{"id":47651,"date":"2021-05-07T05:02:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T02:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tentaclii.wordpress.com\/?p=47651"},"modified":"2021-05-07T05:02:45","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T02:02:45","slug":"picture-postals-from-lovecraft-the-arcade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2021\/05\/07\/picture-postals-from-lovecraft-the-arcade\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Picture postals’ from Lovecraft: The Arcade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lovecraft talks a number of times of “the Arcade”, in Letters to Family<\/em> Vol. 1. In 1926 he notes the demolition of the “old Butler mansion” next to the Arcade and worries about demolition of the Arcade (1827-28) itself. Indeed, Letters to Family<\/em> reveals he was quite literally having nightmares about it (page 559). This is the building he’s talking about. It had two frontages. Here is the quieter-looking one on Weybosset St:<\/p>\n

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Curiously, no anti-pigeon measures on the building. Presumably the city offered a bounty to lads who were a crack shot with an air-rifle, in those days, rather than tolerate the buildings and sidewalks becoming fouled. Lovecraft was one such in his youth, and he had owned a fine collection of firearms and was a crack shot. A curious and not altogether unsuitable professional avenue might even have opened up for him, had his eyesight not been discombobulated by his intense astronomical observing — that of the city’s rat-and-pigeon sniper.<\/p>\n

The Interior:<\/p>\n

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There was also a busier entrance on the busy Westminster Street, with a ponderously peaked pediment that gives it a less appealing look:<\/p>\n

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During the Second World War it was threatened again, when offices were planned for the site. But it survived, and is now the oldest surviving ‘proto-mall’ in America.<\/p>\n

It was not for everyday shopping, and thus had no need to accommodate heaving crowds. It appears to have been a place which favoured, and around which clustered, photographers, commercial artists and picture-framers. Along with makers of hats, clothing accessories, jewellery, pens, perfume, etc. Also things like watch-repair and cameras. It was at a photographic studio here that Lovecraft had one of his first post-baby portraits made…<\/p>\n

This is the first picture of me taken after the shearing of my infantile curls … I remember perfectly when the view was taken — one afternoon in a studio in the “Arcade”…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lovecraft talks a number of times of “the Arcade”, in Letters to Family Vol. 1. In 1926 he notes the …<\/p>\n

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