The Columns in Dennis as it appears today.Christopher Setterlund.
THE COLUMNS
Address: 401 Route 28, Dennis
Years Active: 1962–1986
Elegant, beautiful, mysterious and charming—these words all describe the historic Greek Revival house situated at 401 Route 28 in West Dennis. The history of this structure is a tale of three chapters. For many of the younger generation on Cape Cod, this white building and its decaying façade and unkempt landscape is an eyesore, something that could be seen as a place where scary movies take place. It is a place to be observed from far away with a wary eye.
For generations long since gone, this house was something completely different. It was the stately home of Captain Obed L. Baker. Born in 1817, Captain Baker went to sea at an early age and was a ship captain by the age of twenty. His legacy on the ocean is undeniable. At the age of thirty-two, Baker became a master mariner, a highly regarded term used since the thirteenth century in England and its territories. The phrase indicated someone was a master of their craft, in this case, seamanship. Baker commanded a three-masted schooner named Luther Child. Owned by the Philadelphia Steamship Line, it was the first American ship to visit Malta Harbor off the coast of Italy.
In 1862, Captain Baker built the home on fifteen acres of property. The five-thousand-plus-square-foot home was known as Elmgate. Inside, it was complete with marble fireplace mantels, French chandeliers, an elegant carved wooden staircase banister that led to the second floor, delightfully colored carpeting, damask draperies and Brussels lace curtains. Outside, it showcased a gable roof and, most striking of all, a half-round portico of columns that had been shipped down from Boston in freight cars.
In 1892, Elmgate hosted the marriage of Captain Baker’s daughter Rebecca May. The captain passed away in 1895. Rebecca added glass wings to the house just after the turn of the twentieth century, and she lived in the house until her death in 1957. The property was sold several years later, and the stylish residential home was transformed into something completely different.
The middle chapter of the home at 401 Route 28 is the most well known of the three. It began in 1961 when Stewart Wallen, formerly of Wellesley, Massachusetts, purchased the Elmgate property, which had been owned by the Baker family for nearly a century. Wallen, who had previously run the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City, christened the home the Columns and reopened it as a restaurant in the summer of 1962. Most of the artifacts and furnishings of the Baker family home were preserved by Wallen in a museum at the new restaurant, as he tried to stay faithful to those who had preceded him. The Columns served dinner in the elegant first-floor dining area and alerted people passing by on Route 28 with a sign that read “Serving the Evening Meal.”
Wallen sold the Columns in 1971 to jazz aficionado Warren Maddow. This transaction would take the restaurant into a whole new stratosphere of popularity. He and his wife, Byrle, had a connection to and love of jazz music that turned the Columns into a swinging jazz club. He hired Marie Marcus to be music director of his new enterprise. Marcus was known as Cape Cod’s First Lady of Jazz and appeared on the original Tonight Show with Steve Allen in the 1950s. She played at another legendary establishment, Mildred’s Chowder House in Hyannis, in 1963 for a short time with Jim Blackmore, whom she had met during a show at the Coonamessett Club in Falmouth.
Marcus’s star power led to many well-established jazz artists coming to play shows at the Columns. Names like pianists Dave McKenna, Earl “Fatha” Hines and Teddy Wilson, saxophonist Scott Hamilton and trumpeter Lou Colombo all performed on the ballroom floor at one point or another. From 1971 until 1976, the Columns was the place to be for great jazz on Cape Cod. It was even home to an annual jazz festival during that time.
However, the restaurant/nightclub could not seat that many people, even after an outdoor tent and deck section had been added. That, coupled with patrons frowning on a small entertainment fee, meant that there was not enough money being made from the jazz shows to pay for such great entertainers. It would be the beginning of the end for the Columns.
Byrle Maddow sold the Columns to jazz bassist and Boston native Roy Ormsby in 1979 when Warren died after a long battle with lymphoma. Ormsby ran the establishment for a few years before it was sold at auction in 1986. Despite extensive restorations in the years since the sale, the lights have remained off at the Columns. Several people and groups have come in with high hopes of opening something new inside the 150-year-old former sea captain’s home, but as of 2016, the home remains stoically quiet as thousands of cars pass by it daily on Route 28.