The abandoned house on Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island was long rumored to be the site of many mysterious and unexplained deaths over the decades after it was built in the 1700s. Locals passed down stories of residents falling ill and dying in the house at an alarming rate, though the causes were never determined. Edgar Allan Poe, who frequently visited Providence, would have walked by the creepy abandoned house without noticing its ominous aura. The narrator's uncle eventually shares more disturbing conjectures about the house's dark history with him.