The Start of Lifelong Memories
Perched on a bluff overlooking Nantucket Sound, The Wianno Club has provided the perfect setting for all manner of gatherings for over one hundred years. Generations of families have selected this singular and charming place to meet in celebration of anniversaries, family reunions and annual vacations, thereby creating treasured lifelong memories. A popular site for weddings, it is not uncommon for the Club to host the reception of a bride or groom whose parents' and grandparents' receptions were also held here.
Longstanding Wianno Club traditions thrive as members of all ages can recall summers spent at our Junior Activities Day Clinics by the shore of Crystal Lake… learning to play golf, tennis or swim…having a shake at the Seaside Café or sitting in the Main Dining Room enjoying the Club's legendary Sunday Night Buffet.
Serving as host to members and guests began on April 1, 1916 when, under the administration of Commodore W. B. H. Dowse, the Wianno Yacht Club purchased the Cotocheset House hotel and formed the Wianno Club. Commodore Dowse served as the first president of the Wianno Club from 1916 to 1927.
The Clubhouse
The Clubhouse building is representative of "Shingle Style" architecture which figures significantly in Cape Cod's architectural history. Because of its unique architecture, the Clubhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is in an area known as the Wianno Historic District.
The current Clubhouse, built in 1888 as the "new" Cotocheset House, replaced a successful summer hotel, the Cotocheset House, which was built in 1873. The foundation of the hotel was made of stone taken from Daniel Webster's Boston mansion which had been destroyed by fire in 1872. The Cotocheset House itself burned to the ground in 1887, but was immediately rebuilt.
The Land
The area of land that is now called Wianno is part of the third major purchase from the Native Americans by the Plymouth settlers as that colony expanded southward. The sale was negotiated by Captain Miles Standish and Chief Paupmumuck in May 1648. The price paid was two brass kettles, one bushel of corn and half of the fence needed to enclose thirty acres of land reserved for the Native Americans.
This territory was originally called "Cotocheset", which was the name of the Native American to whom the land belonged at the time of the aforementioned third purchase. It soon became known as "Oysterville" due to the abundance of succulent oysters found in the "South Sea" as Nantucket Sound was originally known.
In 1664, a fourth purchase was made. Adjacent land was purchased from and named for, the Indian Sachem Iyanough, leader of the Mattakeese tribe of Cummaquid. The name "Wianno", like Hyannis, is a derivative of the name Iyanough, Ianno or Yanno. A statue of Sachem Iyanough can be found today on the village green in downtown Hyannis.