Providence Opera House (green board and canopy, on the left of the picture). It was a 1,500 seater.

“… we were acquainted with Mr. Morrow [Robert Morrow], the lessee & manager of Providence’s chief theatre — The Providence Opera House — (he lived directly across the street) so that it was not thought too shocking to let my aunt take me to see something [on the stage, when a young boy in 1896]” — H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Kleiner dated 16th November 1916.

An impression of the pre-show hustle and bustle the boy Lovecraft might have encountered on arriving, before the age of the motor-car…

Some may doubt that the boy Lovecraft was in one of those carriages. Yet, at this time his family still had a horse & carriage and a live-in coachman to drive it.