#21603 Making A Play Date With The Past in Brooklyn, New York

This isn't like your typical “historic house,” where everything’s under glass and you have to keep hands off. Instead, Brooklyn’s Lefferts Historic House—an 18th-century farmhouse, home to five generations of Brooklynites—is a hands-on, child-friendly museum, with a working herb garden, period clothes for playing dress-up, and a toy room in the parlor. Kids—of all ages—can try pumping water, making candles, churning butter, or playing a round of Nine-Men’s-Morris. The museum also explores the lives of earlier residents—there are Native American toys in the house, and a reconstructed Canarsee wigwam sits just next door.