It is not only an ironic reference to Groundhog Day (instead of the promise of spring, this creature promises an eternal winter) but also a mockery of the Feast of Candlemas, the celebration of Jesus’ presentation at the Temple. With the aid of ancient, obscure texts, the patriarch, “ancient, half-insane,” Old Whately conjures a force from another realm which his daughter, Lavinia, gives birth to on February 2nd. This horror classic, published in 1928, recounts the nefarious attempt by an eccentric local family, the Whately’s, to bring forth the end of the world by invoking an entity from another plane of existence. In fact, this house built in 1785, was the inspiration for probably one of the most horrifying stories in American literature, “The Dunwich Horror”, by H.P. If you drove past it you would smile and think, “What a lovely old Colonial…I wonder what stories it would tell?” Well, as it would happen, this residence, referred to as the Randolph Beebe House, was the inspiration for a story. Its handsome double chimney and freshly painted shutters are in keeping with its neighbors’ equally attractive and well-appointed homes. On a sparsely settled county street located in a Wilbraham, Massachusetts, a well-heeled bedroom community in the Western part of the state, there sits an attractive, Colonial-era home. Randolph Beebe House in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, was the inspiration for the house in H.P.
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