Urban Archive

Story

A Night with the Missus: H. P. Lovecraft in Greenwich Village

Horror writer H. P. Lovecraft lived in New York City between 1924 and 1926. One of his favorite pastimes was searching neighborhoods for buildings or structures dating from the eighteenth-century or embracing its styles. Lovecraft’s literary friends often served as his trusted companions in urban exploration. He also enjoying experiencing New York with his wife, Sonia H. Greene. In August 1924, Greene and Lovecraft shared an evening stroll through Greenwich Village. This excursion introduced Lovecraft to “more of the ancient New-York” than any of his other “numerous pilgrimages.”

Story by David J. Goodwin. Goodwin is writing a biography on H. P. Lovecraft and his years in New York City. He is the author of Left Bank of the Hudson: Jersey City and the Artists of 111 1st Street.

ByDavid Goodwin

Lovecraft and Greene began their self-created walking tour on Christopher Street. He was immediately enchanted. “We saw endless rows of Colonial houses in both directions.”

Entering “the quaint, curving little alley” of Gay Street, Lovecraft found himself breathless with delight upon seeing its brick buildings with door knockers and small-paned windows. He favorably noted that many houses were undergoing restoration. Lovecraft proclaimed that Gay Street was “the soul of the eighteenth century.”

Walking along Sixth Avenue, Lovecraft passed by Jefferson Market. Today, Jefferson Market stands as a beloved example of High Victorian Gothic design and it houses a charming New York Public Library branch. Lovecraft found it to be “ugly and Victorian.”

Greene and Lovecraft next ventured to Patchin Place. Gazing down this cul-de-sac, Lovecraft imagined that he had stepped into his beloved colonial American past. He was transfixed by an antique streetlamp in the pocket neighborhood. The lamp’s “pale beams cast alluring shadows of archaic things half of the imagination.” Poet e.e. cummings lived at Patchin Place at this time. Coincidentally, cummings and Lovecraft’s literary circles soon would intersect.

Greene discovered the gate to Milligan Place between two ordinary buildings. Lovecraft “could scarce believe that a Georgian oasis” existed among “the dingy stigmata of shabby modernity.” An elderly gentleman, possibly a resident or a caretaker, offered to show Greene and Lovecraft around the community. “The hush of centuries was on the place.” Their guide even shared a secret of Milligan Place with the curious couple – a hidden alleyway within the complex. Upon leaving Milligan Place, Lovecraft realized that he would never “look at an ordinary crowded street without wondering what surviving marvels” might wait behind its everyday buildings and structures.

Greene and Lovecraft walked along Eleventh Street, finding the thoroughfare “tranquil and beautiful in the commingled twilight and lamplight.” According to Lovecraft, Eleventh Street had recently been recognized as the loveliest street in Greenwich Village.

Stopping at the corner of Washington Square and MacDougal Street, Lovecraft spotted a tuxedo cat “in the iron fenc’d yard” of a mansion. A moment later, Greene and Lovecraft found themselves surrounded by six or seven cats. A proud, self-declared “Khatist,” Lovecraft lost himself in this cat convention, reveling in its “purring and intelligent conversation.” Greene eventually pulled her husband away, reminding him of the architectural treasures yet to be encountered in Greenwich Village.