{"nrhp_refnum":"87000317","name":"Cotuit Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Main St., Lowell & Ocean View Aves. bounded by Osterville Harbor, Nantucket Sound, & Popponessett Bay","address_restricted":false,"city":"Barnstable","county":"Barnstable County","state":"MA","lat":41.616427000000044,"lon":-70.43539531884053,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-11-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture","Maritime History"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A village historic district in Cotuit, the westernmost village of Barnstable, Massachusetts, covering the areas historically known as Cotuit Port and Cotuit Highground along Main Street and Ocean View Avenue. It contains roughly 107 to 125 mostly wood-frame buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries.","why_significant":"The district is argued to be a large, cohesive and well-preserved collection of buildings tied to both maritime industries and summer resort activity. It reflects the rapid mid-19th-century growth of Barnstable's southern villages, when sea captains built houses and a new village center formed. It was later a summer retreat for established Boston families.","narrative":"Cotuit Historic District is a village core on a long neck of land between Popponessett Bay, Osterville Harbor and Nantucket Sound, in Barnstable, Massachusetts. It takes in the areas once called Cotuit Port and Cotuit Highground, running south along Main Street and around Ocean View Avenue. Most of the buildings are wood-frame houses of one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half stories, with some shops and institutional buildings. Federal and Greek Revival houses recall the seafaring decades, when oyster packing, fishing, shipbuilding, salt making and coastal shipping fueled a mid-19th-century building boom and many captains built homes. Italianate, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival buildings reflect the later growth of a quiet summer resort, which drew Boston families beginning with Samuel Hooper in 1849. Freedom Hall, the Union Meeting House and a general store formed the village center. The district was listed for its well-preserved record of maritime and resort life on Cape Cod.","period_of_significance":"mid 19th to early 20th century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Condition described as good to excellent; land use is residential, commercial and institutional.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.404562-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/77/7891/63789177/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/87000317.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000317/5c91bbf411-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000317/5c91bbf411-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1846_Union_Meeting_House,_Cotuit_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1846_Union_Meeting_House,_Cotuit_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789177","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotuit_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5175873"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/barnstable-county/cotuit-historic-district-87000317/"}