Arkham

A small city in Essex County, Massachusetts. For a map, see Lovecraft's Map of Arkham.

Character

Arkham is an antique town dating back to the early colonial era, with a most eldritch and sinister reputation:

  • The ancient, mouldering, and subtly fearsome town . . . witch-cursed, legend-haunted Arkham, whose huddled, sagging gambrel roofs and crumbling Georgian balustrades brood out the centuries beside the darkly muttering Miskatonic. [HPL Doorstep (online text)]
  • Behind everything crouched the brooding, festering horror of the ancient town . . . He was in the changeless, legend-haunted city of Arkham, with its clustering gambrel roofs that sway and sag over attics where witches hid from the King’s men in the dark, olden days of the Province. [HPL WitchHouse (online text)]
  • . . . a very old town full of witch legends. . . [HPL Colour (online text)]
  • . . . the hoary gambrel roofs of ancient and witch-haunted Arkham . . . [HPL Kadath (online text)]
  • Arkham . . . with its moss-grown gambrel roofs and the rocky rolling meadows behind it. [HPL Kadath (online text)]
  • . . . much was made of the traditions of horror, madness, and witchcraft which lurk behind the ancient Massachusetts town then and now forming my place of residence . . . It may be that centuries of dark brooding had given to crumbling, whisper-haunted Arkham a peculiar vulnerability as regards such shadows . . . [HPL Time (online text)]
  • What he said was not to be believed, even in centuried and legend-haunted Arkham . . . "I suppose you think I’m crazy, Dan—but Arkham history ought to hint at things that back up what I’ve told you." [HPL Doorstep (online text)]
  • . . . Arkham, the terrible witch-haunted old town of [Randolph Carter's] forefathers in New England . . . amidst the hoary willows and tottering gambrel roofs . . . [HPL Silver (online text)]
  • May-Eve (Walpurgis-Night) was always a very bad time in Arkham, when a child or two would probably disappear. [HPL WitchHouse (online text)]
  • Everyone in Arkham knew of Keziah [Mason]’s witch light, a faint violet glow. [HPL WitchHouse (online text)]
  • . . . an old city whose clustering gambrel roofs had once concealed hunted witches, whose changelessness lent itself to strange tales of haunts and legends, whose narrow streets along the Miskatonic River were sentient with the very presence of past centuries, of people who had lived there and had been dust for long decades.
    . . . ancient Arkham with its gambrel roofs and forbidding dormers, with its legends of witches and exorcised devils, was indeed a likely and fertile ground for the growth of doubt and distrust . . . [AWD Curwen]
  • . . . strangely haunted Arkham, a mecca for scholars with architectural leanings, since its ancient gambrel roofs and fan-lighted doorways antedated the less old but no less attractive Georgian and Greek revival houses along its shaded and shadowed streets.
    . . . the clustering gambrel roofs with the haunted gable rooms, the fan-lighted doorways, and the narrow byways along the Miskatonic, leading from hidden streets into long-forgotten courtyards. [AWD Lurker]
  • . . . the gambrel roofs and Georgian balustrades of witch-cursed Arkham . . . [AWD Hastur]
  • Look around you at these ancient houses with their shuttered rooms and ill-lit fanlights. How many strange events have taken place under those gambrel roofs! [AWD Witches]
  • There are strange things enough in Arkham, without the need for going on to Innsmouth. [AWD Sky]
  • In Arkham, where ancient gables point like wizard’s fingers to the sky, strange tales are told. But then, strange tales are always current in Arkham. There is a tale for every rotting ruin, a story for every little corpse-eye window that stares out at the sea when the fog comes up. Here, fantastic fancy seems to flourish, nourished at the shriveled witch-paps of the town itself, sucking the graveyards dry of legend, and draining at the dark dugs of superstition. [RB Creeper (online text)]
  • "Drowsy and dull with age...": a poetic description of Arkham. [REH Arkham (online text)]
  • . . . the antique town of Arkham with its gambrel roofs and elm-shaded avenues quiet as the footsteps of a witch’s familiar. [FL Terror2]

History

Sir Ambrose Abbott was one of Arkham's original settlers.

The exact date of Arkham's founding is unclear; however,

The Court of the County had a session at Arkham sometime in the early 1800s [AWD Lurker]. This sounds like there might have been a traveling judge who visited Arkham periodically.

In olden days the King’s men cleared the town of wizardry. Again, in 1818, the new Government stepped in to destroy some particularly atrocious burrows in and about some of the more ancient houses and, incidentally, to dig up a graveyard better left untouched. Then, in 1869, came the great immigrant panic in Old Town Street, when the moldering mansion of Cyrus Hook was burned to the ground by fear-crazed foreigners. [RB Creeper (online text)]

The 1880's brought "strange days" in the hills west of Arkham [HPL Colour (online text)].

There was a typhoid epidemic ca. 1904 which reached its peak in August. Following Dr. Halsey's death on August 14 and reanimation on August 15, there was a string of grisly murders on the nights of the 15th-17th, until Halsey was captured. [HPL Herbert (online text)]

After May-Eve of 1912, queer earth noises near Dunwich were talked about all the way to Arkham. [HPL Dunwich (online text)]

On August 3, 1928, Wilbur Whateley's scream awakened half of Arkham. [HPL Dunwich (online text)]

Howard Phillips Lovecraft had sensationally fictionalized some Arkham scandals. [FL Terror2]

Features

Some of the most noteworthy features are:

Buildings/Institutions: Arkham Sanitarium; First National Bank; Larkin Institute?; St. Mary's Hospital;

Cemeteries: Arkham cemetery; burying ground; Christchurch Cemetery; Old Dethshill Cemetery;

Churches: Asbury M.E. Church; Baptist Church; St. Stanislaus' Church; Second Church;

Educational Institutions: District Board of Education; East High School; Miskatonic University;

Hills: French Hill; Hangman's Hill; Meadow Hill;

Houses: Carter house; Chambers House; Chapman farmhouse; Commercial House; Derby mansion; Witch House;

Newspapers: Arkham Advertiser; Arkham Gazette;

Organizatons: Arkham Historical Society;

Publishers: Onyx Sphinx Press;

Restaurants: French House; various restaurants where you can have lunch [AWD Lurker]. There is a small restaurant near Miskatonic University that serves at least luncheon [AWD Hastur].

Services: A telegraph office on Church Street. [AWD Attic]

Shopping: There is a shopping district, where apparently you can buy the ingredients for making nitro-glycerine. This seems to argue the presence of a chemical supply store. [AWD Curwen] There is a dusty secondhand store, perhaps a bookstore [FL Terror2].

Streets: Aylesbury Street; Bascom Street; Church Street; Crane Street; Crowninshield; Curwen Street; Garrison Street; High Street; Miskatonic Avenue; Orne's Gangway; Peabody Avenue; Pringle Street; River Street; Saltonstall St.; Sewell Street;

Transportation: There is evidently a train station, since there are trains to Arkham from Newburyport and Rowley [HPL Innsmouth (online text)].

Water, Bodies of: Hangman's Brook; Miskatonic River; Sumner's Pond;

Other: Black Jim's Place;

Neighborhoods

Fine folks up in Miskatonic Avenue, High Street, and Saltonstall Street pretended to know nothing about the witch doings in Arkham. [HPL WitchHouse (online text)]

Residents

Albert Wilmarth was a resident of Arkham. [HPL Whisperer (online text)]

Walter Gilman lived in Arkham. [HPL WitchHouse (online text)]

The Shadow Over Innsmouth narrator's mother's family derived from Benjamin Orne in Arkham. [HPL Innsmouth (online text)]

Randolph Carter's early memories included the hoary gambrel roofs of ancient and witch-haunted Arkham. Nyarlathotep said that Carter's youthful memories of Arkham formed part of the fabulous sunset city of his dreams. [HPL Kadath (online text)] Some time after the death of Harley Warren, Randolph Carter went back to Arkham, the terrible witch-haunted old town of his forefathers, and had experiences in the dark, amidst the hoary willows and tottering gambrel roofs, which made him seal forever certain pages in the diary of a wild-minded ancestor. [HPL Silver (online text)]

More residents and visitors: Abbot, Sir Ambrose; Barton, Mrs.; Brent; Brown Jenkin; Carmody, Charlotte; Carmody, Russell; Carter family; Carter, Obediah; Chambers, Ezekial; Choynski, Paul; Corey, Nathaniel; Czanek, Mary; Dark, Jonathon; David; Derby, Asenath; Derby, Edward Pickman; Derby, Mr.; Desrochers; Dewart, Ambrose; Dombrowski, Mr. and Mrs.; Druven, John; Duncan, Adam; Ellery, Professor; Elwood, Frank; Fellipo, Tony; Garrison, Uriah; Gilman, Asaph; Gilman, Walter; Gauer, Harold; Goade, Aseph; Greek, the; Halsey, Allan; Harper, Dr. Armitage; Hartwell, Dr.; Harrod, Elmer; Hoag, Rev. Jeptha; Iwanicki, Father; Keane, Abel; Keane, Prof. Martin; Kent, Jeremy; Lapham, Seneca; Lilith; Malkowski, Dr.; Manton, Joel; Mason, Keziah; Mazurewicz, Joe; mystic dreamer; Orne, Eliza; Osborne, Frank; Peabody; Peabody, Benjamin; Peabody, E. Lapham; Peabody, Mary; Peaslee, Alice (Keezar); Peaslee, Hannah (Wingate); Peaslee, Hannah; Peaslee, Jonathon; Peaslee, Nathaniel Wingate; Peaslee, Robert; Phelan, Andrew; Phillips, Rev. Ward; Phillips, Winfield; Piper, Abigail; Piper, Dr. Amos; Polack; Regetti, Joe; Saltonstall, Mr.; Sears, Ronnie; Shrewsbury, Laban; Slim; Sprague, Ephraim; Stowacki, Pete; Tarleton; Upham, Professor; Upton, Daniel; Upton, Edward Derby; Waldron, Old; Wallace, Dr.; Warren, Colonel; Weiskopf, Emil; West, Herbert; Westripp, Deliverance; Williams, Mr; Williams, Reverend; Williamson family; Williamson, Douglas; Wilson, Dr.; Wolejko, Anastasia; Wolejko, Ladislas;

Location

Arkham is located in the Miskatonic Valley [HPL Picture (online text)], beside the darkly muttering Miskatonic. [HPL Doorstep (online text)]

Lovecraft wrote "As to the location of Arkham—I fancy I place the town & the imaginary Miskatonic somewhere north of Salem—perhaps near Manchester. My idea of the place is slightly in from the sea, but with a deep water channel making it a port".[1] See Google's map of Manchester-by-the-Sea. Despite this quotation, the "actual" location of Arkham has been debated. Will Murray has argued that Lovecraft changed his mind about Arkham's location, originally locating it in central Massachusetts and later shifting it to the coast in Essex County.[2] Although Robert Martens later demolished most of Murray's arguments[3], a couple of awkward issues remain:

  • The 1921/22 story HPL Herbert (online text) places Arkham near the town of "Bolton," which happens to be the name of a real town in central Massachusetts. Martens argues that Lovecraft's factory-town Bolton is wildly inconsistent with the real, tiny farm hamlet of Bolton and cannot have been intended to be the same place. See Bolton.
  • The 1928 story HPL Dunwich (online text) says that the Miskatonic University Library in Arkham was the closest library to Dunwich to have a copy of the Necronomicon; that is, closer than the Widener Library at Cambridge, a suburb of Boston, which also had a copy. Yet Dunwich is stated to be in "north central Massachusetts," and "the upper Miskatonic Valley—far, far west of Arkham"[4] which seemingly should place Dunwich closer to Boston than Arkham.

To Murray, these references indicate a phase in Lovecraft's work when he still considered Arkham to be in central Massachusetts, prior to reimagining it in Essex County near Salem. Unfortunately for Murray's theory, in 1926, between those two stories, Lovecraft wrote HPL Silver (online text) which clearly places Arkham within a few miles of Kingsport, which we know to be just north of Cape Ann on the Essex County coast.

Murray does make a good point that Lovecraft's ideas about Arkham's location could have been changeable or inconsistent. But the chief inconsistency seems to be the greater proximity of Dunwich to Arkham rather than Boston; and it is worth noting the Dunwich is the most vaguely located of Lovecraft's fictional New England towns.

1. Lovecraft to F. Lee Baldwin, April 29, 1934; cited in S. T. Joshi and David E.Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, New York: Hippocampus Press, 2001; pg. 7.

2. Will Murray, "In Search of Arkham Country." In Lovecraft Studies 13 (Volume 5, Number 2 Fall 1986). West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press.

3. Robert D. Marten, "Arkham Country: In Rescue of the Lost Searchers," in Dissecting Cthulhu, edited by S. T. Joshi; Lakeland, Florida, Miskatonic River Press, 2011; pp. 174-176.

4. Lovecraft to James F. Morton, June 1928; cited in Murray.

Arkham Area

An apparently abandoned road appeared to be the shortest cut to Arkham from the home of the Picture in the House old man. [HPL Picture (online text)]

Abel Harrop's house was "in a remote valley seven miles off the Aylesbury Pike out of Arkham." Note that this means seven miles from the Aylesbury Pike, not seven miles from Arkham. The house is apparently closer to Aylesbury than Arkham, since Aylesbury is where Harrop did his grocery shopping. A man from Arkham came to help Laban Hough keep watch over his farm at Harrop's Pocket. [AWD Whippoorwills]

Residents: Abbot family; Akeley, Wilbur?; Allen family; Alwyn family; Alwyn, Tony; Dunlock family; Dunlock, Wilbur; Perkins family; Picture in the House old man; Potter, Andrew; Potter family; Potter, Wizard; Sandwin, Asa; Sandwin, Eldon; Snake Den; Talbot family; Whateley family; Williams, Mr.; See also: Harrop's Pocket, for the residents of that area.

Local features: Bolton; District Board of Education; District School Number Seven; Giles' brook; Harrop house; Harrop's Pocket; Little Sam?; Sandwin House; Sefton; Wharton place?; Witches' Hollow

The Hills Behind Arkham

All of Randolph Carter's forbears came from the wild, haunted hills behind hoary and witch-accursed Arkham. [HPL Gates (online text)] Unfortunately, it is not clear what direction "behind" refers to. However, the distant spires of Kingsport were visible from the hill where Carter's ancestors lived. [HPL Silver (online text)] Since Kingsport was on the east coast of Essex County, just north of Cape Ann, this suggests that the "hills behind Arkham" are actually to the east or northeast.

The hills behind Arkham are full of a strange magic—something, perhaps, which the old wizard Edmund Carter called down from the stars and up from the crypts of nether earth when he fled there from Salem in 1692. As soon as Randolph Carter was back among them he knew that he was close to one of the gates which a few audacious, abhorred, and alien-souled men have blasted through titan walls betwixt the world and the outside absolute. [HPL Gates (online text)]

Randolph Carter's uncle Christopher had a farm house in these hills in the 1880s, but by 1928 it was just a ruined cellar. The dreaded cave called the Snake-Den was near this house. [HPL Gates (online text)]

The lonely rustic homestead of Randolph Carter's people lay near Arkham. Before his disappearance, Carter said he was going to visit his old ancestral country around Arkham. [HPL Silver (online text)] After Randolph Carter disappeared, people found his car at the side of an old, grass-grown road in these hills. [HPL Gates (online text)]

West of Arkham

Various people in Arkham investigated, commented, or gossipped about the Strange Days at Nahum Gardner's farm to the west, following the meteorite crash in June of 1882. The Arkham papers reported on the investigations by Miskatonic University professors of the meteorite at Nahum Gardner's farm. The editor of the Arkham Gazette wrote a humorous article about the strangely-colored saxifrage blossoms from Nahum Gardner's farm. The Arkham Gazette published a short paragraph about a report that the vegetation at Gardner's farm was glowing in the dark. The city veterinary from Arkham was baffled by the livestock deaths at Gardner's farm. Ammi Pierce notified the authorities at Arkham that the Gardner family was dead. Investigators from Arkham saw the trees at the farm moving on their own, without any wind, and later saw the Colour Out of Space depart into the sky. The investigators took the north road back to Arkham from Gardner's farm. [HPL Colour (online text)]

Later, Arkham people were reluctant to talk about the Strange Days, or the blasted heath that now occupies the area where meteorite fell, except to say that the place was evil. Nevertheless, one of the Arkham tales is about fat oaks that shine and move as they ought not to do at night. There was once a road over the hills and through the valleys, that ran straight to the blasted heath; but people ceased to use it and a new road was laid curving far toward the south. [HPL Colour (online text)]

There were plans to flood the region, including the blasted heath, to make a new resevoir. The Colour Out of Space narrator was afraid that the blasted heath taint might cause a dangerous taint in the Arkham city water supply. [HPL Colour (online text)]

Residents: Abbot family; Allen family; Dunlock family; Dunlock, Wilbur; Gardner, Merwin; Gardner, Nabby; Gardner, Nahum; Gardner, Thaddeus; Gardner, Zenas; Hero; McGregor boys; Perkins family; Pierce, Ammi; Pierce, Mrs.; Potter, Andrew; Potter family; Potter, Wizard; Rice, Stephen; Talbot family; Tuttle, Amos; Tuttle, Paul; Whateley family; Williams, Mr;

Local features: blasted heath; Chapman's brook; Clark's Corners; District School Number Seven; Meadow Hill; Potter's General Store; Witches' Hollow;

North of Arkham

North of Arkham the hills rise dark, wild and wooded, and much overgrown, an area through which the Miskatonic flows seaward, almost at one boundary of the wooded tract. In the early 1800's, the people of Arkham treated Laban Billington and Quamis with marked fear and deference. In modern times, Arkham people forgot the stories about the hills north of town, and remembered only that that the wood was Billington’s Wood, and the hills were Alijah Billington’s, including a great house near a tower and a circle of stones; and that noises had been heard in that area at dusk and at night when Alijah Billington lived there. [AWD Lurker]

Residents: Billington, Alijah Phineas; Billington, Laban; Billington, Lavinia; Billington, Richard; Dewart, Ambrose; Misquamacus alias Quamis;

Local features: Billington's Wood; Misquamacus (stream); Place of Dagon;

And Innsmouth

Joe Sargent ran a bus between Newburyport and Arkham, passing through Innsmouth along the way. Arkham was one of the places where the people from Innsmouth did most of their shopping. The people in Arkham would have nothing to do with the Innsmouthers. [HPL Innsmouth (online text)]

The route to Arkham leaves southward from Innsmouth. [HPL Innsmouth (online text)]

Ten miles from Arkham there is a trail that follows the cliff-edge over Boynton Beach to a crest overlooking Innsmouth. [HPL Fungi (online text) VIII]

The clerk at the First National Grocery in Innsmouth was originally from Arkham. [HPL Innsmouth (online text)]

Arkham folk avoid going to Innsmouth whenever they can. [HPL Doorstep (online text)] Arkham people were curiously unwilling to visit Innsmouth. [HPL WitchHouse (online text)] People who told things about Innsmouth in Arkham were called crazy. [HPL Innsmouth (online text)]

Just after the Civil War, Benjamin Orne of Arkham was tricked into marrying one of the half-Deep One daughters of Obed Marsh. [HPL Innsmouth (online text)]

And Kingsport

The distant spires of Kingsport were visible from the hill behind Arkham where Randolph Carter's ancestors lived. Carter looked "across leagues of twilight meadow and spied the old Congregational steeple on Central Hill in Kingsport." If he had used his telescope, he could easily have made out the time on the steeple. [HPL Silver (online text)] Supposing that Arkham is located near Manchester-by-the-Sea, it is only about six miles from the probable location of Kingsport, on the coast just north of Cape Ann. It is perfectly possible that Kingsport would be visible from a hill near Manchester; even on a hill 25 feet high, the horizon is six miles away[5], and the Congregational steeple jutted up above ground level anyway.

Kingsport is near where the great Miskatonic pours out of the plains past Arkham. Thomas Olney speculated that the inhabitants of the Strange High House in the Mist must do their shopping in Arkham. [HPL Mist (online text)]

Trolleys ran from Arkham to Kingsport. [HPL Festival (online text)]

5. "How to Calculate the Distance to the Horizon" at WikiHow, retrieved 4/26/2021, gives distance to the horizon in miles as equal to square root of (elevation in feet * 1.5).

And Dunwich

There is an Aylesbury Street on the outskirts of Arkham that branches off of River St. and proceeds west. [See Lovecraft's Map of Arkham.] This is presumably the beginning of the Aylesbury Pike, which goes to the area of north central Massachusetts that includes Dunwich. [HPL Dunwich (online text)]

The Miskatonic University Library in Arkham was the closest library to Dunwich to have a copy of the Necronomicon [HPL Dunwich (online text)]. See the discussion of Arkham's location.

The professors from Miskatonic University were able to drive from Arkham to Dunwich over the course of a few hours, leaving in the morning and arriving around 1 pm. [HPL Dunwich (online text)]

Other Local Cities

A steam train went between Newburyport and Arkham. [HPL Innsmouth (online text)]

There was a train from Rowley to Arkham. [HPL Innsmouth (online text)]

Daniel Upton and Edward Pickman Derby passed through Newburyport, Rowley, and Ipswich when driving from Maine back to Arkham. [HPL Doorstep (online text)]

The town of Bolton is near Arkham. [HPL Herbert (online text)]

The town of Sefton is probably near Arkham, since the homicidal, reanimated Dr. Halsey was taken from Arkham to Sefton Asylum. [HPL Herbert (online text)]

Arkham was only a few hours from Boston. [AWD Curwen]

Misc References

Asaph Waite of Innsmouth forwarded a copy of his last will and testament by mail out of Arkham [AWD Island].

The tale of Enoch Conger's mermaid spread up and down the coast and was carried inland to Arkham [AWD Fisherman].

Ambrose Bishop drove to Arkham to consult the files of the Arkham Advertiser. Bishop planned on driving from the Dunwich area to Arkham and the "county seat." (It is not clear whether this implies that Arkham itself is the county seat. According to conventional geography, Essex County had two traditional county seats: Lawrence, in the north, and Salem, in the south. Since Arkham is not far from Salem, it is possible that Bishop planned to visit Arkham, then Salem.) The office of the sheriff in Arkham apparently investigated the disappearance of Bishop from his home near Dunwich, and is still holding the manuscript of Bishop's narrative. [AWD Middle]

There were weird rumors in Arkham after Paul Tuttle moved into the Tuttle house and strange noises were heard in the neighborhood. [AWD Hastur]

The papers of Sylvan Phillips hinted that there are followers of Cthulhu in Arkham. [AWD Seal (online text)]

Jean-Francois Charriere left a drawing of a batrachian-looking person labeled "1851. Arkham. Aseph Goade, D.O." [AWD Survivor (online text)]

Luther Whateley left money for his grandson Abner Whateley in a bank at Arkham. [AWD Shuttered]

Seth Bishop's house was in the vicinity of the ancient settlements of Arkham and Dunwich. There were always artists pausing for a day in Arkham. The sheriff from Arkham questioned Jefferson Bates about some recent attacks on cattle. [AWD Valley (online text)]

The Miskatonic flows to the sea at Arkham. The Whateley family came from Arkham to the Dunwich area in 1699. Reverend Jeptha Hoag went from Arkham to take the charge of the Methodist Church at Dunwich in 1787. Includes Miskatonic University. [AWD Watchers]

Jason Wecter had walked by dream under leering gambrel-roofed houses, in legend-haunted Arkham. [AWD Wood]

In the light of the Lamp of Alhazred, Ward Phillips saw visions of a town like Salem, but more eldritch and uncanny, and he called the town Arkham. Later, Phillips wrote stories that brought Arkham into reality. [AWD Lamp (online text)]

Willie Osborne's Grandma told him about Arkham, and the graves dug deep under Arkham. "Cousin (Frank) Osborne" said there was a lot of silly talk in Arkham, especially around Halloween. [RB Notebook (online text)]

A mystic dreamer had heard many strange things as a boy in witch-haunted Arkham. [RB Shambler (online text)]

According to Simon Waverly, H. P. Lovecraft invented Arkham as an imaginary locale for his stories, and even created street plans for it. An Arkham map by Lovecraft was discovered by Waverly in the effects of Richard Upton at the North End Warehouse and Storage Company. (Another Arkham map by Lovecraft survives at Brown University Library and has been reprinted.) Lovecraft's Arkham inspired the name of the government operation Project Arkham. [RB Strange]

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