{"id":53393,"date":"2022-04-08T03:21:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T03:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/?p=53393"},"modified":"2022-04-15T12:32:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T12:32:54","slug":"picture-postals-from-lovecraft-the-foot-of-college-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2022\/04\/08\/picture-postals-from-lovecraft-the-foot-of-college-street\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Picture Postals\u2019 from Lovecraft: the foot of College Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s \u2018Picture Postal\u2019 shows the foot of College Street. This circa early 1920s card was about as close as one might have got, before now, on a postcard\u2026<\/p>\n

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However a new card has surfaced, seen below. This zooms the viewer closer in. <\/p>\n

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It seems to be circa 1905, which means that Lovecraft was then aged 15. About the same age as a lad looking back at the camera. The lad was likely a resident, since the convention was than the residents went up and down the street on his side. The opposite side was for the use of Brown university students and staff. We see an Interior Decorator\u2019s yard being advertised as available on stepping through the painters-wagon entrance. But presumably Lovecraft had no need of either an interior decorator or spurs, so may never have stepped inside. A sign suggests the boot-maker there would still have been happy to fit riding-boots with spurs, had a man been heading out to the Wild West or Canada. Sundry other practical trades doubtless carried on here. One sign advertises time-worn \u2018furnished rooms to let\u2019 at the back. The Colonial archway \/ horse-yard entrance is actually further down, and appears to be the dark area just to the right of the boy.<\/p>\n

On the opposite side of the street one can glimpse signs for a lawyer and a tailor, and what might be a \u2018Fruits\u2019 shop on the bottom corner. Which would make sense, as the city\u2019s weekly fruit market was held just around the corner. A fruit or two might be useful while climbing the steep hill. Note the hand-rail on that side, which at first I thought might be damage on the picture. In the following picture the same view is seen after the changes had swept away the old traders and yards and rented rooms. <\/p>\n

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A gleaming and recognisably modern American city has emerged from the horse-spur and paint-your-wagon days that had evidently still lingered in Lovecraft\u2019s time. The Industrial Trust skyscraper building now rears it winking head. Actually Lovecraft didn\u2019t mind the Trust Building too much, and he was also sanguine about the loss of the foot of College Street, as I\u2019ve noted here before.<\/p>\n

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That side of the street was replaced by the castle-like new School of Design extension, which at least had its archway in about the same position and style as the old colonial one. Here we look up College Street, rather than down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s \u2018Picture Postal\u2019 shows the foot of College Street. This circa early 1920s card was about as close as …<\/p>\n

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