Celebrate the start of summer at Bowman House in Dresden, Castle Tucker and Nickels-Sortwell House in Wiscasset during Historic New England’s annual Open House. Free guided tours will be given from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the last tour leaving at 3 p.m. Tickets or reservations are not required.

The Bowman House was built in 1762 on the banks of the Kennebec River for judge and maritime merchant Jonathan Bowman who created a home whose stylish interiors would have rivaled the finest Boston mansions of the time. Hear stories of the privileged lifestyle of the Bowman family and the enslaved people and indentured servant who worked the house and land and enabled that lifestyle.

Castle Tucker tells the stories of Silas and Tempe Lee for whom the house was built in 1807, and those of the Tucker family who lived there for more than 140 years. The house has had no major changes after 1900, so visitors see the interiors as the Tuckers left them, including the 1858 parlor and a kitchen with four generations of cooking technology still in place.

Nickels-Sortwell House was built in 1807 as the trophy house of ship owner and maritime trader William Nickels. The high fashion life of Nickels, his family, and servants came to an abrupt end with the 1807 Embargo and War of 1812. Since then its had a widely varied life, filled with interesting characters, as a tavern and hotel, summer home, and finally a house museum since 1958.

All three houses sit on land that is part of the homeland of the Wabanaki of Maine and the Maritimes.