Favorite Places: Sean Flannagan

Last Friday we started with our Christmas Special Edition here on Handmade Europe. We were happy to talk to Lisa June, one of Etsy Admins. Today we have a new guest visiting from NYC, Sean who also happens to work for beloved Etsy. He shows us bits of Rhode Island, which is located right by New York State. We are already amazed by all diversity this place has to offer!

Prospect Park on the East Side of Providence has been one of my favorite places since high school. We used to climb over that fence there and sit right next to the statue of RI’s founder, Roger Williams, and look out upon the city he founded in the name of “liberty of conscience.” Many night-time hours were spent there hanging out as a teen.

What made you choose this your favorite place? What makes it special to you?
You happened to ask me this just as I was heading home to visit family in Rhode Island for the Thanksgiving holiday. I’m obsessed with the history of Rhode Island and have been since I was little — it was my father who instilled it in me and fed my curiosity. It’s a tiny state with a big, colorful history, originally populated by religious dissidents, freethinkers, anarchists, pirates. Providence has a sort of gothic feel, which horror writer HP Lovecraft built upon and RISD students feed off of. Then there’s the raw natural beauty of places like Block Island, much of which looks like what New England must have looked like before it was called New England (the Nature Conservancy has named it “one of the Last Great Places” in the Western Hemisphere). It’s a place rich with folklore and localisms, and I often feel like there’s this hidden living mythology there existing just below the surface.

College Hill, also on the East Side, is full of historic 18th-century houses. I try to make time to wander up and down these streets whenever I’m in town and I often see new things. There’s pockets of hidden beauty around every corner.

“Come hither every one that thirsteth.” This is the old fountain in front of the Providence Athenaeum, one of the oldest libraries in America (preceded by the Redwood Library in Newport). According to legend, if you drink from this fountain you will be struck with the “Providence curse” and one of three things will happen: you’ll either never leave Providence, never be happy anywhere outside of Providence, or you’ll die in Providence. I have a friend who has been struck with this curse. Fortunately the fountain is not usually running.

If you escape the Providence curse and are able to leave the city, I recommend spending time on Block Island, particularly in the off-season when the crowds are gone. It’s stunning and blessedly untouched.
Many thanks Sean for visiting us! Both the story and your pictures are truly inviting!

We will publish the third part of this small series this Wednesday.

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