Otis House

"Zoom out. What’s this place all about? Sporting a red-brick, classically proportioned, symmetrical facade; palladian, fanlight, and multi-paned windows; and a monumental entry door, Otis House is the rare Federal-era building in Boston to still boast its original, intact interiors, which include fine plaster moldings, high ceilings, and a grand central staircase with carved-wood bannister and balustrades. The place owes its impressive neoclassical style to turn-of-the-nineteenth-century starchitect Charles Bulfinch—the designer behind many of the more opulent homes of Beacon Hill and the Massachusetts State House, too. Touring the home transports you back in time to the world, and the social whirl, of lawyer, politician, and real estate developer Harrison Gray Otis and his wife, consummate hostess and mother of nine little Otises, Sally Foster Otis, who commissioned Bulfinch to build this house in the mid-1790s. A museum's permanent collection is its defining feature: How was this one? Over the more than a hundred years that Otis House has been a museum—and part of the preservation nonprofit Historic New England—its curators and conservators have filled Otis House’s remarkably well-preserved interiors with the largest collection of Boston-made eighteenth- and nineteenth-century furniture on view in the sort of context for which it was originally intended, plus period-perfect reproduction wallpapers, carpets, paint colors, and more. Several pieces of furniture were actually owned and used by the Otis family themselves, many are similar to those known to have been in the house, and still others are based on items seen in paintings of similarly aristocratic residential interiors from the period. What did you make of the crowd? Many of the folks who come here are historic house museum junkees. This place is their jam. But because of the building’s location just off Boston’s Freedom Trail and on the path of the city’s Black Heritage Trail, you’ll also find visitors with a more general interest in early United States American history, and Boston’s place in it. On the practical tip, how were the facilities? A late-eighteenth-century landmark, Otis House has a central staircase, and you’ll need to be able to climb its flight-plus of steps to get to the second floor. There are a couple steps up and down to access the main level, and, with advance notice, a portable ramp can be set up. Other than the folding chairs in the original kitchen, where the tour starts, there is nowhere to sit down along the way. The restroom is located down another flight of stairs from the main level; with advanced notice, a wheelchair route can be made available to use it. Any guided tours worth trying? Open from June through October (since it’s unheated), the house can only be seen on guided group tours, which are offered to the public on the hour every hour from 11am to 4pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Groups can book outside of these hours. Led by docents, the tours begin with a brief and engaging presentation to offer context on Boston in the late eighteenth century and onward, explaining how the house came to be and what happened to it from there, including how it became a museum. Then, it’s off to walk through its rooms, learning why they look the way they do—wonderfully colorful, full of print and pattern, as well as life and love. You get a definite sense of the Otises, a family of Boston brahmins who entertained the mighty and powerful in great style. Gift shop: obligatory, inspiring—or skip it? The lower-level bookstore offers various volumes on mostly historical architecture and design in New England. Is the café worth a stop? Nothing on hand at the house, but you’re in the middle of the city, and there are plenty of great Boston restaurants nearby. Any advice for the time- or attention-challenged? Tours last forty-five to fifty minutes."