Invented Places and Their Origins.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

On TV the real place of Dunwich was mentioned. It was washed away by the sea in devastating storms long ago, and as we all know Lovecraft mentions the name as a fictional town in America, and he got that from Machen, as I'm sure someone can explain, as I know very little about this.
Can you name invented places in fiction, and the real life places that inspired them.
This sort of thing seems popular in horror fiction.

[helrunar]

Dear Princess, you may find this article of interest; it discusses other fictional New England towns mentioned by Lovecraft and the actual places that inspired him to invent them:

www.hplovecraft.com/creation/sites/mass.aspx

I've always relished HPL's enthused description of a burial ground in Marblehead, which was the inspiration for Kingsport, site of that gruesome little yarn "The Festival":

Over all the rest of the scene tower’d a hill on which the rude forefathers of the hamlet were laid to rest; and which was in consequence nam’d Old Burying Hill....And atop all was the peak; Old Burying Hill, where the dark headstones clawed up thro’ the virgin snow like the decay’d fingernails of some gigantick corpse.

H.

[Middoth]

It was somewhere near you.

wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-original-tower-of-moab.html

If you find photos of this place, share with me, please.

[Dr Strange]

There'a an excellent article on the Jezreel Temple of the Flying Roll here, which has a photo - inexpensiveprogress.com/942/jezreels-temple-gillingham/

Joanna Soutchcott was a famous late 18th / early 19th C. English prophetess.

There are a few other photos online, maybe the best of the ones that I saw is this one on wikipedia commons -



Description:

"The former Jezreel's Tower on Chatham Hill at the intersection between Canterbury Street and Watling Street, Gillingham, Kent. It was envisaged as a Jezreelite headquarters by James Roland White, aka James Jershom Jezreel (ca.1851-1885). Following his death, it was founded and built under the direction of his wife Clarissa (1860-1888), by architects Margetts of Chatham and builder James Gouge Naylor of Rochester. When she died in 1888 the building work ceased permanently, with the walls completed but without the roof. It was partly demolished sometime before 1911, and completely demolished between 1960 and 1961.
This real-photograph postcard has an illegible postmark, with a stamp dated 1911-1912. It shows the building partly demolished. On the left can be seen part of a horse-drawn chocolate company van. At the bottom right of the building, if you look closely, is a washing line, showing that part of the property is inhabited."

I've also seen another postcard that is similar to this online, except that it clearly shows tennis courts at the front of the building.

[Middoth]

Thanks Dr Strange!
It is a pity that the tower was not preserved as a historical monument.

[andydecker]

On the Annotations for Moore's Providence there are a lot of informations about the real cities which stood in for Arkham (Manchester) and so on.

Here is a sample link: factsprovidence.wordpress.com/moore-lovecraft-comics-annotation-index/mapping-providence/

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

I was amazed when this appeared on my ebook site. There is no escape from the horror.
I'd have thought some of this cover art would be still in copyright.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

M. R. James used Anthony Trollope's fictional Barchester in his story The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral.
Barchester was based on Winchester.
Did any other authors use Barchester in ghost/horror stories?