This week on ‘Picture Postals’, I stay with Lovecraft’s city of Providence, anticipating the city’s coming NecronomiCon / Armitage Symposium later this year. Here I’ve found a rare wide ground-level view of the Marketplace at the centre of the city. Most such views are elevated.

Marketplace looking toward State Capitol

The date is perhaps 1900, Lovecraft then aged 10 and forming an ever-widening picture of his city based around central hubs such as this. The river is below and on the left, and we can see a bit of the bridge across it. In the distance is the State Capitol building. On the far right, the Board of Trade building, seen below ‘head on’ and with College Hill behind it.

Board of Trade looking toward College Hill

The area where the panorama cameraman is standing was the weekly marketplace. Off-camera to the right would have been the ‘Old Brick Row’ (which Lovecraft later tried to save from being swept away) and behind that College Hill.

The Old Brick Row

See my earlier marketplace post for pictures which contextualise the new one seen above.

This 1906 view is also a panorama which looks in the same direction, and it shows the above panorama location in the distance (just left of the chimney top). The docks area (below and out-of-sight of the spot from which this balloon-photo was made) was a place that Lovecraft would later explore with Eddy in the 1920s.

1906 view over the industrial side of the Providence docks