Innsmouth

Innsmouth is a fictional location introduced in the H. P. Lovecraft story The Shadow Over Innsmouth. It is a seaside town in Essex County, Massachusetts, run by the Esoteric Order of Dagon and their Deep One allies until their destruction in 1928. Since its first appearance, it has appeared in numerous Cthulhu Mythos stories written by various authors.
Another town named Innsmouth (also fictional) is located in England (: "Celephaïs", : "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar"), but this one is mentioned far less frequently.
==Geography & Known Locations==
The Manuxet River runs through the centre of town, before turning southward to join the ocean at the end of the harbour's breakwater; Newburyport is an hour's bus ride down the coast.
As it fell into disrepair under the control of the Deep Ones, by 1927, the town lacked a public library or a chamber of commerce. Many of the street signs had also been removed, making navigation difficult for outsiders. In general, the South is less populous, but the north is more dangerous.
===Streets===
*Broad, Washington, Lafayette, and Adams: The western streets of grand houses belonging to the town's elite.
*Federal Street: The central thoroughfare of the town. Home to New Church Green and the Hall of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, a former Masonic hall sold to the Order by the Cavalry Commandery.
*Main Street: One of the roads that bridges the dangerous seaward slums and home to the three abandoned Georgian churches. Though some people still lived here in 1927, most houses had been boarded up.
*Fish Street: Another deserted street with well maintained brick and stone warehouses, cut in half by its ruined bridge over the Manuxet.
*Water Street: Similar to Fish Street but broken up by the remains of wharves, it's bridge though tottering is still usable.
===Town Square===
Home to the Gilman House, a 4+ story hotel, topped with cupolas and covered in peeling yellow paint; a First National chain grocery store and a dozen other shops including a "dismal" restaurant, a drug store, and wholesale fish-dealer’s office; and an office of the Marsh Refining Company.
===The Marsh Refinery ===
A large building with a white belfry on the northern bank of the river across from the town square.
===The Harbour===
A sand-clogged dock behind an ancient stone breakwater once covered by a lighthouse.
==History==
Founded in 1643, Innsmouth was noted for ship-building before the American Revolution, after which the civic centre shifted to the present Town Square. It reached its peak as a naval hub after the War of 1812, when many of its privateering sailors were killed. As a result, there was a dip in trade for both the shipping families and local mills.
In 1846, Captain Marsh and 32 fellow cultists were arrested by Selectman Mowry. However, before they could be charged, the Deep Ones stormed the town, breaking them out and purging the resistant population. Half of the population were killed in what was covered up as a plague from China. 
After the American Civil War, the last big ships stopped docking in the harbour.
It became something of an industrial centre at one point, but by the 1920s, only the Marsh Refining Company gold mill is still in operation.
After Robert Olmstead escaped Innsmouth on July 16, 1927, and reported the going-ons to authorities, a large force of federal agents laid siege to the town throughout the winter of 1927-28, demolishing most of its seafront buildings. It was later reported in February 1928 as a Prohibition-related clash, though no captives ever showed up in the prison system. It included several arrests of members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon and at least one torpedo fired into Devil Reef.
==Residents==
After the 1846 massacre, there were about 300-400 people living in Innsmouth, many of whom were Deep One hybrids. A number of Polish and Portuguese migrants tried moving into the area before being "scattered in a peculiarly drastic fashion".
(Note: names marked with ^ are only available in Zadok Allen's dialect and may have been intentionally misspelled.)
=== The Major Families===
*The Marsh Family: the most powerful of the town's four wealthy "gently bred" families who run its one remaining factory.
**Obed Marsh (Died 1878): Patriarch of the family and founder of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. 
**Onesiphorus Marsh
**Barnabas Marsh: Head of the family gold business by 1927.
*The Waite Family: one of the town's four wealthy "gently bred" families and the former owners of the fulling mill that became the Marsh gold refinery.
**Asenath Waite
**Luelly Waite^: one of the young men taken to Devil Reef before 1846.
*The Gilman Family: one of the town's four wealthy "gently bred" families. They lost the brigs Elizy and Ranger during the War of 1812.
**Hiram Gilman^: one of the young men taken to Devil Reef before 1846.
* The Eliot Family: one of the town's four wealthy "gently bred" families.
**Matt Eliot^: Obed Marsh's first mate who, as a Mason himself, opposed the sale of the Innsmouth Lodge to the Esoteric Order of Dagon. He was likely kidnapped and murdered by the order.
===Others===
*Zadok Allen - At the age of 96, Zadok was one of the only people in town who had managed to survive in Innsmouth without being converted. Though he was usually disregarded as a deranged drunkard, he was likely murdered by the Order after speaking to Robert Olmstead.
*Joe Sargent - The local bus driver.
*Nick Pierce, Adoniram Saouthwick and Henry Garrison - Several young men of the town taken to Devil Reef before 1846.
* Esdras Martin - Operator of the barquentine Malay Pride which sailed to the Pacific as late as 1828.
*The Congregational parson - A clergyman who was driven out of town during the Order's rise to power.
*The Methodist reverend -  A clergyman who quit during the Order's rise to power.
*Resolved Babcock - The former Baptist parson who disappeared after the Order's takeover.
==External Link==
*An Innsmouth Timeline at Timelines for Lovecraft's Fiction
==Gallery ==
Innsmouth_(mcrassusart).jpg
Innsmouth_(Maik_Beiersdorf).jpg
Innsmouth_(Deranged_Cultist).jpg
Innsmouth Heritage (crop).jpeg|As depicted by Jason C. Eckhardt for the cover of The Innsmouth Heritage
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Category:Structures
Category:Locations Originating From Lovecraft Circle Works