and sinister dwelling in the story.

Westminster Street, home to many fine food establishments, and an excellent book store, Symposium Books, where I picked up a City Lights’ William Burroughs anthology, The Burroughs File (1984).

I couldn’t work out whether this was an ad connected with the seafood restaurant next door, or a bid to attract custom from the conventioneers. One of my panel discussions was about tentacles in art so whatever the explanation this was an apt sighting.

The Union Trust Building.

The Bank of America Building, or the Industrial Trust Tower as it was in Lovecraft’s day, seen from the Biltmore Hotel. In The Haunter of the Dark Lovecraft writes “…the court-house floodlights and the red Industrial Trust beacon had blazed up to make the night grotesque”. The building is unused today but the beacon glows green at night (see below), an even weirder spectacle than in the story.

I wouldn’t normally photograph a flag but the wind made this one irresistible.

Early evening and the Industrial Trust beacon is alight.

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• The Lovecraft archive