Photo A Day #98 Providence, RI Visiting H.P. Lovecraft

After visiting Newport, we stayed in Rhode Island for a chance to see Providence. I am about to expose a rather high level of geekery right now, so prepare yourselves. Our primary reason for visiting Providence was to explore the city that the author H.P. Lovecraft lived and wrote in. If you don't know about H.P. Lovecraft you can read the wiki here, and if you're really keen, visit the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society page. Fact: My favorite of his stories (so far) is The Color Out of Space.

The weather was overcast, which was perfect considering the subject matter! We stayed at the top of that hill you see below. It was hard work getting down the hill, I won't talk about getting back up!

The architecture in Providence is great, it has a really old mixed with new vibe, a bit industrial and cool Art Deco touches. There are some great bookstores in the CBD too! I love the beautiful typography on this building.

This is the house we stayed in, with a lovely English lass and her gorgeous dog, Lady. We made such good friends that she even let C take Lady for a walk. The whole neighborhood was beautiful, I just love it when a bunch of old houses survive and are cared for by their owners. It's like a time warp.

We met a few interesting characters in Providence, including a goth called Mathew (we were convinced he would have a more goth-y name and told him so) We talked with locals about urban exploring (sounded a tad dangerous in this particular location for my liking) and the history of Providence. Then we went to H.P. Lovecraft's family home.

Yes. They built a Starbucks on his house. {some prior knowledge of H.P. needed to get this joke} You know how the Starbucks logo is a sea creature? Do you think poor Lovey was having premonitions, not about a cosmic entity named Cthulu, but of the tentacled-looking mermaid on the Starbucks logo who was destined to invade his family home? Food for thought people. Food for thought.

It's a bit worn out, but we visited Lovey's grave and left him a little token. Not a sticky candy (he lived on cockroach food - sweets) but I'm keeping it a secret. It is forbidden to take photos in the cemetery and they have security to curb the photo taking. We sneaked a couple in though. I really liked Providence and would have liked to spend more time there. We had a little geeky checklist of places to see that were the subject of his writings, but we hardly saw any. More time in Providence required! I'll add it to my ever growing list of travel to-dos.

Kitty
xo