Wianno Historic District

Wianno is a planned summer colony in Osterville, a village of Barnstable, Massachusetts, covering about 40 acres between Nantucket Sound and Crystal Lake. It was laid out with curving roads and very large lots, often over an acre. A group of local, Boston and New York businessmen assembled the land and sold lots on a speculative basis to wealthy visitors who came to Cape Cod after the Civil War. The Cotocheset House hotel, built about 1873, anchored the resort. After it burned in 1881, the present Wianno Club building replaced it. Large Shingle Style and Colonial Revival houses followed, marked by rambling masses, gambrel and gable roofs, many dormers and wood shingle walls. Development was largely complete by World War I. Boston architect Horace Frazer designed the hotel and several houses. The district is considered important as a well-preserved example of the resort trade that became Barnstable's leading industry, and for its cohesive architecture. The district holds 24 contributing buildings.