Necronomicon Dissection: Part 7, Tours and Town Houses

Please excuse the delay between the rest of the NecronomiCon posts and this one. There is no good reason for it other than life getting in the way. These were taken whilst wandering round the town on various days, either as part of the bus tour, or just walking. Unfortunately I did not make it onto the walking tour. Maybe next time.

The image above is a view of the two main hotels of the Con. On the Right, the Omni, where Kris and I were staying, and on the left, the Biltmore, where the bulk of the literature talks were, as well as the gaming room on the 18th floor. The Biltmore is supposedly haunted, by quite a number of ghosts, but we didn't run into any. Inside the Biltmore, are some ver old elevators, including one in the central lobby with the sign opposite attached. Yes that's right, it is an unused glass elevator, to be used for time travel only. No I don't know what they mean (please excuse the fuzzy picure).
The bus tour I took, went around some of the more less central areas related to Lovecraft. These included the site of his Grandfather Whipple Phillips mansion, where Lovecraft was raised. The house is no longer standing, but a plaque has been placed on the spot.


Ladd Observatory, and the Observatory 'Library'. There were conflicting stories as to how HPL managed to access the observatory. The bus tour driver/guide stated that the head astronomer, Professor Winslow Upton, gave a young HPL a key, whereas the caretaker of the observatory said that back then as now, there was always a caretaker on site, so even though he probably let young HPL in whenever, the current caretaker didn't think it likely that HPL had a physical key. I know who I think I believe, but I also know which makes for a better story.



Phillips family plot in the Swan Point Cemetery. Just round the corner from the Butler Hospital where both his parent's perished.

When HPL was interred, there was no headstone placed for him, so his name was inscribed on the Phillips Pillar pictured on the left. Later funds were raised, and headstones placed for HPL, as well as his father and mother.



Above here on the left we have the Fleur de Lys building. This building was immortalised in the story 'The Call of Cthulhu' where HPL described it thus:
"a hideous Victorian imitation of seventeenth-century Breton architecture which flaunts its stuccoed front amidst the lovely colonial houses on the ancient hill, and under the very shadow of the finest Georgian steeple in America." 
Not mincing his words there! On the right, we have aforementioned 'Finest Georgia steeple in America'. The steeple of the First Baptist Church. So named, as it is in fact the first Baptist church to have been built in America.  

Finally, I have a couple of other pictures taken around town on the Sunday morning, as I took a final stroll on College Hill.
Plaque placed in the grounds of the John Hay Library on the centennial of HPL's birth.


John Hay Library at Brown University, where HPL's papers were donated after his death. Unfortunately closed on Sunday's, when we had the free time to go look, so I didn't get in to have a look around.


Providence Athanaeum, private library frequented by HPL, and Poe, amongst others. Also unfortunately closed on Sundays. This was really on my wish list of places to go, and is the only place I am sad not to have got to see the inside of.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Steve Jackson's Sorcery!

Image
Sorcery! is a book from 1983. A Fighting Fantasy Choose your own adventure book, which is from a set originally released back in 1983. This set of game books differentiates itself from the original FF set, through allowing you to use magic. I picked up a copy of the first of these books, 'The Shamutanti Hills' a couple days ago, and with this week being spring break for the kids, I had time to sit down and play it. I decided to go with the Sorcerer, instead of the normal warrior, taking 2 less skill points, and sticking in. Thankfully, I rolled well on my stats, so the difference was not really noticeable. I assumed that you'd pick up spells on the way, but I got to the end of the book, killed the Manticore, and made it to the ending that led on to the next book, without once picking up a spell to use. I saw plenty of options of using spells, but at no point did I come across the three letter codes to learn any. I though I had just been unlucky, but a quick google (see Wiki...
Read more

FiveEvil

Image
As I mentioned ever so briefly here, back in the review of games played for last year, I have been involved in the playtesting of FiveEvil. This is a game based on the d20 system of the "fifth edition of the most popular TTRPG on the market", aka 5e. FiveEvil takes this base game that many people know and love, and modifies the system and rules to allow the game to work for a horror setting.  The game is currently under development through Handiwork Games . 5e is often used as a system to run any type of game. Mostly because it is the biggest game in the TTRPG space, and has therefore has the largest player base. However, any time the though of using 5e to run a horror game comes up online, this raises the hackles of the horror game community, as at its heart, 5e D&D is a heroic fantasy game where character  agency is front and centre, whereas horror games require putting that character agency on the back burner, and put them in situations where they do not feel in contr...
Read more

Wood-Paneled Webring

Image
  I've joined the Wood-Paneled Webring .  What is that you ask? well, it's a TTRPG webring for creators, artists designers etc. Oh, you mean what's a webring ? Well, gather round children and let me tell you a tale of the old ways. In the before days of the internet, back in the 1900's there was no Google, there was just Jeeves. It was in this time that the webrings were formed, from the very elementary units of the initial internet. They allowed you to find sites of interest to you by grouping these sites together, and adding a little link box somewhere to allow you to follow the trail of ethereal breadcrumbs from one site to the next.  Why this exercise in nostalgia? Well, for the same reasons as I initially started this blog, communication. As the social media landscape as we know it crumbles and fractions and continues its route to silofication. As search engines are eaten alive by the AIs developed to improve them. Where are we to turn but to the old ways. The ways...
Read more