One of the pleasures of visiting or living in Boston, with its wealth of historical resources, is to be able to experience the past through the historic houses left to us by earlier inhabitants. This guide, including colorful profiles of more than forty historic houses open to the public in and around Boston, is an indispensable handbook to help you discover hidden historical gems as well as some better-known portals to the past. From colonial to Victorian, from modest to upper-crust, there are houses for every interest. Be There Then aims to convey not only the basics of each house but also the overall visitor experience, going beyond a listing of facts and allowing you to plan your visits carefully. Houses of the distant (and not-so-distant) past serve to bring history alive, helping us know what it was like to live then and there. In these historic house museums, you can step over the threshold and start your journey back in time.