Located in Dedham, the oldest timber house is packed with lots of interesting details. We went on…read morean introductory tour and they have a cool model of the house. The docent is very knowledgeable and friendly. A small parking lot is available on site. Currently, it costs $15 for a tour.

Visited here not too long ago. Although very nice structure, we weren't allowed in because we…read moredidn't buy tickets "online". Why would they not allow a cash or cc for entry payment option?? Why only online. There was no line and no one was inside but the hostess refused to accept payment to allow us entry. So us and another couple left. The museum lost out on money because of this policy. Furthermore the hostess was rude and condescending when speaking with us. Better service and better payment options are needed.

Beautifully preserved house. If you love history, you'll love this place. Our tour guide, she was…read moreso passionate. You can also take a walk around the garden.

This is a free NPS site, and the fact the Longfellow family preserved the house before making it…read morepublic makes all the furnishings inside authentic, which isn't common. The tour was pretty good, but it was surprisingly light on both Longfellow and Washington. There was more emphasis on his descendants and their lives and the people who lived in the house first and their slaves, and that's fine and all, but that's really not what we came for. IF I didn't know anything about Longfellow, I wouldn't have learned more than the bare minimum that he was a poet. We came for the famous Longfellow's story. He wrote a famous poem on Paul Revere, making him an American legend. You know where they mention that? Paul Revere's house? You know where it didn't come up at all? Longfellow's house. The grounds are nice to stroll through. There's a temporary gallery from Longfellow's son and the many Asian art items he collected, so that was cool to look for. The gift shop was nonexistant. In its attempt to be more inclusive, it had almost nothing on Longfellow. You know where they have nice collections of Longfellow's house and souvenirs? Paul Revere's house. So the gift items exist, but not even at his house. It was so weird. Maybe NPS got bored staying on topic, but I've never been before, so it felt like I was missing out on the story I came for.

The guided tour of Otis House really worked for me; when I took it I felt as if I'd been…read moretransported back to the time when this was the Otis family's Boston home. Our tour group was comprised of only a few people, and that made it easy for my friend and me to ask the guide multiple questions as we went along. She not only didn't mind the questions, but our obvious interest caused her to focus the ongoing tour on some of the things we asked about. One of the things that's very different about touring Otis House vs. many other historical houses in Boston is the fact that visitors are not confined to an area encircled by ropes. Instead you're allowed to walk around freely in the rooms, get close to the furniture, and really absorb the splendor of the house. I highly recommended that you take the time to pay a visit here!

My wife and I had the Boston Go card and the Otis house was on the card so we took a trip to Beacon…read moreHill and entered the house of the third mayor of Boston. My wife and I love to take historical house tours because they are usually pretty interesting, and it usually gives us an excuse to have a date without a lot of people talking during a movie or bothering us in general. The house was fairly large and about 2/3 of it was accessible to the public. It stared off with about a 15 minute slide show of old time Boston, which was very interesting. There were three other women on the tour with us and the tour guide was older and seemed to love what she did in her retirement years. The house was furnished with wallpaper that matched what the family had and furniture from that era. The area use to be the red light district of town, kind of the bottom end of Beacon Hill towards the North End of town. They actually moved the house back a little when they widened the road. Otis left the decorating to his wife, which was out of character for the time, and she did a wonderful job. There were a lot of sitting rooms and a huge dining room because they liked to entertain. They had a few false doors to make the rooms look even and mirrors in a lot of rooms, because it showed wealth at the time. The upper levels were more extravagant because at the time there was a great deal of dust on the street and the lower levels got a little dark. A very interesting 45 minute tour, we over head the tour guide say to another worker "They didn't ask any questions." Small complaint, if we didn't ask any questions, how about fill some of your speaking points with previously asked questions? Fun part of the day though.

My mom and I visited the Gropius House when we spent a day in Concord a week or so ago, and it was…read moreincredible. Walter Gropius was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. He founded the Bauhaus, a German art, design, and architecture school in 1919. It's incredible how influential Bauhaus was and continues to be, considering it only lasted until 1933 (when it was closed by the Nazis). Gropius left Nazi Germany in 1934 and arrived in the United States in February 1937, with his wife and 12-year-old daughter. Gropius became a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and built this house in Lincoln, Massachusetts, for himself and his family. Gropius lived in the house until his death in 1969, and his wife lived in the house until own death in 1983. The house opened to the public in 1985, operated by Historic New England. I arranged a tour in advance for my mom and me, and about 5 other people joined our tour. Our tour guide Christine showed us around both floors of the house. She was great and so was the tour! The house is really incredible. It features design elements of Gropius and Bauhaus, but Gropius also featured design elements inspired by New England (the exterior's vertically-oriented white planks and stone elements). The house is just cool - an incredible staircase in the entry hall, an open coatroom, glass blocks, and more. On the tour, you can enter every room of the house, and there's so much to say about each one. The furniture is incredible, and so is the art. The Gropiuses had famous and talented friends that stayed at the house, and the house is filled with art and mementos from those friends. The tour is incredible. If you're at all interested in architecture, this house is a must visit!

Beautifully executed house by Gropius is a must see for architects or anyone interested in…read moremodernism. It is very well maintained, and the guides are well informed.

my brother and I visited Lexington, and enjoyed an amazing day of learning. We ended our tour at…read morethe Hancock Clark , and I'm glad we did. Even when we arrived close to the end of the day, our curator Carol still took us through the and treated us with such professionalism. Thank you, Lexington Historical Society for all that you do.

For the package deal of $15 you can visit this house and two others (Buckman Tavern and Munroe…read moreTavern), otherwise it's $8 per house. This house was probably the most extensive tour of the 3 - it starts with a 10 minute video introducing you to what happened that morning in April 1775. You're then brought into the well-kept house by a guide who introduces you to this beautiful home built by Thomas Clark, a wealthy book maker, for his parents who were in ministry. You can hear how much thought, money, and planning was put into the house through the guide's stories. This house is known for housing John Hancock and Samuel Adams on the big night - they were on the run with rewards on their heads. They escaped right in the nick of time when Paul Revere came to warn them to get out. It's absolutely fantastic to be able to see the original architecture and imagine the history that went on there. Guides are very informative and very enthusiastic about the house and everything in it. I'd recommend doing the package deal - the tickets never expire so even if you don't get to all 3 and want to come back another time or give the tickets to someone else to use, you can do that!

We came here specifically to see the Glass Flowers exhibit, and it was wonderful. Having read about…read moreit in a book, I decided it was a must see on our trip to Boston. I was really glad we made the effort to get here. They had a wheelchair available, and my sister pushed me through the exhibits so I didn't get tired too quickly. The museum staff was very accommodating and helped us figure out how to get to the upper levels. In addition to that exhibit, there was a stunning array of minerals displayed, plus an exhibit about foods served at Harvard and how they changed over the years. There were other displays, but we ran out of time to see everything. Just walking on the beautiful campus was a treat.

Lots to scour on well, science and culture. Price was reasonable and it was a nice walkthrough,…read moredefientley lots to see. Educational and informational, great for little kiddos. Restrooms and exhibits were well-kept and clean, restroom architecture is something i've never seen. Speaking of architecture, the inside and outside of this place is very grand and well furnished. The build is tall and awesome, not too cramped. The place is also pretty easy to navigate and there are always seating areas for tired feet. A great, educational museum. Good job!

(if you think this review is too long, just scroll to the bottom for my more "humorous"…read moreobservations) If you're driving on Adams Street towards Lower Mills or the other way towards East Milton Square, you might overlook this spot. If you're into historical sites and museums, this might be worth a look. Otherwise, you might just want to go to one of the many higher-profile museums in the area, like the Adams Historical Site the town next door. You have to reserve a spot in one of the scheduled tours to enter the museum. I went for a 1 pm tour and the next one was at 3. Trust me, the tour is really 2 hours long. The positive of this museum is that while the house is not that large in terms of square feet, you do get your bang for your buck. The tour guide was generally polite and rather informative. However, she always seemed to ask historical questions every time we entered a room and wanted us to answer - really got irritating as the tour went along. If I wanted to answer historical questions, I would've gone to a bar for stump trivia. Lastly, if you're not into this stuff, you will be bored out of your mind and will resort to utilizing the futuristic item called a smartphone. The Forbes family was involved in various historical events/periods and some of those rooms each had a theme from a time period. The family was involved in the China trade, so there's a decent collection of old Chinese furniture in the parlor. It doesn't compare to the Peabody Essex Museum, granted, but it's something. There is a room for the Forbes involvement in the Civil War and Abolition. Another room described the Forbes charitable endeavors during the Great Famine in Ireland during the mid-1800's. So you'll get some learnin' from various periods. Compared to other historical spots around the area, this one doesn't seem to be maintained well and needs better restoration. There was significant water damage in a few rooms and exhibit pieces (like beds, plates, etc.) seemed to be arranged worse than a 5-year old. The house needs a paint job in the worst way. Also compared to other historical sites, this one was rather dirty. There is a "gift shop", and by "gift shop", I mean a small glass case in the foyer containing books for sale. p.s. - you'll likely have older folks in your tour group that think "oriental" is still an acceptable way to describe Asians. p.p.s. - there's a nice Chinese junk model. It's in a glass case, and not in some sort luggage storage box or something. So you can't say there's junk in the trunk. *rim shot* :-P

Most people would drive by this historic home without paying much attention but the small staff is…read morevery friendly and often you can get a private or near-private tour of this gorgeous 1830's greek revival home which is filled with varying antiques but what is of particular interest is the vast array of objects collected by the Captain during the China trade years of the 1800's. Also, one of the previous owners was an avid collector of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia. The museum is set up more like a home and objects are easy to see and some can even be handled (kitchen area). The architecture inside and out is beautiful and the grounds keep with the feel of the home. The tour can be done on your own or guided. Great place to relax and take your time admiring the collection.

Located in the Dorchester Adams area, this historic house is located about 20 minutes from the…read moreAshmont T station. The first floor is fully renovated with bathrooms available. This is an architectural tour rather than the inhabitants of the house. Tour guides are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic.

Had the chance to catch one of only 4 days that this historic site is open per year. It was really…read moreinteresting as one of the earliest surviving houses in Boston. It's owned by Historic New England and they seem to do a good job with limited funding. It would be nice if it was open to the public (other than schoolchildren) more often, but I'm sure it's a money issue. Anyway, we had a very enlightening tour at the Pierce House. The passion the staff have for the house is obvious. They do an excellent job explaining the shifts in the house as it was expanded over time. I like that they don't go overboard 'restoring' everything in site. It's clear that the house is, or at least was, a living thing that grew with its occupants. I hope they continue being able to preserve this site and restore things like the dairy it contains. The only thing I will say is that since they are only open 4 days a year, they seem to have a lot of pent up energy and information. Our tour was a bit long and super intense! It was like a deluge of information and we were drowning in it. While I can fully appreciate their investment in the site, I think they could work on giving a bit more streamlined tour and then maybe allowing people questions for some of the finer points. I learned more about joinery that I thought possible. . . . Pierce house is worth stopping by if you're in the area (check the website for the rare tour). It's really an important piece of surviving Boston history.