Given the dreary weather, for this week’s ‘Picture Postals from Lovecraft’ post it seems suitable to revisit one of Lovecraft’s favourite places. The Japanese Gardens at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, if only in b&w. These had opened in 1915…
… and were thus barely a decade old when Lovecraft encountered them in the mid 1920s.
Here we see a Lovecraft-alike writing near the bridge of the Japanese pond, with its bronze storks.
These are apparently from circa 1925, and are thus as Lovecraft would have seen it.
The place was also open in winter, when the hot-houses would have been the main draw. But after a fresh fall of snow the Japanese Gardens would also have had a certain allure. New York had several record-breaking snow-storms during Lovecraft’s time there. Again these pictures are from near to the time that Lovecraft was in New York City.
Beautiful photos of the Japanese garden at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. HPL also loved the Japanese garden at Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia. Roger Williams Park in Providence has a Japanese garden, but it was only completed by the WPA in 1936. I don’t know if HPL ever had a chance to see it.