Colonial private residence at 135 Benefit Street, immortalized in H.P. Lovecraft's 1924 novelette 'The Shunned House' and associated with the Harris family's string of 19th-century misfortunes.
135 Benefit Street, Providence, RI 02903
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Private residence; no interior access. Exterior viewing from public sidewalk is free.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Public sidewalk along Benefit Street; some grade changes typical of College Hill.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1763 · Colonial Architecture · H.P. Lovecraft Literary Setting · Benefit Street Historic District · College Hill
The dwelling commonly known as the Shunned House stands on the west side of Benefit Street in Providence's College Hill neighborhood and was built around 1763. The site sits on land once associated with a Huguenot family — Frenchmen who, according to local tradition, settled in East Greenwich in 1686 and moved to Providence in 1696, and whose family burial plot is said to have remained on the property when Benefit Street was widened in the early 19th century. The Providence Preservation Society and Wikipedia entries note that the house was occupied by the merchant Stephen Harris and his family from the late 18th century forward.
Local history records that the Harris family suffered a long string of reversals during their tenure in the house. Harris was a Providence merchant who owned several shipping vessels; according to legend, a number of those vessels were lost at sea after the family moved in, leading to financial difficulties. The family also experienced repeated child mortality — several Harris children died, and others were stillborn. These misfortunes circulated locally and contributed to the house's reputation as 'shunned' before any fiction was written about it.
H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was familiar with the house through family connections — his aunt Lillian Clark lived there in 1919-20 as a companion to a Mrs. H.C. Babbit — and he used the building as the setting for his novelette 'The Shunned House,' written in October 1924 and first published in Weird Tales in October 1937. In Lovecraft's fictionalization, the cellar harbors a malign presence whose nature is hinted at by strange odors and unnatural fungus growth.
The building is still standing and remains a private residence; it is one of the most visited stops on Providence's Benefit Street architectural and Lovecraft literary walking tours.
Sources
According to New England Folklore and Atlas Obscura, the Harris family lore is the source of the house's pre-Lovecraft reputation: failed merchant shipping, multiple stillbirths and infant deaths, and — most often cited — the story that Stephen Harris's wife Hannah was confined to the attic in the wake of these losses, where she reportedly 'ranted in French,' a language she did not know.
Local tradition holds that the house was built over a Huguenot couple's grave that was missed when family burial plots along Benefit Street were relocated during the street's 19th-century widening. Lovecraft drew on this background for 'The Shunned House,' adding fictional elements — strange cellar odors, glowing fungus, and a vampiric ancestral presence — that are sometimes mistaken for actual local lore.
Providence Ghost Tour operators and Atlas Obscura describe the house as continuing to attract paranormal interest from Lovecraft fans, though the building's owners maintain it as a private residence and do not offer interior access. Visitors are asked to observe from the public sidewalk and not enter the grounds.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
View the exterior of the Stephen Harris House from the public sidewalk on Benefit Street. The house is a private residence; respect the occupants and do not enter the property. Often included as a stop on guided Providence ghost-tour and Lovecraft literary walking tours.
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