The Cotuit Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

encompassing the heart of the village of

Cotuit Cotuit ( ) is one of the villages of the Town of Barnstable on Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on a peninsula on the south side of Barnstable about midway between Falmouth and Hyannis, Cotuit is bounded by t ...

Barnstable, Massachusetts The Town of Barnstable ( ) is a town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod, and is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipaliti ...

. It extends along Main Street from Lowell Street in the north to Sea Street in the south, and includes portions of Ocean View Avenue and properties on adjacent roads. The oldest properties date to the late 18th century (including the c. 1790 Samuel Dottridge House, now a local historical society museum), but saw its greatest development during the height of the area's maritime industry in the mid 19th century. In the late 19th and early 20th century the area saw new development as a summer resort area. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1987.

History

Cotuit is located in southwestern Barnstable, on a peninsula bounded on the west by the

Santuit River The Santuit River, also known as the Cotuit River, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 river on the border between Mashpee and Cotuit, Massachusetts on Cap ...

and on the east by Cotuit Bay. The central village of Cotuit is on the northeastern part of this peninsula, extending north and south along Main Street from its junction with School Street. The district includes about 125 mainly residential properties, with most construction dates falling between about 1850 and 1920. The area was first settled in the late 18th century as an agricultural area, and did not achieve prominence as a maritime center until the 19th century. Large-scale sea-faring activities generally raised maritime activities on the south coast of

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

, and Cotuit became home to a number of sea captains and maritime businesses by the mid-19th century. This resulted in the construction of a significant number of fine Greek Revival and Italianate houses that line Main Street. In the late 19th century the area saw a rise in the construction of summer homes, albeit on a restrained scale. These homes filled in areas around the older homes, and are predominantly Queen Anne in style, although the district includes several Colonial Revival houses. The Cotuit Library, built about 1910 on Main Street, is the district's only significant Classical Revival building.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Barnstable, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

History

See also

References