House painting in Oconomowoc.

The city’s own history page tells how, after the railroad arrived, Oconomowoc, incorporated as a city in 1875, became a favorite summer retreat for tourists and wealthy vacationers from Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis and other Midwestern cities. Some of the country’s wealthiest families built summer homes on the lakes, there were six luxury resorts by the 1880s, and from the 1870s to the Great Depression the town was known as the “Newport of the West.” The city says its downtown has kept most of its 19th-century architecture, that many grand Victorian homes still stand on the area’s lakeshores, and that many homes and businesses are on the state and national registers.

The Walter L. Peck House shows the kind of house that era left. Built in 1882 on Long Island in Lac La Belle and listed on the National Register in 1986, it is classed by the Wisconsin Historical Society as Stick/Eastlake, and its survey record notes clapboard walls, a board-and-batten dormer, brackets under the eaves, a balustrade around the deck and a wrap-around porch. On houses like it, the trim takes more of the time than the walls: brackets, balusters, porch ceilings and window casings are scraped, primed and brushed by hand.

Older Oconomowoc buildings have records in the Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory; the Society’s record for City Hall, for one, shows it surveyed in 1975 and again in 2005. A record notes things like year built, style and wall material, and the Society says a record does not mean a property has any designation. The Oconomowoc Historical Society’s self-guided walking tour, mentioned on the city’s history page, takes in many of the listed homes and businesses.

The city’s historic preservation rules are in section 17.705 of its zoning code (Ordinance 23-O1049, adopted August 1, 2023). Only a property’s owner can nominate it for designation as a historic structure or site. The Historic Preservation Commission, made up of the five members of the Architectural Commission, makes a recommendation within 60 days, and the Common Council decides after a public hearing, with written notice to owners within 200 feet. An owner can also ask to rescind a designation: unless the aim is demolition, the Zoning Administrator approves the request, and no demolition permit can then be granted for 48 months. Whitefish Bay’s ordinance leaves the choice with the owner too: no designation may proceed there without an owner’s written consent (Whitefish Bay’s preservation rules).

Once a property is designated, exterior work that is visible from outside, whether alteration, rehabilitation, construction or reconstruction, needs a Certificate of Appropriateness first, and the Building Inspector may not issue a permit for it without one. The Commission has 60 days from filing to approve, conditionally approve or deny an application, or the matter is deemed approved. A certificate expires after a year unless a building or demolition permit has been issued, and a denial can be appealed to the Common Council.

Its members are the Architectural Commission, which generally meets at 4:30 pm on the first Wednesday of the month at City Hall; that Commission’s own review covers nonresidential development. We did not find a published list of designated properties, so if yours may be one, ask the Planning Department. National Register listing, like the Peck House’s, is a separate matter: the National Park Service says it places no restrictions on a non-federal owner unless the property is in a project that receives federal funding or a federal permit.

Wisconsin’s Lead-Safe Renovation Rule applies to a home or property built before 1978 when the work will disturb more than 20 square feet of painted surface outside, more than 6 square feet of painted surface per room inside, replace windows, or involve demolition. That work must be done by a certified Lead-Safe Renovator working for a certified lead company. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services publishes a list of certified companies, updated monthly, so you can check any contractor.

An Oconomowoc mailing address is not always the City. The Town of Oconomowoc and the Village of Oconomowoc Lake are separate municipalities with their own rules; the Village Hall itself is on West Pabst Road with an Oconomowoc address. The Census Bureau counts the Town on its own: median year built 1979 (±4), 16.1% of units from 1939 or earlier, 84.8% single-family detached and 85.5% owner-occupied. The Village is small, about 312 housing units (±74), nearly all owner-occupied detached houses. If your address is in the Town or the Village, ask when you request an estimate whether it is in our area.

The Village reviews exteriors closely. Its Architectural Control Board is seven residents appointed by the Village President, and it meets on the fourth Monday of the month as needed. The Village’s procedures say a building permit is needed for new construction, for repair, for any project over $20,000 and for any project that alters the exterior of an existing structure, and ask you to check with the Zoning Administrator whether yours must go before the Board. Plans are due 14 days before a meeting, with the exterior colors of siding, roofing, trim, soffit and fascia and samples of the materials, and the Board’s standards ask that colors be chosen “in general harmony with existing neighboring buildings.”

Taken at its word, that list can catch a large repaint or a change of color, so ask the Village before exterior work there. Its zoning code also requires every structure to be kept generally free of excessive paint peeling (section 17.22). Delafield, east-southeast of the city, has a City and Town split of its own; our Delafield page covers it.

City of Oconomowoc, updated November 21, 2025: Zoning and sign ordinance (PDF), read October 22, 2026.

City of Oconomowoc: Architectural Commission & Historic Preservation Commission, read October 22, 2026.

City of Oconomowoc: History of the city, read October 22, 2026.

City of Oconomowoc: Planning & Zoning, read October 22, 2026.

City of Oconomowoc, May 2024: Fence regulations handout (PDF), read October 22, 2026.