The John Paul Jones House in Portsmouth is quiet and cold. It's a spring afternoon, months before the busy summer season will begin, and much of the regular contents of the house are packed away in boxes to make room for a large-scale exhibit of artifacts from the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty in 1905. But to Elizabeth Farish, manager of three historic homes in the city, even when these centuries-old houses are silent and free of visitors, they are still talking.

"These houses are always giving something up," she said. "They're not quiet, stationary houses."

As an example, Farish points out the discovery of smalt in the Warner House in 2002. Smalt, or ground cobalt glass, was found mixed in with the paint in one bedroom. Though used with paint between the 16th and 18th centuries, it was only used for small projects. The bedroom at the Warner House is the only major use of smalt uncovered anywhere to date.

Discoveries like these keep Portsmouth's nine historic homes vibrant and engaging, according to Farish. But these discoveries may have trouble making their way out into the world if the number of volunteers at the homes continues to dwindle.

"We need new people to keep new ideas coming, new discoveries," Farish said.

Of the city's nine historic homes, Farish oversees three for the Wentworth Gardner and Tobias Lear Association and the Warner House Association, and Historic New England (formerly the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities) owns six. There are approximately 20 volunteers working as greeters and tour guides in these homes, but more are needed to keep the houses open to the public, she said. For a museum like the John Paul Jones House, it takes four volunteers a day to run tours, answer questions and greet people. Volunteers run the gamut from new retirees who want to stay active to academics and students of history.

"We want (visitors) to walk freely through open rooms," she said.

Volunteers are trained to know the history of the house they work in, along with a basic knowledge of Portsmouth history. Though she said volunteers should be very knowledgeable in their field, Farish said much of each volunteer's historical knowledge is self-taught.

"You can know as little or as much as you want," she said.

Farish has been joint manager of the three houses since January 2004 and said she has always been interested in history. She grew up in a tiny village in Oxfordshire, England, where history was "just part of living there." Later, she moved to Washington, D.C., which she calls the center of American history. Since working in Portsmouth, she said the historical community in the city, which includes everyone from academics to tour guides and volunteers at the homes, is growing.

"History is kind of a hip thing these days," she said.

Barbara Gregg, a volunteer and board member for the Wentworth-Gardner House, began her involvement with the home two years ago. She began working at the house because "it's next door to me and I immediately noticed it," she said.

When she started out as a tour guide, Gregg didn't know anything about the Wentworth family, the history of Portsmouth, or Wallace Nutting, the photographer and minister who restored and preserved Wentworth-Gardner and Tobias Lear houses in the early 20th century.

"My husband and I discovered we had a Wallace Nutting photograph in a box in our basement," she said. "We probably would have never recognized it had we not got involved in the house."

Gregg said that while a lot of board members for the house regularly fill in and give tours, there simply aren't enough volunteer guides to keep up with the number of visitors.

"We would still like to see a lot more people come into the house and make it more visible to the community," she said. "It's one of the most important examples of Georgian architecture in the country, and people come from all over the world to see it."