[2] The district is roughly bounded by East Bay Road, Wianno and Sea View Avenues between Nantucket Sound and Crystal Lake.

[1] The Wianno area occupies a small portion of the southern coast of Cape Cod in the Osterville section of Barnstable.

The central focus of the district is the Wianno Club, a large Shingle/Colonial Revival structure designed by Horace Frazer and built in 1881 to replace the grand c. 1873 Cotocheset House hotel, which had burned down.

The colony had been planned in the 1870s by wealthy interests from Boston, New York City, and the local area, which had bought up most of the land on a speculative basis, built the hotel, and sold of parcels for summer houses.

These houses are typically somewhat rambling in character, often with gambrel roofs, and with porches, projecting gables, and dormers to give visual interest.