Fairsted was the home and design office of Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect behind Boston's Emerald Necklace. The National Park Service runs it as the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, and the restored landscape around the house is open year-round.

On a Sunday, the grounds are open dawn to dusk for self-guided exploring, according to the Park Service. The visitor center and guided tours run only on Fridays and Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The site charges no entrance fee.

The List Center runs temporary contemporary art exhibitions in the I.M. Pei-designed Wiesner Building and oversees MIT's permanent and public art collections spread across campus.

It is open Sundays from noon to 6 p.m. and is free and open to all, according to the center. Because of construction, the route through the MIT Health building is closed; from Kendall/MIT station, walk west on Main Street to Ames Street and turn left.

Established in 1848, Forest Hills is a garden cemetery known for its landscape and memorial sculpture. The cemetery publishes a Visitor's Guide that marks more than 60 points of interest across the grounds.

A self-guided sculpture route begins at the statue known as The Sentinel, according to the cemetery's tours page. Visitors are asked not to photograph headstones. Phone: 617-524-0128.

Founded in 1831, Mount Auburn is America's first garden cemetery and a National Historic Landmark. Its 175 acres of landscaped paths, ponds and trees draw more than 200,000 visitors a year, according to the cemetery.

It is one of the region's best places for fall foliage and birding. The grounds are open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to the cemetery's current-hours page, which also lists hours for the Washington Tower lookout.

The museum bills itself as home to "America's Oldest Car Collection" and has been running educational programs, exhibits and lectures for more than 85 years, according to its visitor page. It sits in Larz Anderson Park, on a hill just over the Boston line.

It is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, but the museum's site says it closes early, at 2 p.m., on Saturday, Oct. 24. Weekend lawn events, where owners show their cars on the grass and admission includes the museum, run from May through October, so this is the end of the season. Phone: 617-522-6547.

Puppet Showplace Theater presents puppetry for all ages, and its Puppets at Night series is aimed at adult and teen audiences, with evening shows by touring companies, fringe performers and emerging puppeteers, according to the theater's site.

It makes for an unusual date night. Upcoming listings include "An Evening with Mr. Vernon Watercress" by Nate Puppets on Friday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m., recommended for ages 16 and up, and the Fall Puppet Slam on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m. The theater offers discounted tickets for EBT, WIC and ConnectorCare cardholders and Brookline Library members. Phone: 617-731-6400.

The Mapparium is a three-story stained-glass globe that visitors walk through on a glass bridge, showing the political map of the world as it stood in 1935. It is part of the How Do You See the World? experience at the Mary Baker Eddy Library on Christian Science Plaza.

The room's spherical glass produces unusual acoustics, and the political borders are frozen in 1935. A ticket is required for the Mapparium itself, while the library's other exhibits are free. The last Mapparium tour of the day is at 4:40 p.m., according to the visitor information page.

The Brattle is a nonprofit single-screen repertory cinema operated by the Brattle Film Foundation, showing classic, foreign and independent films, film festivals and in-person conversations with filmmakers.

Its double features, which screen two films back to back, are a long-running Harvard Square tradition. The box office opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day, and no-fee tickets are available there, according to the theater's policies page.

The National Park Service site preserves a 1759 Georgian house built for John Vassall Jr., a sugar plantation owner and enslaver. George Washington used it as his headquarters during the siege of Boston, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later lived there and wrote many of his best-known poems.

It is a short walk from Harvard Square and free. The garden and grounds are open daily from dawn to dusk, and guided tours of the house run seasonally through Oct. 31, 2026, so this is the last week to see the inside this year. The interior can only be seen on a guided tour; the park lists a fall-winter speaker series on its calendar. Phone: (617) 876-4491.

The Leventhal Center's exhibitions gallery sits inside the BPL's Central Library in Copley Square and is free to the public. The center suggests setting aside 30 minutes to an hour and a half, and the gallery includes captions and activities for children and families as well as adults.

The gallery is closed for an exhibition turnover until Oct. 30, but it is open for preview days on Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. After reopening, hours are Tuesday through Thursday noon to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free 30-minute gallery tours meet at the front desk Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. (tours are paused during the turnover). Pair it with the McKim courtyard upstairs.

A 12-story membership library whose earlier readers included Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and John Quincy Adams. Its collections include George Washington's personal library and more than 200,000 rare and special items.

Most visitors never go past the lobby. A $40 one-day membership opens all floors, including the fifth-floor terrace with city views and the building's resident falcons. First-floor admission covers the gallery and rotating exhibitions, and one-hour docent tours often sell out days ahead. Open Monday-Thursday 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Sunday.

Three generations of the Gibson family and dozens of servants lived and worked in this Back Bay rowhouse between 1859 and 1954. Four floors of period rooms, including the original kitchen, survive largely as they were.

Tours run Friday through Sunday at 1, 2 and 3 p.m., with Thursday times varying; walk-ins are welcome but space is limited. Twilight tours run every Friday in October at 7 p.m. Tours include several flights of stairs; there is no elevator.

An 1804 Beacon Hill townhouse interpreted through the lives of Rose, Marian and Margaret Nichols, with a focus on women's history, decorative arts and everyday life in late-19th- and early-20th-century Boston.

Tours run Tuesday through Friday at 10, 11 and noon; Saturday hourly from 10 to 2; and Sunday at 11, noon and 1. Card to Culture holders (EBT, WIC, SUN Bucks, ConnectorCare) get in free, two per card.

One of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, tucked on a side street behind the Science Center, with collections from the ancient Near East.

Admission is free. Open Sunday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Saturdays. From Harvard Square, walk through Harvard Yard toward the Science Center, turn right on Kirkland Street and left on Divinity Avenue. The gift shop is cash only.

The Lilypad is an independent music venue and event space in Inman Square that books jazz, experimental, rock and singer-songwriter shows most nights, along with piano lessons, yoga and art classes.

It is a small room with seated and standing shows, a low door price and an eclectic calendar. Shows on Oct. 20, 2026, for example, were listed at $15 and $13 admission.

Lizard Lounge is a 21-and-over basement club on Massachusetts Avenue known for its red lighting and intimate stage. Rolling Stone called it an "intimate, eclectic hot spot," according to the club.

The club is open Wednesday through Sunday nights and books local and touring acts in a room small enough that there is no distance between performers and the audience. It also serves food and drinks.

Yvonne's is a New American restaurant and supper club on Winter Place, an alley off Winter Street. It occupies the former home of Locke-Ober, which operated at the address from the 19th century until 2012.

The entrance is easy to miss, and the restaurant describes itself as flowing from dinner and drinks into lounging later in the night, which makes it a common choice for a date or celebration.

Inside the Central Library's 1895 McKim Building in Copley Square is an arcaded Italian Renaissance-style courtyard with a fountain, open to anyone during library hours.

Many passers-by in Copley Square do not know it is there. It is a quiet, free place to sit or read, steps from the library's Bates Hall reading room. The Central Library is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The Center for the History of Medicine's fifth-floor gallery at Harvard's Countway Library displays highlights from the center's holdings, including the Warren Anatomical Museum collection and the case of Phineas Gage. A second gallery on lower level 2 hosts rotating exhibitions.

According to the library, the galleries are open to the public Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m., with no fee. Visitors get a pass at the first-floor security desk at the 695 Huntington Ave. entrance by showing a government-issued photo ID; work and student IDs are not accepted, and minors must be with an adult.

Opened on New Year's Day 1947 as Wally's Paradise at 428 Massachusetts Ave., the club describes itself as the first Black-owned nightclub in New England. It presents live music every night in a narrow room on Massachusetts Avenue in the South End.

Jam sessions run Tuesday through Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m., followed by night sets until midnight. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday. There are no reservations; seating is first-come. The club also books private events for up to 50 guests. Phone: 617-424-1408.

Harvard University's 281-acre Arnold Arboretum holds more than 15,000 cataloged plants and is part of Boston's Emerald Necklace park system.

Peters Hill, in the southern part of the grounds, offers one of the widest views of the downtown skyline in the city. The landscape is open daily from sunrise to sunset, admission is always free, and the Hunnewell Visitor Center is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants comprises 4,300 glass models of 780 plant species made by Czech glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka between 1886 and 1936.

The models are accurate enough to be mistaken for real plants. The museum's current exhibition, The Blaschkas at the Microscope: Lessons in Botany, looks at the science behind the models. The Glass Flowers are included with general museum admission.

The basement club on Palmer Street descends from Club 47, which opened in 1958 at 47 Mount Auburn Street, where a 17-year-old Boston University student named Joan Baez played Tuesday nights. When the club moved in 1963, Cambridge let it keep the number 47 in its new address. It is now a nonprofit that also runs a music school.

It is a small listening room, not a bar with a band. Shows this week include Grace Givertz and Jacob Perez on Oct. 21 ($30) and The Nields on Oct. 24 ($38); doors usually open an hour before showtime. It sits on the corner of Church and Palmer streets, one block from the Harvard Red Line station.