"Our Honeymoon"

Honeymoon memory book of J---- R---- S---- and A---- L----, found in a vintage / "junk" store in Boston, MA in June of 2025, purchased for $26.00 plus tax. ITEM NOT YET AUTHENTICATED.

An amazing find, adding fascinating supporting information and primary source documentation to the old rumor that it had been a Providence couple who served as inspiration for the "Friday the 13th" movie series.

J—- and A—--, 19 and 22 years old respectively, were married in 1959, in a small ceremony at the home of the S----s, on Angell Street near Wayland Ave.  The two were from healthy middle-class stock, destined for a life of the same.  A---- had recently been granted his license to sell insurance, and would have begun to do so as a newly employed junior associate in his father's company if the pair had ever returned from their honeymoon. 

Immediately following the wedding, the pair travelled to Boston, MA, where they stayed one night at the posh Somerset Hotel.  The next day, they hit the road again in A—--'s 1955 Chevy 210 Sedan and began the 90-or-so-minute trip to Goffs Falls, New Hampshire, where they would stay at The Elms, a nice family resort, where reservations had been made in their name some two months earlier. Something, however, caused them to continue on another hour or so to Laconia, New Hampshire - also a pleasant lakeside draw for tourists, just as nice, and a fine choice for a honeymoon stay, aside from that lack of a reservation.  Maybe the young couple was feeling adventurous and had decided to try something new.

J—-- and A—-- were able to check in at the Harris Shore Cabins sometime early that afternoon and were given a key to cabin #8.  In addition to no water, as per J—--'s (seemingly cheerful-enough) note in the memory book, cabin #8 had no phone.  The main office, however, did, and Mrs. M—-- S—--, J—--'s mother, expressed surprise and worry at not hearing from her daughter that evening to let her know they had arrived safely.  Her husband calmed her down, reminding her of their own honeymoon, and how distracted they had been themselves. Of course, she had been right to worry.

J—--'s note in her memory book is likely the last communication either of them had with anyone other than their killer.  It has long been debated whether a hitchhiker or someone else they had met on the road had forced them to forgo The Elms and continue on to the Harris Shore Cabins, but this cheerfully write note - the fact that any note was written at all once the couple had arrived in the cabin - seems to indicate otherwise.  J—-- was obviously calm, reflective, a bit teasing, willing to waste two minutes noting down the name of their new overnight stay.  She could not have been actively menaced by a machete-wielding murderer at the time. Even the "people we met" section remains blank.

Of course, we know now that their machete-wielding murder came along soon enough.  J—-- and A—-- never made it out of that cabin.  The floors, furnishings, and walls were so thoroughly soaked in their blood that the building was razed mere days after their bodies were found.  

No known supernatural phenomenon is associated with either the Harris Shore Cabins (which do still exist to this day) or with any associated buildings or lands in Providence, RI.  I include this entry merely as a fan of these cute little stories.  What a joy, to find such a bit of history!

"Portrait of Mrs Richard Steere Aldrich," by Edward Barnard Lintott

Edward Barnard Lintott's "Portrait of Mrs Richard Steere Aldrich" hangs in the lobby of the Hotel Providence on Mathewson Street.

Richard was a member of the US House of Representatives from Rhode Island's 2nd district from 1923-33, and he and Janet Aldrich (nee Innis, formerly White [divorced]) seem to have had, as far as is possible to know, a fine marriage.

Edward Barnard Lintott, a British painter of portraits and landscapes and author of Art of Watercolour (1926), was a relatively successful artist in both England and America, with shows during his lifetime at the Metropolitan Museum of New York and his alma mater, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, among other institutions.

Not much documentation can be found about the commission or execution of this particular portrait, probably completed around 1923-5, a few years after her marriage to Aldrich.

The shadow in the painting often appears to be the shadow of the sitter, sometimes the shadow of the painter, sometimes the shadow of the viewer. Sometimes it disappears. Sometimes it does not appear human. No activity or other phenomena are associated with the artwork, artist, or subject.

Photos below represent samples taken by this researcher over a range of dates, as well as additional examples culled from a variety of trustworthy online and print sources (used without permission and posted here without credit). Variations in color, tone, and angle are incidental and due to time of day and other technical discrepancies between photographs and photographers, and are not intended to imply that those variations are actual physical differences manifested in the painting. High-resolution originals available to serious researchers upon request.