But the home that was built in 1881 by local horticulturist James Dewhurst has a secret it keeps from the hundreds of people who drive past it each day. It serves as the setting for a ghoulish tale by early 20th century Gothic horror master H.P. Lovecraft.

Famous for weird and creepy tales, Lovecraft borrowed the name of Nathaneal Peaslee for his narrator in the short story "Dreams of the Witch House" after visiting the city and the old Pentucket Burial Ground at the corner of Water and Mill streets, a half-mile away from the house. He then injected the building into the story, partly because Peaslee had lived in a house once on that spot.

Lovecraft's visit to Haverhill that inspired the story happened nearly a century ago.

There are little bits of Haverhill in the writings and backgrounds of Lovecraft and other well-known horror writers and performers - Stephen King and Haverhill's own John Bellairs and Robert Cummings, better known as Rob Zombie, to name a few.

You may drive by many of the places that inspired these and other dreamers of dread without knowing. But a group of local history buffs is working to make sure you're aware of the significance the next time you come across these bits of literary history.

As part of an ongoing project to mark historic homes in the city, Team Haverhill is working with the public library to research old properties and sell home markers to raise money for other local projects. The Team Haverhill group formed a year ago to promote the revitalization of the city's heritage and its physical downtown.

Constantine Valhouli, a local real estate broker, is helping with the project. He said the group has uncovered a number of local people and places with connections to well-known literature and specifically the macabre, starting with Lovecraft.

Lovecraft, who lived from 1890 to 1937, grew up in Providence, R.I., but visited Haverhill several times during his lifetime, spending time with his friend and Haverhill native Charles W. Smith and traveling around the city to find inspirations for his ghoulish tales.

Among his stops during his 1921 visit were the city's Buttonwoods Museum, Bradford College and the Pentucket Burial Ground. In that old cemetery, Lovecraft spied the strange gravestone of Peaslee, who in 1730 "took his youthful flight from ye promising joys of earthly possessions" according to a poem on the thin slab marking his final resting place. His death came when he was only 27 years old.

"I am the son of the Jonathan and Hannah (Wingate) Peaslee, both of wholesome old Haverhill stock," reads a passage from the Lovecraft story "Dreams of the Witch House." "I was born and reared in Haverhill - at the old homestead in Boardman Street near Golden Hill."

That same year, Lovecraft visited the Buttonwoods Museum and was hosted by its famous first curator, Leonard Woodman Smith.

"The greatest event was the visit to the Historical Society, which is housed in a museum attached to the ancestral mansion of the director," the prolific letter-writer Lovecraft would recount later in a note to a friend. "... all the more interesting because it is the natural collection of a family, rather than artificial collection of an institution."

Another local legend has it that Lovecraft once dated a girl from Bradford College, and that he buried the fictional book of the occult, the Necronomicon, in a secret tunnel under the college that goes beneath Tupelo Pond. The tunnel, one of many that actually exist under the old school, has since been sealed, according to the legend.

"It is something of a mark of honor to be used as a setting for a Lovecraft novel. He chose some of the most picturesque New England locations for his stories, from Salem and Ipswich to Newport and Boston," Valhouli said.

Lovecraft, who died in 1937 at the age of 47, has been cited as being a great influence by many famous modern-day horror masters such as authors Stephen King and Clive Barker, artist H.R. Giger and film director John Carpenter. Lovecraft's work appeared primarily in the pulp magazines popular in the early part of the century.

Several characters in King's recent novel - "Cell" - are also from Haverhill and surrounding towns, and the city is mentioned by the author in several other works.

John Bellairs, a member of the city's Hall of Fame, penned 15 Gothic mysteries until his death in 1991 from cardiovascular disease at his home at 26-28 Hamilton Ave. That building will soon display a sign noting that he lived there.

Best known for his Gothic mysteries for children, Bellairs' stories featured ghosts and evil spirits chasing children. Several tales mention famous colonial figure Hannah Dustin, who is said to have killed and scalped as many as 10 Abenaki Indians in 1697, after they burned her home and killed her infant daughter.

And then there's 1983 Haverhill High School graduate Robert Cummings, more commonly known as Rob Zombie. The former frontman for the heavy metal band White Zombie is due to start production next month on his sequel to John Carpenter's classic horror flick "Halloween."

Zombie, a horror movie writer and director, whose family still lives in Haverhill, was recently voted one of the country's scariest people. He has attributed much of his early inspiration to running through old Haverhill cemeteries on the way to school.