What area in Massachusetts (if any) has the most old Yankee feel to it? Anything left of the old Ethan Fromme/Lodge/Saltonstall/Thoreau/Emerson/Dickinson culture?

Try the private country clubs. The yanks have maintained them for thierown. Other than that, mostly evened out like the northend

If there are, then those Yankees have done a darn good job of keeping them secret.

Besides, I'm not sure what that "old Yankee feel" means.

There are a couple of suggestions I can make like Back Bay Boston, for some beautiful old brownstones on the Fens. Also Beacon Hill area.

North of the city you might want to see Marblehead, Swampscott, Rockport, Salem and Glouster (gee spelling on that one, haven't lived in Boston for a long time, lol)

Ok so I know it's a tourist destination, but how about Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge MA. It's west of Boston, and has some interesting sites, a working farm, tannery, candle shop..etc.

Hope this helps have a good time.

Try going to Concord and Lexington. Both are small towns with lots of Revolutionary War sites. Also, in Concord you can tour Hawthorne's, Emerson's and the Alcott's houses.

Ditto on Jackie's suggestion. When I was in college (a couple decades ago) I'd love to ride my bike out along Rte-2 (or was it 2A?) into Concord --- it's so beautiful, especially in September with pleasant temps and the leaves beginning to change colors.

Well, yes, in a special wing of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, we have a Cabot and a Lodge each encased in hermetically sealed glass chambers. The Saltonstall has not yet aged enough, so it is still in a preparation room, but you can see some dioramas of a stuffed Ethan Frome trying to woo a stuffed Emily Dickenson by a decent mock-up of Walden Pond.

On Sundays, though, out on Boston Garden, we have actual enactments of tight-lipped Sunday dinners. People wearing vintage tweeds eat in silence with their little fingers raised, while a string quartet plays Salieri pieces. The high point of the meal is when a doorbell rings and the woman of the house (wearing thrice-washed muslin to give the false appearance of thriftiness) stands and shouts "No Irish Need Apply."

Thank you, KKM, for that bit of silliness. Don't know what "Henry" was after, but what a strange DisneyWorld idea of "experiencing" Massachusetts he seems to have.