NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/horror/cthulhu/1168

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-27 | 8.9 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!dziuxsolim.rutgers.edu!gandalf.rutgers.edu!cje
From: [e-mail] (Cthulhu's Jersey Epopt)
Newsgroups: alt.horror.cthulhu
Subject: "My father went to Innsmouth..."
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 27 Jan 93 20:25:37 GMT
Organization: Miskatonic U. Computer Operations & User Services
Lines: 150

This was originally posted to the HORROR mailing list on Bitnet in 1991.
Enjoy!

------

Speaking of horror-related vacations, I was vacating in Maine in July and
decided to take a short trip in search of Innsmouth.

Now popular wisdom regarding HPL (*is* there such thing?  make that "Starry
Wisdom" :-) ) said that Innsmouth was based on "the decaying seaport town of
Newburyport, MA", but HPL readers-in-the-know had been puzzled at how the
narrator of "The Shadow over Innsmouth" *starts* his voyage at Newburyport.

Sure, sure, the real-life models do exist in the stories along with the
analogs.  Arkham is based on Salem, but both are mentioned in the same stories
(in "The Dreams in the Witch-House", most prominently).

But at last year's HPL Centennial Conference, I heard Will Murray (pulp scholar
and current ghost-writer for both The Destroyer and Doc Savage pbs) describe
his discovery of the "real" Innsmouth!  Inspired by his success, I set off to
see if I could do the same.

Before we left for Maine, I had this idea in the back of my mind and so packed
along copies of "Shadow" and "The Festival" (just in case I should get as far
as Marblehead/"Kingsport"), but I'd forgotten at the time where I'd heard the
story of the "true Innsmouth" and couldn't remember the name of the town.

So I went a-hunting.  First stop was, of course, Newburyport, to find the town
square the narrator set out from.  N'b'yport (as the smallest signs had it)
today was yuppified: the supposed "square" was actually a semi-circular plaza
with park benches and bronze memorial plaques to past glories set in newly laid
brick.  The "square" area was mall-like collection of shops and "boutiques".
No "Hammond's Drug Store" or lunch counter remained.  But the streets were
there, especially "brick-lined State Street", which led off from the "square".
Some of State's buildings looked suitably old, though all were well-kept.  I'm
not much of an antiquarian, myself, but it was neat to see these 19th century
survivals.

I dimly recalled Murray saying the ex-Masonic temple that became "The Esoteric
Order of Dagon" was today inhabited by a more innocuous (we hope!)
organization, something like the Elks or the Kiwanis.  I found a "Federal
Street" on the Nbyport map I'd bought from the nearby Chamber of Commerce
(noting that all the other "Innsmouth" street names were also present in
Nbyport, though not quite in the same relation to each other) and tried to
retrace the narrator's journey into Innsmouth's square.  Federal St. is a nice
residential street, with a cluster of shops and galleries (the place is
something of an artists' colony, as well) at the seaward, easternmost end.  At
the western end was State Route 1A, with large mansions on hills looking down
at the sea.  In about the middle was a large home with pillars, something like
those the EOD had.  Across the street was a side street: Temple St.  Had I
found the EOD?

Closer look showed that this building (it was undergoing renovations, and all
the doors and windows were open) was laid out more like a typical home than a
meeting place for an organization.  And it was at this moment of disappointment
that the name of Murray's candidate for Innsmouth jumped out of memory:
Gloucester!

Back to the car I went, tracing as best I could the narrator's journey: from
the "square", up State, left onto 1A, and past the mansions, lower green, and
river mentioned in the story.  And as soon as I left Nbyport proper, I was
lost.  HPL mentions the bus to Innsmouth bearing left down a little-used road
at the point where the "highway" (my 1A) headed for Rowley and Ipswich and
riding along the coastline; the narrator could see Plum Island as he travelled.
I was going too far inland, right into Rowley and Ipswich.  But my map, which
was complete and up-to-date, showed no such street following the coast.  The
nearest thing was a road back in Nbyport which lead out onto Plum Island
itself.  I was disappointed again.  Had the little-used road been shut down and
returned to forest?  Worse, had I misremembered the name of the town?

I had no choice at this point but to follow the best route into Gloucester and
see if I could locate some models for the fictional landmarks.  The road was a
typical modern country road: farms, houses, occasional shops, etc.; nice, but
nothing special.  I *live* on such a road.  The towns themselves (Rowley,
Ipswich) were more interesting, and I wished I had the time to explore them,
but I didn't, not if I hoped to get as far south as "Arkham and Kingsport"
before returning to meet my family for dinner.

I drove into Gloucester on a modern highway, not expecting much.  My AAA
guidebook said Gloucester was a site of interest to tourists, and sure enough
the town was crowded (and not at all "decayed", though nowhere as yuppified as
Nbyport).  I parked in a lot near the docks and got out to take a look around.

A "Points of Interest" sign mentioned some old churches and "the Something-
Something-Something-Gilman House" (all previous owners of local renown) nearby,
so I headed off that way.  "Innsmouth" supposedly had three old churches (one
with a Georgian steeple) opening onto the same square as the EOD.  (Back in
Nbyport, there were two churches within a block of the false-EOD, further
confusing me, though neither was as old as the 18th-century Georgian period.)
On reaching the scene, I was suddenly alerted.  One of the churches had
"unusually tall basement windows", where, in the story, the narrator got his
first glimpse of someone with "the Innsmouth look".  I was amused to note this
church was the first Universalist church built in America.  (I'm a Unitarian-
Universalist myself, the only church where "potluck" describes the theology as
well as the social activity. :-)  (Apropos of the "witch" thread, the UUs have
"CUUPS", the "Covenant of Unitarian-Universalist Pagans", which happily lends a
little social respectability to Wiccan groups and other pagan "fringe
religions".  That describes my own religious leanings, BTW.  But I seriously
digress.))

But there was no temple-like structure nearby, except for the too-modern Town
Hall.  Following my map, I headed for an intersection of about 5 streets: not a
square, more a knot with a painted traffic island in the middle.  But it was
there that a huge grin broke out on my face.  It all came back to me now.  I
had found the Esoteric Order of Dagon!  It was disguised as the local American
Legion post.

The building matched HPL's description perfectly.  (The Legion had thoughtfully
neglected to repaint the building for the past 10 or so years, so it *really*
looked like the description!)  The churches weren't exactly on the "square",
just half a block or so off of it, but what's a couple hundred feet among fans?
The main road (Washington Street, an Innsmouth name) led past the hall to the
waterfront.  I had earlier decided not to take that road into town; now I was
glad I hadn't, since coming across the "EOD" in the car, through the
windshield, at 40 MPH, would have seriously dampened the effect of seeing it.
At the waterfront was a park and public beach, with the docks off to the left.
Out at sea was a breakwater with a lighthouse, in better shape than the ones in
the story, but there nonetheless.  No "Devil's Reef", though, that I could see.

Walking back towards my car (and the center of town), I passed a run-down,
boarded-up house of the Federal period.  Now *here* was the Innsmouth I wanted
to see!  A block or so further on stood a 3-story brick building with a pub on
its first floor... and a cupola on top!  I had found the "Gilman Hotel"!

Out on the docks stood a large white factory-like building with a short tower.
Looks like the Marsh Refinery to me!  Turns out it was a processing plant for
frozen fish, and the tower was the Birdseye Tower, named after Clarence
Birdseye who "invented frozen food" in Gloucester circa 1910.  The building
would have been there in HPL's day.

A final point of correspondence was provided by a sign telling of local
history.  It seems Gloucester had had a major fire which decimated the city in
the mid-1800s, right around the time when Innsmouth had its troubles.

I bought a lemon ice at an Italian bakery to toast HPL's memory, and then it
was time to go.  There wasn't even time to travel to Marblehead and look for
"Kingsport" landmarks.  Maybe next year.

Driving home, I thought of the perfect (non-existant) souvenir of my trip:
T-shirts for my children, reading "My father went to Innsmouth, and all I got
was this lousy look."




--
Yog-Sothoth Neblod Zin,

Chris Jarocha-Ernst            Rutgers University Computing Services
Internet: [e-mail]       BITnet: JAROCHAERNST@ZODIAC