Joseph Curwen's Pawtuxet Farmhouse

The site of Joseph Curwen's original laboratory and burial vaults, abandoned after his execution and quietly bought back into the family two centuries later. Its underground chambers were built for exactly the kind of experiments a curious descendant should never have gone looking for.

Whereabouts: An isolated bungalow-farmhouse in Pawtuxet, just outside Providence, Rhode Island — deliberately kept apart from Curwen's more public-facing town address.

Access: By carriage or car along the Pawtuxet road; Charles Dexter Ward's own repeated visits, ostensibly for genealogical research, are what eventually reopen it for business.