Federal-style 1825 private residence at 65 Prospect Street where H.P. Lovecraft lived from 1933 until his death in 1937; the model for Robert Blake's home in 'The Haunter of the Dark' — exterior viewing only from the public sidewalk.
65 Prospect Street, Providence, RI 02906
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Private residence. Exterior viewing from the public sidewalk is free. Do not approach or photograph through windows.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Public sidewalk along Prospect Street; College Hill has some grade changes.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1825 · H.P. Lovecraft's Final Residence (1933-1937) · Setting for 'The Haunter of the Dark' (1935) · Federal-Style Architecture · Relocated from 66 College Street in the late 1950s
The Mumford-Lovecraft House is a Federal-style residence built in 1825 with a hipped roof topped by a square monitor and a principal entrance framed by Gothic colonettes. The building originally stood at 66 College Street; it was moved to its current location at 65 Prospect Street in the late 1950s when an expanding Brown University acquired the original site for new construction.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) moved into the house in May 1933 and lived there until March 10, 1937, when his rapidly worsening health (intestinal cancer and Bright's disease) required hospitalization at the Jane Brown Memorial Hospital. He died there on March 15, 1937, at the age of 46. During his residency at 65 Prospect Street he wrote — among other works — 'The Haunter of the Dark' (1935), his autobiographical sketch 'Some Notes on a Nonentity,' and significant portions of his late correspondence.
A blue historical plaque on the building today reads 'Samuel B. Mumford House' and does not mention Lovecraft. The house is a private residence and is not open for interior tours; it remains a regular stop on Providence's literary and ghost-tour walking routes.
Sources
According to Atlas Obscura, the Providence Preservation Society guide, and Lovecraft's own published College Hill walking tour, the Mumford House's place in haunted-Providence lore rests on its literary associations rather than on a body of reported paranormal incidents at the address. Lovecraft used the building as the model for the home of Robert Blake, the doomed writer-protagonist of 'The Haunter of the Dark' (1935); from its windows Lovecraft described what he called the 'haunting vista' of College Hill rooftops.
The house is a regular stop on Providence ghost tours and Lovecraft literary walking tours, where guides discuss Lovecraft's 1933-1937 residency, his final illness, and the works composed at the address. The Boston Globe's 2023 Providence haunts feature includes the house among the city's significant literary haunts.
No direct paranormal incident reports for the building are documented in independent sources; the haunting is, in Lovecraft's own idiom, more atmospheric than active.
This venue is privately owned and not open to the public — appreciate from the public sidewalk only.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
View Lovecraft's final residence from the public sidewalk on Prospect Street. The historical plaque on the house reads 'Samuel B. Mumford House' and does not mention Lovecraft. Often combined with a visit to nearby Prospect Park (a Lovecraft favorite) and his grave at Swan Point Cemetery.
Featured stop on Lovecraft's own published College Hill walking tour. Lovecraft's published route guides visitors past the building's role as the model for Robert Blake's home in 'The Haunter of the Dark' — all viewed from the public sidewalk.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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