Much of the Upper East Side is off limits—its ornate townhomes, gigantic mansions and charming carriage houses are reserved for museums, consulates and those who can afford the hefty price tag to live there. And most of the Gilded Age homes that decorated the area have been lost to time, so the experience of touring such a glamorous space is even more rare these days, unless you get a ticket to The Frick Collection or The Ukrainian Institute of America .

Open House New York , where for about $7 you can tour a normally-off-limits space, is a good way to get into some of these historic buildings, but you actually don’t have to wait for the annual event to explore—and you can even do it for free.

I took matters into my own hands one day last month and visited two historic Upper East

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