{"id":64887,"date":"2024-07-19T02:49:12","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T02:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/?p=64887"},"modified":"2024-07-18T21:37:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T21:37:24","slug":"maxfields-at-warren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2024\/07\/19\/maxfields-at-warren\/","title":{"rendered":"Maxfield’s, at Warren"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had little hope of ever finding a picture of Julia A. Maxfield’s ice-cream parlour<\/a>, which was something of a repeating rural venue for the Lovecraft circle. But one has popped up at last. I’ve here colourised it. The card is still available, for a hefty price, on eBay.<\/p>\n

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Saturday morning all three of us went to Colonial Warren — down the east shore of the bay — and staged an ice-cream eating contest at the celebrated emporium of Mrs. Julia A. Maxfield — an aged matron of antient Warren lineage who has won fame by serving more flavours of ice cream than any other purveyor either living or dead. There are twenty-eight varieties this season, and we sampled them all within the course of an hour.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The game was, in the course of one hour…<\/p>\n

Each would order a double portion — two kinds — and by dividing equally would ensure six flavours each round. Five rounds took us all through the twenty-eight and two to carry. Mortonius [Morton] and I each consumed two and one-half quarts, but Wandrei fell down toward the last. Now James Ferdinand and I will have to stage an elimination match to determine the champion!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There were a number of visits and other contests…<\/p>\n

Another time we visited the colonial seaport of Warren, down the East shore of the bay — incidentally stopping at a place (quite a rendezvous of our gang) where 28 varieties of ice cream are sold. We had six varieties apiece — my choices being grape, chocolate chip, macaroon, cherry, banana, and orange-pineapple.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then back home via […] ancient Warren […] at which latter place we paused at the famous Maxfield’s (a rendezvous of Morton, Cook, & other visitors of mine) for a dinner consisting entirely of ice cream – a pint & a half each. HPL: chocolate, coffee, caramel, banana, lemon, strawberry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After digesting Warren’s quiet lanes and doorways we went across the tracks to Aunt Julia’s, where we tanked up on twelve different kinds of ice cream — all they’re serving at this time of year [March]. The antient gentle-woman, of course, was not there – since (as I wish to gawd I could) she spends all her winters in Florida — but the bimbo in charge was very pleasant, and we got quick service since we were the only customers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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American Biography<\/em> (1924) confirms the at-or-near 71 Federal Street location. At Warren… <\/p>\n

is where ‘Elmhurst’, famous for Mrs. Maxfield’s ice cream, is located on Federal Street.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However the 1932 Providence Directory<\/em> has it on Narragansett Av. There were likely several different ways of approaching it. Today Federal Street looks like a fine place, but seems too short in terms of numbering. Perhaps it once ran on, and would thus have given us a No. 71? Narragansett Av. also seems gone, but one wonders if it once ran along the shoreline and Federal Street ran on to meet it? But it would probably take a local sleuth to pinpoint the location and say if the building survives. <\/p>\n

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As for Lovecraft’s ice cream craving, it began early, if the evidence of its use in his seminal poetry is anything to go by. In his early comic\/cosmic poem “The Poe-et’s Nightmare” (1916)…<\/p>\n

Each eve he sought his bashful Muse to wake
\nWith overdoses of ice cream and cake<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The 1925 telegraphic diary has plentiful of mentions of ice cream in New York City. <\/p>\n

By 1934 ice cream has become something of a staple meal on his travels south. June 1934, in Charleston… <\/p>\n

Still on 20\u00a2 a day for food, but off the canned stuff. Morning — 5\u00a2 cup of ice cream. Evening, 10\u00a2 bowl of Mexican chili and another 5\u00a2 cup of ice cream.” […] I “frequently make a full meal of it (and nothing else) in summer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

December 1936. Ice-cream now a costly luxury, as poverty deepened. But still…<\/p>\n

Occasionally, of course, extravagant additions [to one’s meagre diet] occur \u2014 such as […] a chocolate bar or ice cream at an odd hour [… and yet] the old man still lives \u2014 in a fairly hale & hearty state, at that! Oddly enough, I was a semi-invalid in the old days when I didn\u2019t economise. Porridge? Not for Grandpa!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

His ice cream cravings were such that in “The Exiles”, a Ray Bradbury ‘Mars’ story after Lovecraft’s death, Bradbury portrays the Martian Lovecraft as an ice cream-aholic…<\/p>\n

Lovecraft hurried to a small icebox which somehow survived this red furnace and brought forth two quarts of ice-cream. Emptying these into a large dish he hurried back to his table and began alternately tasting the vanilla ice and scurrying his pen over crisp sheets of writing paper. As the ice-cream melted upon his tongue, a look of almost dreamful exultancy dissolved his face; then he sent his pen dashing. \u201cSorry. Really, I am awfully busy, gentlemen, Mr. Poe, Mr. Bierce. I have so many letters to write.\u201d […] The writing man tried another delicate spoonful of the cold treasure. There were six empty vanilla ice-cream boxes piled neatly on the hearth from this day\u2019s feasting. And the ice-box, in the quick flash they had seen of its interior, contained a good dozen quarts more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had little hope of ever finding a picture of Julia A. Maxfield’s ice-cream parlour, which was something of a …<\/p>\n

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