If you like nothing better than to imagine how the other half lives, you'll suffer no shortage of old homes to sigh over in Boston's Back Bay. Most, unfortunately, are off-limits to visitors, but there's no law against gawking from the outside.

Among the grander Back Bay houses is the Baylies Mansion (5 Commonwealth Ave., Back Bay) of 1904, now the home of the Boston Center for Adult Education; you can enter to view its first-floor common room. The Burrage Mansion (314 Commonwealth Ave., Back Bay) is a gem, built in 1899 in an extravagant French-château style, complete with turrets and gargoyles, that reflects a cost-be-damned attitude uncommon even among the wealthiest Back Bay families. It now houses an assisted-living residence for seniors, and walk-in visitors are discouraged. The Cushing-Endicott House (163 Marlborough St., Back Bay) was built in 1871 and later served as the home of William C. Endicott, secretary of war under President Grover Cleveland; this was dubbed "the handsomest house in the whole Back Bay" by the author Bainbridge Bunting. The opulent Oliver Ames Mansion (55 Commonwealth Ave., corner of Massachusetts Ave., Back Bay) was built in 1882 for a railroad baron and Massachusetts governor; it's now an office building. The Ames-Webster House (306 Dartmouth St., Back Bay), built in 1872 and remodeled in 1882 and 1969, is one of the city's finest houses; it's still a private home. Two Back Bay mansions are now used by organizations that promote foreign language and culture: the French Library and Cultural Center (53 Marlborough St., Back Bay. frenchlib.org) and the German-oriented Goethe Institute (170 Beacon St., Back Bay. www.goethe.de/uk/bos). See the Boston Globe's "Calendar" section on Thursday or the weekly listings in the free Boston Phoenix for details on lectures, films, and other events held in these respected institutions.

Fisher College (118 Beacon St., Back Bay. 617/236-8800. www.fisher.edu) is housed in a 1903 bowfront whose Classical Revival style epitomizes turn-of-the-20th-century elegance. Step inside to see such genteel touches as the marble stairway with its gold-plated balustrade, the Circassian walnut-panel dining room, and the library's hand-carved rosewood doors with sterling silver knobs. Admission is free, and it's open on weekdays from 8 to 4.