This neoclassical granite building stands on a hill looking toward the Coast Guard Academy. Its holdings are the result of the enthusiasms of private collectors and include Colonial American paintings; landscapes by Hudson River School artists Frederic Edwin Church, George Inness, and Albert Bierstadt; and Asian temple castings and Japanese lacquerware. A notable collection of 19th-century dolls and dollhouses, arranged in detailed room settings right down to tiny ladles on the kitchen counter, is now in Deshon-Allyn House on the museum grounds and open to the public on the third Sunday of the month from 1 to 3pm.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's New England, 14th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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