A Brief History

The Barley Neck Inn had its beginnings in 1848, when Isaac and Mary Doane purchased the property which it now sits from Hannah Sparrow, widow of Josiah. Isaac Doane was one of four owners of the Cove Salt Works.
By 1857, he and Mary had built a two room, two story Greek Revival house on their Barley Neck property. It extended to the pillar in the window seat of the current Doane Room.
In 1868, Mary Doane, a widow at this time, sold the house to Captain Joseph Taylor, who had retired from the sea in 1866 as a partner in the Boston ship-owning firm of Seacomb and Taylor.
 
A 47 year-old Orleans native, born in 1821, who had attended Rock Harbor Academy and Andover, he was a pure Cape Codder, descended from the Taylor-Hopkins-Doane-Higgins families. Seacomb and Taylor commissioned the building of the clipper ship The Red Jacket, which in 1854 set a transatlantic record that would stand for twenty years, sailing from New York to Liverpool in 13 days, one hour and 25 minutes. It remains the record for a clipper ship.

It was Captain Taylor who built the south side of the current building, marked by the mansard roof. The Second Empire style of that and Taylor's other additions reflects the strong French influence the pervaded Orleans from the time of its founding. The name of the town itself is French, and when Taylor was in residence, it was home to a population of French workers, constructing the telegraph there, that would operate between the U.S. and France.
 
At the pack landing on the other side of Barley Neck Road, on property still owned at the time by the Sparrow family, stood a gristmill, call the Old East Mill. The mill, which can be seen today at the Heritage Plantation in Sandwich, had been used originally to grind salt, and had been built of leftover timber when the Congregational Meeting House (now the Federated Church) rebuilt their porch in 1797. In 1819 it was moved to the hill overlooking Meeting House Pond to be near the grain producing areas of Barley Neck and Pochet. From the packet landing, produce was shipped by packet ship to Connecticut and New York.
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Location The Barley Neck Inn & Lodge is a small independently owned resort based in an old sea captain's home in the rural village of East Orleans in the elbow of Cape Cod. We are located less then a mile from Nauset Beach, an unbroken 11 mile expanse of nationally protected Atlantic waterfront. The saltwater marina across the street from us on Meetinghouse Pond also connects us to ocean waters. Click here for a printable map and driving directions.

Dining

We have a fantastic restaurant, voted one of the top ten on Cape Cod by Yankee Magazine, applauded by the Boston Globe and by USA Today. The four intimate dining rooms are housed in our 1868 Sea Captain's home. The original attached barn houses our casual dining and entertainment spot, Joe's Beach Road Bar & Grille. We are renowned for our selection of top shelf cocktails and value priced wines. All of our dining rooms are equipped for connection to any audio visual or electronic communications equipment required. Click here to see our current menu
 
Capacity

We specialize in rehearsal dinners for 16-60, evening weddings up to 60 and daytime weddings up to 150. Weddings may be formal sit down affairs in our dining rooms, by the pool, or under a tent on our lawn. We also produce a lavish buffet with a station in each of our four dining rooms presenting a type of cuisine or a course of the meal, with dancing in Joe's or poolside.

inn at a glance ~ innkeeper's message ~ weddings & events ~ getting here ~ Specials & Packages ~ joe's bar & grille ~ our menu ~ contact us ~ gifts ~ Employment Opportunities