The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (HPLHS) has its headquarters and public storefront at 1644 Victory Boulevard in Glendale, California. Housed in a former antique shop, the location serves simultaneously as the organisation’s offices, production base, archive, library and retail store. Visitors can browse a large selection of Lovecraft-related books, recordings, games, artwork, clothing, replica documents and other objects inspired by Lovecraft’s fiction and the wider Cthulhu Mythos.

The society grew out of a group of friends in Colorado who began experimenting with live-action versions of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game during the early 1980s. Sean Branney and Darrell Tutchton staged an early game in 1983, and the group subsequently developed its own live-action system called Cthulhu Lives!. The HPLHS was formally established in Boulder, Colorado, in February 1987 by Branney, Andrew Leman and Philip Bell. According to the society’s own history, the name originated after police questioned one of their elaborate role-playing events at the University of Colorado; Branney identified the group as the “H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society”, and the name remained.

The organisation later expanded far beyond role-playing games. It has produced Lovecraft adaptations including the black-and-white silent film The Call of Cthulhu (2005) and the 1930s-style sound film The Whisperer in Darkness (2011). It is also responsible for Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, a continuing series of full-cast audio dramas adapting Lovecraft stories in the style of 1930s radio productions. Other projects include audiobooks, music, publications and detailed replica props such as letters, newspaper clippings, identification documents, maps and objects designed to resemble material from Lovecraft’s fictional world.

The Glendale headquarters is open to the public as a shop and contains more than ordinary retail displays. Visitors can consult books from the HPLHS library, view artwork and objects connected with its productions, listen to Dark Adventure Radio Theatre on a 1930s Zenith console radio and play records on a restored Victrola. The society also hosts occasional film screenings, Call of Cthulhu game nights, talks and other special events at the location.

Much of the material produced and sold by HPLHS is designed around an imagined version of the 1920s and 1930s in which Lovecraft and his fictional institutions were real. Items based on Miskatonic University, Arkham, Innsmouth and the Cthulhu Mythos therefore frequently resemble historical documents and artefacts rather than conventional horror merchandise, making the Glendale headquarters particularly relevant for collectors and fans of Lovecraftian and cosmic horror.