Lovecraft’s New York stories “The Horror at Red Hook” (written 1st-2nd August 1925) and “He” (written 11th Aug 1925) both culminate in calamitous and severe building collapse. Similarly, “In the Vault” (18th Sept 1925) features a man trapped in a building. Could these elements of collapse and trapping have been inspired by the Pickwick Club collapse disaster, in Boston (New England) in July 1925? The collapse killed 44 people.

Lovecraft’s own building had also been shaken by a minor earthquake in late February 1925, though it was structurally unharmed. This would have primed him to worry about possible building collapse.

From the book The Wicked Waltz and other scandalous dances, by Mark Knowles (2009)…

Also interesting it that, at that time, there was a public association being made between dance halls (a seedy dance hall features prominently in “Red Hook”) and Satan (ditto)…

“[The book] Satan in the Dance Hall: Rev. John Roach Straton, Social Dancing, and Morality in 1920s New York City (2008) explores the overwhelming popularity of social dancing and its close relationship to America’s rapidly changing society in the early twentieth century. The book focuses on the fiercely contested debate about the morality of social dancing in New York City, led by such moral reformers and religious leaders as Rev. John Roach Straton. Guided by the firm belief that dancing was a leading cause of immorality, Straton and his followers succeeded in enacting municipal regulations on social dancing and moral conduct within the more than 750 public dance halls in New York City.”