Lovecraft’s teenage years are mostly a mystery. But we know, from the title of a poem, that he probably attended or was a formal member of the Men’s Club of the First Universalist Church, at 250 Washington Street in Providence. This is a gothic revival church building of 1872 by Edwin L. Howland. Doubtless he was allowed into a number of church towers on his antiquarian walks. But one wonders if the youthful experience of a visit to the gothic belfry here, with other lads from the Men’s Club, may have much later played into the descriptions in “The Haunter of the Dark”?

“In openings still further above — where, by chamfering, the dimensions of the tower are reduced — are paired Gothic louvered belfry openings with a roundel. Above these windows a band of stone bosses runs around the base of a steep, slate-covered “extinguisher” spire pierced by four narrow, hooded dormers [windows]…” (description from National Register of Historic Places).

The First Universalist Church in the 1970s.

Perhaps not, though, as it seems unlikely the group actually met at the church. The plan of the church interior shows no large meeting rooms. More likely was that Lovecraft’s group met in a nearby hall. The new Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) building seems a prime candidate for this, being an enormous modern building opened on the same street late in 1906 (opening date from National Register of Historic Places). The book Providence: a citywide survey of historic resources notes it replaced…

…smaller, crowded facilities [which meant that] the YWCA Building was begun early in 1905″

In this 1908 postcard you can see how close these two buildings were…

The YWCA with its new facilities and huge amounts of space, plus perhaps the enticement of meeting the girls who used the building, might explain why a Young Men’s Club could have been started there circa 1906. This does not mean Lovecraft joined in that opening year, though. I’m guessing that perhaps there was an age barrier which meant one could only join at age 18 or 21 (circa 1908 and 1911 respectively, for Lovecraft)? My other guess would be that this Club might have been for young men of a more intellectual bent, those who would not frequent the YMCA, the sort of lads who could be trusted to behave as gentleman around a lot of young women?

The Universalist Register (volumes for 1907-1912) names all its few Men’s Clubs as “Young Men’s Club”, so I suspect that this is the proper name for what Lovecraft was a member of — and which he named in the poem he titled: “The Members of the Men’s Club of the First Universalist Church of Providence, R.I., to Its President, About to Leave for Florida on Account of His Health”.

Sadly neither the club nor the Providence YWCA seems to have left much trace in the online record. If anyone cares to investigate, the Providence YWCA archives 1867 — 1980 are held at the Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division. They also have the First Universalist Church of Providence Records 1905 — 1992.

A 93-page book called The centennial book of the First Universalist Society in Providence, R.I. April 10, 1921 may have a few details of the Men’s Club in its opening “Outline of History” section, but the book is not yet available online.

In 1919 Judge Fred B. Perkins was President of the First Universalist Church of Providence. He was a Brown University graduate and Perkins Hall at Brown is now named after him. I have not been able to discover who was President in the possible Lovecraft years of 1906 — circa 1914.

Below is a picture from the historical buildings preservation document for the Fleur-de-Lys Studios (which features in “The Call of Cthulhu”). Note the semi-tentacular nature of the tails in the mural design placed above the fire-place in the Fleur-de-Lys Studios interior…

One wonders if Lovecraft could have seen it on a tour of the interior?

It might be interesting to know the mythological derivation and symbolism in use here? It appears to be blending of a gryphon or Welsh red dragon (also to be seen on the exterior) with a sea-serpent? And with a human eye shape made by the combination of both tails.

A free book from 1948 in digital facsimile, Angell’s Lane: the history of a little street in Providence, a complete history of Angell’s Lane. Angell’s Lane is now called Thomas Street, home of the Fleur-de-Lys Studios in Providence. Note the book has a handy annotated and referenced “list of Rhode Island Artists” and sculptors, from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. This might be useful for some Lovecraftian scholar in the future.

The nearby Seril Dodge house in Thomas Street also has a free and very detailed history article online.

On the endpapers of the Angell’s Lane book is “Thomas Street 1932” by Helen M. Grose, although badly scanned…

Grose leads to some interesting racial fears of the time. Helen Mason Grose (1880-1960) was a member of the Providence Art Club and a local book illustrator who worked for national publishers. She was married to Howard B. Grose (b. 1851), who wrote ‘slum missionaries’ books on immigration such as Aliens or Americans? (1906) and The Incoming Millions (1906 Second Edition). Meant as primers for junior missionaries into the immigrant areas, taken together these two books appear to form virtually a complete high-school primer and study course on Lovecraft’s race fears. Complete with study questions at the end of each chapter, in Aliens or Americans?. One wonders if this was the sort of Christian race literature the teenage Lovecraft encountered during his mysterious teen years with the Men’s Club of the First Universalist Church of Providence? Aliens or Americans? is introduced with this poem from Thomas Bailey Aldrich — an example of how Lovecraft was certainly not alone in his fear of the Eastern hordes and what gods they might bring to America…

UNGUARDED GATES

   Wide open and unguarded stand our gates,
   And through them presses a wild, motley throng–
   Men from the Volga and the Tartar steppes,
   Featureless figures of the Hoang-Ho,
   Malayan, Scythian, Teuton, Celt, and Slav,
   Flying the old world’s poverty and scorn;
   These bringing with them unknown gods and rites,
   Those, tiger passions, here to stretch their claws.
   In street and alley what strange tongues are these,
   Accents of menace alien to our air,
   Voices that once the Tower of Babel knew!
   
   …

Actually, Lovecraft and his class could today be presented with the historical argument that well-assimilated and mixed mass-immigration prevented hard-line socialism in America. Because most socialist immigrants of the 1920s-40s dropped the ideology as soon after they arrived and understood the operations of a free market; mass immigration from many different places prevented massed formations of trades-unions, which would have provided socialists with an organising base serving as a precursor to revolution; and ‘mass immigration + wartime and 1950s jobs’ meant there was consequently little demand for an all-embracing post-war ‘welfare state’ run by the government. Immigrants and their assimilated descendants also came to be prominent among the post-war defenders of economic liberty and American freedoms, in many strands of intellectual and business life.

The picture below is also by Helen M. Grose, possibly in Providence. The children and mother perhaps evoke something of Lovecraft’s infant perambulations with his mother, and perhaps someone might recognise the building as one known to Lovecraft? The auctioneer suggests Brown University.

A rare quality photograph of the interior of an art studio at the Fleur-de-Lys Studios (1885) in Providence, which features in Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu”. Big sharp version here, and some more pictures here.

Wilfred Israel Duphiney painting Commodore John Barry. You just know someone’s going to Photoshop Lovecraft’s face on the portrait in this picture… 🙂

The place housed artists’ studios for masters — many of whom were associated with the Rhode Island School of Design. It or adjacent buildings seem to have also served as a rooming house for students of a creative bent. The complex seems to have been what would now be termed a ‘live-work creative hub’?

It is sometimes also called Fleur-de-Lis is the art history literature. Designed by Charles Walter Stetson and Sydney Richmond Burleigh in collaboration with architects Stone, Carpenter, and Willson (who also built the Providence Public Library).

Incidentally, there’s a 2009 book “Infinite Radius”: Founding Rhode Island School of Design…

* rare archival photographs
* previously unpublished manuscripts
* Elsie Bronson’s unpublished chronicle of RISD’s first 50 years
* transcriptions of archival letters
* facsimiles of course & museum catalogues from 1877–1900