Lovecraft talks a number of times of “the Arcade”, in Letters to Family Vol. 1. In 1926 he notes the demolition of the “old Butler mansion” next to the Arcade and worries about demolition of the Arcade (1827-28) itself. Indeed, Letters to Family reveals he was quite literally having nightmares about it (page 559). This is the building he’s talking about. It had two frontages. Here is the quieter-looking one on Weybosset St:

Curiously, no anti-pigeon measures on the building. Presumably the city offered a bounty to lads who were a crack shot with an air-rifle, in those days, rather than tolerate the buildings and sidewalks becoming fouled. Lovecraft was one such in his youth, and he had owned a fine collection of firearms and was a crack shot. A curious and not altogether unsuitable professional avenue might even have opened up for him, had his eyesight not been discombobulated by his intense astronomical observing — that of the city’s rat-and-pigeon sniper.

The Interior:

There was also a busier entrance on the busy Westminster Street, with a ponderously peaked pediment that gives it a less appealing look:

During the Second World War it was threatened again, when offices were planned for the site. But it survived, and is now the oldest surviving ‘proto-mall’ in America.

It was not for everyday shopping, and thus had no need to accommodate heaving crowds. It appears to have been a place which favoured, and around which clustered, photographers, commercial artists and picture-framers. Along with makers of hats, clothing accessories, jewellery, pens, perfume, etc. Also things like watch-repair and cameras. It was at a photographic studio here that Lovecraft had one of his first post-baby portraits made…

This is the first picture of me taken after the shearing of my infantile curls … I remember perfectly when the view was taken — one afternoon in a studio in the “Arcade”…