Lovecraft on a mysterious tower…

“Portland is not nearly as colonial as Providence, & looks just as citified, although it’s only 1/3 as large. Very fascinating from its marine colour — I went up that ancient tower (1807) shown on one of these cards, and had the maritime vista of my life! Have done the whole town and visited the colonial suburb of Stroudwater. Shall do the two Longfellow houses tomorrow — also a visit to Yarmouth, a quaint & ancient fishing village which will form my farthest north.” — H. P. Lovecraft letter of 26th August 1927, published in Mysteries of Time and Spirit: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Donald Wandrei.

Not that mysterious, actually. As his mention of “1807” identifies the tower as the Portland Observatory…

And here’s the tower in high-res, with my quick new colorisation. Although unlikely to be Lovecraft, note the Lovecraft-alike man standing on the raised entrance platform outside the tower’s doors…