Depreciated

An aerial view of downtown West Dennis along Rt. 28 with The Columns on the right as the road curves out of sight.

The vox populi sums up the overriding sentiment intentionally or not. The town has spoken, and the developer must put up or shut up.

Look through the windows into the past. Look beyond reflections of things that have happened. Imagine the future and what is required to achieve the goals. Stasis steals the future.

Roadside signs provide residents and visitors all kinds of direction.

The remnants of the old carriage house. Without support, the bricks are slowly falling inward. The yellow and orange berries of the bitterroot vines take over where a manicured lawn once prevailed.

The small stature of these shops reflects a different age. The tall fronts hide a shorter, single-story store. These buildings are represented in post cards dating from the early 1900s. Though the street sign says “Doric”, it has nothing to do with The Columns who’s defining features are Ionic columns.

This section of Main Street has shifted from residential to commercial owing to the expense of maintaining these large buildings. The Columns was a jazz club for nearly two decades, increasingly surrounded by buildings of lesser stature.

Whatever we leave behind is erased by time or taken over by other humans. We become but a footnote in the history of our own making. The only real story that matters is the one you’re living now.

A triptych of objects discarded in the back of the property. A pair of mattresses and a broken piano are left to the animals and the elements. Markers denote the location of new housing units to be built on the property where other mattresses will lay. It could have been mattresses dumped there by unrelated people or by teenagers looking for a secluded place to hang out. A small table would complete the scene, but a smashed baby grand piano raises a whole other story.

The major economic engines that grew the fortunes of the region have gone the way of the way of whale oil lanterns. Quaint old houses are lost to time as private funds find insufficient return in restoration and community organizations have to weigh the impact of every dollar.

Various windows divide the light in various shapes. It has been thirty-five years since residents or staff looked out of these windows.

Built in 1861 by Obed Baker, 3d. a sea captain turned local merchant, The Columns is one of the most iconic historical houses in Dennis. What it’s most famous for, however, is its legacy that no one wants to carry. Once the best house on Main Street, it has become one of the most significant at-risk historical properties in Massachusetts. It has spent thirty-five years achieving that level of repute.

Later known as Ryder’s Sweetheart Inn, this building was purchased, and the façade was painstakingly decorated. Never in its history had it been anything but white, now it features bold colors. The inn and the church are the only comparably sized structures in the days when The Columns was a home.

A look inside the front sitting room. A beautiful home begs to be restored, but the path at the moment would seem to be through a private developer. These rooms would never be seen by the public from whom the owner would elicit funding.

Hoping to raise support within the community, the developer puts seasonal decorations in front of the ailing building.

Whatever historic buildings that existed along this year have been replaced with more modern buildings or have been obscured by new façades. Utility poles carry services not available at the time of The Columns construction. Hidden behind young trees, the large house stands within view of the center of commerce for the village.

The Columns sits on one acre of buildable land. The other thirteen acres of property is marshland. On one side is a discount store. On the other side is a motel turned apartment building. No elegance remains here at the edge of Main Street.

Peeking through the window into an almost empty room. It is still there. No wait staff bustle. No patrons converse. It is still there, in that room. A lone piano sits unplayed in a silent, empty room. It is still there, in that room!

A simple broken heart spray painted on the back wall of the building. Even it has faded. A deformed pumpkin sits atop a staircase to nowhere.

A typology of typical façades in the village of West Dennis. The majority of historic buildings in this area of the town of Dennis are Greek Revival houses build in the mid-19th century.