Come revel in the splendor of this 19th Century Mansion and learn about the lives of the past inhabitants. Free guided tours from 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Tours start at quarter past the hour.

Start time: 12:00 pm

End time: 4:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 885-1461

Location: Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum (in Pelham Bay Park)

In the 1930s, Alice and her partner Gertrude opened up their home and started a business serving refreshments. Come to their Victorian Tea House, relax on their porch, and bask in the amazing view of the Verrazano Narrows.

Last seating at 3:00 p.m.

Reservations are required.

Start time: 12:00 pm

End time: 4:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 816-4506

Location: Alice Austen House Museum (in Alice Austen Park)

On Saturday, October 6 from 12-4pm, the 20th Anniversary Little Red Lighthouse Festival will take place in Fort Washington Park, to celebrate the only remaining lighthouse in Manhattan. Sponsored by Benjamin Moore Paints, this year’s event is hosted by New York Restoration Project (NYRP), Historic House Trust, NYC Parks, Riverside Park Fund and Urban Park Rangers. The free event will include tours of the lighthouse, live music and theater performances, arts and crafts, fishing clinics, readings and activities for the family. There will even be an up-close reptile experience! The Festival celebrates the area and pays tribute to the popular children's book, "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge” by Hildegarde H. Swift.

Participating partners include:

• CityScience
• I Fish NY
• Erik the Reptile Guy
• Jan Bell & The Maybelles
• MillionTreesNYC
• MoMA
• Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance
• NY Sea Grant
• Renaissance EMS
• Word Up Bookstore

Start time: 12:00 pm

End time: 4:00 pm

Contact phone: (212) 333-2552

Location: Fort Washington Park

The “Harvest Arts Festival in the Gardens” will take place the first weekend of October in community gardens on the Lower East Side. Each participating garden is designing its own unique and multidimensional arts program, and it’s going to be a very eclectic mix from jazz to comedy to making mud balls to an “Art Rumble.”

Start time: 12:00 pm

End time: 5:00 pm

Contact phone:

Location: El Jardin Del Paraiso (in El Jardin Del Paraiso Park)

An open competition for youth and children focusing on football skills. This event will allow members and the general public to participate in an instructional program followed by actual competition. Age categories will be 14-16, 12-14, and 10-12.

Start time: 12:00 pm

End time: 3:00 pm

Contact phone: 212-242-5228

Location: Tony Dapolito Recreation Center

Seneca Village was Manhattan's first known community of African-American property owners, on land that would become Central Park. Learn about the history of the village, the property owners, and what New York City was like at the time.

Groups of seven or more people should call (212) 360-2726 or e-mail tours@centralparknyc.org to schedule a custom tour.

Accessibility level: Moderate inclines and stairs, paths clear and negotiable - only parts accessible to people with disabilities.

Start time: 12:30 pm

End time: 1:30 pm

Contact phone: (212) 772-0210

Location: 85th Street and Central Park West (in Central Park)

Free tours of the Conference House on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 1p.m. to 4 p.m. There is a charge for group tours which are booked separately. Please visit www.conferencehouse.org or call 718-984-6046 for more information.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time: 4:00 pm

Contact phone: 718-984-6046

Location: Conference House Museum (in Conference House Park)

View significant artifacts from 19th-century family life and walk into a fully furnished 1820s bedroom. There will be tours every half hour.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (718) 789-2822

Location: Lefferts Historic House (in Prospect Park)

Enjoy crafts, stories and learn about the history of tea! Bring your favorite stuffed animal or doll for this fun afternoon at King Manor! This program is in partnership with the Historic House Trust of New York City and Open House NY.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time: 3:00 pm

Contact phone: 718 206 0545 x13

Location: King Manor Museum (in Rufus King Park)

City Parks Foundation is serving 30 free seats at its opening weekend performance of "Hansel & Gretel's Halloween Adventure." There will be a Backstage tour and Swedish refreshments served after the performance.

For reservations, please visit ohny.org.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone:

Location: Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre (in Central Park)

Built in 1785, Kingsland Homstead is now the home of the Queens HIstorical Society. Tour the homestead and visit the gift shop to find out more about historic foodways in Queens.

Two exhibitions will be on display: Uncovering the Cemeteries of Queens, and The Disappearing Art of the Written Word.

Free with admission.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time: 5:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 939-0647

Location: Kingsland Homestead

Visit the Guyon-Lake-Tyson House at HIstoric Richmond Town, New York City's most comprehensive museum complex. Originally sited about 2 miles from its present location, this 1740s farmhouse represents life on a large prosperous farm. Cooking demonstrations on the open hearth offer a taste of the luxuries available there. Recipes used in the demonstration come from Margaret Poillon Garretson's recipe book which is part of the on-site archive. Samples of the dessert recipe will be available warm from the tin reflector oven until 4:45 p.m. each day.

Included with regular village admission.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time: 5:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 351-1611

Location: Historic Richmond Town

With its battlements and gothic features, this historic Fort once guarded the East River waterfront. Join the Urban Park Rangers for a special tour as part of Open House New York (OHNY) Weekend.

Start time: 1:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone: 718.352.2176

Location: Fort Totten Visitor's Center (in Fort Totten Park)

There will be free art demonstrations for children and young adults by Cristina Cipriani in the Latimer House's fall garden.

Start time: 1:30 pm

End time: 2:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 961-8585

Location: Lewis H. Latimer House (in Lewis H Latimer House)

Spend time outside enjoying nature while helping to keep Prospect Park clean. Families can take a tour of the Park and its waterways and help keep it clean along the way. Gloves, garbage bags and trash grabbers will be provided.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time: 3:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 287-3400

Location: Audubon Center at the Boathouse (in Prospect Park)

Join an exhibition interpreter for one of our regularly scheduled tours of Wave Hill’s fall exhibition Foregrounding the Palisades, sculptural installations by artists Isidro Blasco, Blane de St. Croix and Paula Winokur that focus on the cliffs across the Hudson River, a quintessential feature of Wave Hill’s vista—and history. In the Sunroom, Crystal Z. Campbell and Yeon Ji Yoo fill the space with site-specific works inspired by local social and natural history.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone: (718) 549-3200

Location: Wave Hill

Local poet John Maney offers a free poetry series for teens and adults. Read and discuss poetry with your peers, and work to create your own poetry in a group setting.

Start time: 2:00 pm

End time: 3:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 365-5516

Location: Poe Park Visitor Center (in Poe Park)

There will be free art demonstrations for children and young adults by Cristina Cipriani in the Latimer House's fall garden.

Start time: 2:30 pm

End time: 3:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 961-8585

Location: Lewis H. Latimer House (in Lewis H Latimer House)

Imagine living as a 19th century New Yorker taking a journey through Central Park. Along the way, you will learn about the Park's history and hear how its designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, struggled to turn their visions into our reality.

Groups of seven or more people should call (212) 360-2726 or email tours@centralparknyc.org to schedule a custom tour.

Accessibility level: Easy to negotiate; paths and few stairs - mostly accessible to people with disabilities

Start time: 2:30 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone: (212) 794-4064

Location: Outside the Dairy Gift Shop (in Central Park)

Imagine yourself in the past. Learn games, pastimes and tasks that were common 200 years ago. At Lefferts Historic House, you can try your hand at needlepoint, games, and more.

Start time: 2:30 pm

End time: 3:30 pm

Contact phone:

Location: Lefferts Historic House (in Prospect Park)

THE DEADLY GENTLEMEN

Led by Greg Liszt, acclaimed Crooked Still banjo player, and originally formed as an experimental spoken word bluegrass band, this wildly innovative group has evolved into master purveyors of epic folk and grasscore. The Deadly Gentlemen use nonstop orchestration of somewhat unconventional vocals, with everybody in the band doing everything they can. Expect a lot of three-part harmony singing, group shouting, really dense rhymes and an almost rap-like phrasing. Rounding out The Deadly Gentlemen with Liszt is Stash Wyslouch, guitar and vocals; Mike Barnett, fiddle and vocals; Dominick Leslie, mandolin and vocals; and Sam Grisman, double bass and vocals. Their versatile songs can be described as a kind of a rock ‘n’ roll feel, despite the acoustic bluegrass instrumentation with a splash of the punk or hardcore mentality.

THE VESPERS

The Vespers are one of those lucky young bands who are becoming a word of mouth sensation though they’ve only quietly self-released one record. With two sisters on lead vocals and two brothers filling out the sound, the foursome are distinguished by an arsenal of instruments and the kind of harmony only siblings can create. They have toured from Boston to Austin, hitting everything from festivals to college campuses in between. On The Fourth Wall, out April 3rd, they create infectious folk-pop with both the buoyancy of youth and deeper spiritual themes. They believe “folk and roots music tend to draw from spiritual themes. We don’t run away from our faith when writing, because that’s where our hearts are planted.”

Start time: 3:00 pm

End time: 5:00 pm

Contact phone: (212) 325-2101

Location: Southern End (in Madison Square Park)

Charles McKinney, principal urban designer for NYCParks, reveals the challenges and rewards of creating master plans for urban parks in collaboration with their stakeholders.

Start time: 4:00 pm

End time:

Contact phone: 718 430 1890

Location: Woodlawn Station: Last Stop of #4 Train (in Van Cortlandt Park)

Enjoy a true Victorian low tea in Bartow-Pell Mansion's Orangerie served by docents in period dress. Learn about low versus high tea, tea history and etiquette, all while delighting in delicious, traditional team-time treats. Appropriate for ages 10 and up. Registration is required.

Start time: 4:30 pm

End time: 6:00 pm

Contact phone: (718) 885-1461

Location: Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum (in Pelham Bay Park)