This week in ‘Picture Postals’ I take a look at somewhere warm and sunny. As America and the UK shiver (at the huge rise in heating bills, as much as the cold) it seems that this may be welcome.

In June 1932 Lovecraft reached the city of New Orleans on his travels, and there enjoyed a lengthy visit with the help of local resident and fellow Weird Tales writer E. Hoffman Price. Lovecraft was much taken with the old French Quarter, then gentrifying in parts.

Price later recalled that he “skipped the concubines entirely”, and thus Lovecraft would not have seen all in the city. Gentrifying the place may have been, and Lovecraft later recalled it as such. But several candid b&w street pictures from the mid 1920s show that litter (trash) was a problem even in the business parts, and that side-streets could still be seedy-looking and wild with street children.

The Lovecraft-Price letters have recently been published but I don’t yet have that volume. So I may be missing some further data here on locations. But for now here is a StreetView of the relevant street corner, with Price’s No. 305 a few steps away down the same side of the street.

Appropriately enough, No. 305 Royal Street is now a gallery at the heart of the Quarter. Run by, of all people, Nathan Myhrvold. And curiously dedicated to ‘food photography’. Which seems somehow appropriate for a place where H.P. Lovecraft ate nuclear chilli-con-carne and Price brewed his own beer.

The ground floor looks like it has been ‘shelled’ inside for retail, but the historic frontage still gives a good indication of the place that Lovecraft visited and in which he had epic conversations and epic curries with his friend Price. This would also have been the rendezvous point for a meeting with R.E Howard… but REH couldn’t afford the trip.

We can see here that there would have been a street balcony and we can probably assume abundant balcony plants too, more abundant than seems the case today. This postcard is indicative of the plant life and views from such balconies…

The bird-cages indicate that the twittering of birds would have been part of the ambience, enhanced due to the relative lack of noisy cars and taxis at that time. What we don’t get to see is the back courtyard, if there was one, but this fine picture of the back of No. 633 Royal Street may be somewhat indicative.

Lovecraft was not staying overnight at Price’s No. 305. He was in a “third-class” hotel nearby. This was on St. Charles Street. The closest I can get visually is this small hotel on St. Charles St., and a picture of an eatery at 125 Charles St. Both of which may be indicative.