File:The Samuel B. Mumford House.jpg

Summary

Lovecraft’s final home from May 1933 until March 10, 1937, when he was moved to the Jane Brown Memorial Hospital in Providence; where he died of cancer of the small intestine and kidney disease on March 15, 1937. The Samuel B. Mumford House (1825) - 65 Prospect Street - Looking East-South-East.

(I (GdB) would like to add the following: When Lovecraft lived in this house, it was located at 66 College Street. S.T. Joshi writes in I am Providence: “Although the address was 66 College Street, it was set far back from the street, at the end of a narrow alley once called Ely’s Lane; the house itself was perhaps closer to Waterman Street than College.” The house was moved to its current location in 1959.)

In H. P. Lovecraft's, "The Haunter of the Dark," the protagonist Robert Blake (a thinly disguised Robert Bloch, who went on to achieve fame as the author of the novel "Psycho") lived in this house in its original 66 College Street location as described below prior to his untimely demise:

"Young Blake returned to Providence in the winter of 1934-5, taking the upper floor of a venerable dwelling in a grassy court off College Street—on the crest of the great eastward hill near the Brown University campus and behind the marble John Hay Library. It was a cosy and fascinating place, in a little garden oasis of village-like antiquity where huge, friendly cats sunned themselves atop a convenient shed. The square Georgian house had a monitor roof, classic doorway with fan carving, small-paned windows, and all the other earmarks of early nineteenth century workmanship." And, "Blake's study, a large southwest chamber, overlooked the front garden on one side, while its west windows—before one of which he had his desk—faced off from the brow of the hill and commanded a splendid view of the lower town's outspread roofs and of the mystical sunsets that flamed behind them." And, "His studio was in a north attic room, where the panes of the monitor roof furnished admirable lighting."

Look closely in the windows on the upper left, and you just might see Robert Blake’s shade still looking in what was the direction of Federal Hill in “The Haunter of the Dark.”

This is where Lovecraft wrote: 1933 "The Thing on the Doorstep" 1933 The revised, "Supernatural Horror in Literature" 1934-35 "The Shadow Out of Time" 1935 "The Haunter of the Dark"

Photo taken by Will Hart on 17-August-1990.

Licensing

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