Updated 09/20/2008 04:23 PM
Historic Houses Across The City Welcome Visitors
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Nearly two dozen historic houses across the five boroughs open their doors this weekend for a special event.
The first-ever Historic House Festival kicked off Saturday.
Twenty-two houses around the city are being highlighted, including the Lefferts Historic House in Prospect Park. Visitors can tour the 225-year-old cottage and see how the Lefferts family lived back in 1783.
"The Lefferts Family was part of the early Dutch immigrations to Brooklyn and the Flatbush area," said Isak Mendes of the Lefferts Historic House. "They're probably the early settlers of this area. They were an agricultural family. They were a farming family."
The Merchants House Museum in Greenwich Village, which was built in 1832, is also on the tour.
Each house is holding its own event, complete with lectures, workshops and special tours showing areas of the house usually closed to the public.
Most of the events are free or charge a nominal fee.
For more information, call 311 or visit nyc.gov/parks.