The earliest remaining house built on the newly constructed Benefit Street, this overhanging-gable house exploits the steep topography of the site by turning the principal elevation toward the south and creating a street-level entrance to the basement. This may have allowed the original owner, a physician, to use the lowest level as his office. The basement, however, achieved far greater fame as the setting for the evil presence of H.P. Lovecraft’s 1927 story “The Shunned House.” The frame of the principal entrance, installed in the early 1970s was based on that at Shakespeare’s Head.
– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
The house was more likely built by Stephen Harris who purchased the lot from his brother in law, John Mawney in 1785 following his marriage to John’s sister. The deed to Harris does not state that the lot was improved with a building and Harris also purchased a sliver of adjoining land on Benefit Street that allowed the steps in front of the house to be built. In 1766 John Mawney, age 15, petitioned the Town Council to have his mother Amy be appointed the guardian of his person and personal property. The Mawney House was on Towne Street — now North Main Street — where John lived when he took part in the burning of the Gaspee at which event he extracted a bullet from Captain Dudingston. John had acquired from his father one of the home lots that ran from Towne Street to Hope Street through which Benefit Street was cut ca. 1756-1758. The lot conveyed to Stephen Harris was part of the home lot, as was the adjoining parcel to the north of 135 Benefit.