Steven J. Mariconda writes and kindly encloses a few old pictures from “near the end of the 1980s”, which he says have not been seen online before. I have his permission to post them here.

1) St. John’s church (“The Haunter of the Dark”), Providence.

St. John’s was abandoned but still standing [at that time]. Apparently it was unlocked, as I recall we simply walked in. There are two photos of the church interior — the nave/sanctuary, and a ladder up to the tower.

We had low lighting conditions and no flash on the camara, unfortunately. The ladder led up from the landing at the topmost stairs. I believe, in retrospect, that it led from the louvered area in the brick structure [as seen from the outside] up to the black capped-space above. This was a 20+ foot wooden ladder that was not secured — merely leaning against the opening above. S.T. Joshi was a couple of dangerous rungs up before we got him off, thus possibly saving the entire field of Lovecraft studies.

2) “The Shunned House”, Providence.

One of the gang knew the owners of the Shunned House, who were congenial to the whole HPL tie-in. They allowed us inside to take a look at the basement. One photo shows the inside of the doors — which so many Lovecraftians have stood before in wonder on the outside — that exit directly onto the sidewalk. These were boarded over.

The other photos are of the fireplace of the Shunned House, sans rugose insect-like head dissolving at the top into a mist. But — and this is the really unique item — the owners showed us a photo-album which included pictures of their then-recent basement renovation. I took a photo of their snapshot showing a hole in front of the fireplace (caption: “Shunned House vampire unearthed.”)

3) Bob Price.

Also a picture of Bob Price at the Patterson Museum in New Jersey. This museum was run by Lovecraft’s mineralogist friend Morton. He had a special upper gallery which specialised in ‘glow in the dark’ minerals, crystals and rocks.