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Ah, Arkham
Fantasyland
In the real world some trains to Boston don't have any drivers!
"Up" from Innsmouth
For some reason I pictured Innsmouth near the Rockport/Gloucester area, and Arkham being "Providence" or a city like New Bedford or Fall River.
I know it's all made up, but it looks like this guy knows exactly where all these places should be so I'm just curious!
"Innsmouth"
is a combination of Gloucester and (pre-yuppie) Newburyport, Lovecraft scholars say.
Salem!!
I'm no expert on Lovecraft's works -- but the city modeled here has many elements copied from Salem. The train station is a copy of the one that was torn down in the 1950s, with the tracks running down the middle of Washington Street before the built the current tunnel. The "Samath Theater" is a close replica of the Daniel Low building (originally a church) at the corner of Essex and Washington streets. Nearby Salem City Hall has been modified somewhat but is the inspiration for the "Second Baptist Church". And the Pickering family, the "Pabodie Museum"...
And rightly so
"Arkham" is Lovecraft's version of Salem.
HPL on Arkham
""[my] mental picture of Arkham is of a town something like Salem in atmosphere [and] style of houses, but more hilly [and] with a college (which Salem [lacks]) ... I place the town [and] the imaginary Miskatonic [River] somewhere north of Salem—perhaps near Manchester."
(Letter to F. Lee Baldwin)
If you don't have the time to travel to a fictional city,
If you don't have the time to travel to a fictional city, Pickman's Model takes place in Boston, and has a lot of local color to it. (Lovecraft also makes an inappropriate racist comment about the "dagoes" in the North End, so you get the whole Lovecraft experience.)
The eldritch horror of the T
One of Lovecraft's stories I recall (a quick googling tells me "Pickman's Model," written 1926) took place in part in the Boylston Green Line station. The dark corners of the station still pretty much look the way Lovecraft described them.