Presidents Trail Quincy

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Completed in 2018 and situated in the heart of Quincy’s downtown, this three-acre park and plaza boasts two ornamental fountains and monumental bronze statues honoring two of the City’s most famous inhabitants, John Adams and John Hancock. This beautiful pedestrian mall boasts plenty of seating and open green space and is connected to three of Quincy Center's most significant historic resources: Old City Hall (1844), United First Parish Church (1828) and Hancock Cemetery (1640).

2. Church of the Presidents

Built in 1828, United First Parish Church is the fourth building to house the community’s earliest congregation (1639) and is the final resting place of the Adams Presidents and First Ladies. Once known as the Old Stone Temple, this National Historic Landmark is considered the finest existing Greek Revival church in New England.

3. Brackett's Tavern Liberty Tree

Site of Quincy’s Liberty Tree, rallying place for patriots prior to the American Revolution, Liberty Tree Park is located in an elongated traffic island that has remained in the middle of this three-way intersection since the early 1700’s. In 1959, Quincy’s Granite Manufacturers Association placed a granite monument commemorating the locations of community’s Liberty Tree and Brackett’s Tavern, an important community gathering place.

4. Abigail Adams Cairn

Located on a stone outcropping on Penn’s Hill nearby the Adams birthplaces, the Cairn commemorates the evening of June 17, 1775 when Abigail Adams and her young son John Quincy climbed the hill to watch the bombardment and burning of Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill. The marker was dedicated by the Society of the Daughters of the Revolution on June 17, 1896.

5. Presidents John and John Quincy Adams Birthplaces

John Adams was born in 1735 in the house on the right. John Quincy Adams was born in 1767 in the house at today's street corner. Here, Abigail Adams managed house and farm for several years during the Revolution. Here, John Adams drafted the Massachusetts State Constitution, which served as a model for the U.S. Constitution. On managing house and farm, Abigail wrote: "If what I enjoy I can share with my partner and with Liberty, I can sing o be joyfull and sit down content." While embroiled in the politics of creating a nation John Adams wrote: "I should have thought myself, the happiest Man in the World, if I could have retired to my little hut and forty Acres, and lived on Potatoes and Seaweed." The birthplaces of the Adams Presidents are now a part of the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Massachusetts. These two structures are the earliest surviving presidential birthplaces in the country.

6. Hancock Cemetery

Hancock Cemetery dates from the earliest years of European settlement (1630s) and was the community’s main burial ground until 1854. The cemetery’s graves include generations of the Adams and Quincy families, Rev. John Hancock, father of the great patriot leader, and veterans of the American Revolution, War of 1812 and the Civil War. In his later years John Adams placed inscriptions on the graves of his ancestors. "This stone and several other have been placed in this yard by a great-great grandson...in hopes of recommend an imitation of their virtues to their Posterity."

7. Quincy Town Hall (Old Town Hall)

This historic town hall was built in 1844, when Quincy granite was at the height of its popularity as a monumental architectural material. This Greek Revival building was designed and supervised by Solomon Willard, the father of Quincy’s granite industry and architect of the Bunker Hill Monument. Old Town Hall is believed to be the nation’s second oldest continuous seat of municipal government. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and underwent extensive restoration in 2014-15.

8. John Hancock Birth Site and Adams Academy

The Adams Academy, located on the site of the birthplace of John Hancock, was a preparatory school endowed by John Adams and is today the home of the Quincy Historical Society Museum and Library. The Academy building, designed by the Boston firm of Ware and Van Brunt in 1870, is considered an influential work in the Gothic Revival style in America and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1994.

9. Peace Field

John and Abigail Adams acquired this house upon their return from England in 1788. It became the home to four generations of the Adams family, including two Presidents and their wives. It remained in the family for two more generations, used a summer home until 1926. It was maintained as a museum by the family until it was donated to the National Park Service in 1946. In a letter to a friend John Adams wrote: "I think to christen my Place by the Name Peace field, in commemoration of the Peace which I assisted in making in 1783, of the thirteen Years Peace and Neutrality which I have contributed to preserve, and of the constant Peace and Tranquility which I have enjoyed in this Residence."

10. Quincy Homestead

A captivating chapter of American history began c.1635 on the site of the stately Dorothy Quincy Homestead. The original estate covered several hundred acres extending from its current location to Quincy Bay. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Homestead was acclaimed the grandest estate in Quincy. Famous Quincy family members include Dorothy Quincy Hancock, the first First Lady of Massachusetts; and President John Quincy Adams, whose maternal great-grandfather was Colonel John Quincy, for whom the town of Quincy was named.

Presidents Trail Quincy

Created by Bob Damon on September 1st 2020, 8:47:20 pm.

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Description

The Presidents Trail brings together a unique and diverse collection of 10 historic and cultural sites in the historic City of Quincy Massachusetts. Ranging from colonial burying grounds and historic house museums, to Presidential homes, burial sites and local historical monuments, each site along the trail offers unique entry points and connections to the Colonial, Revolutionary and Presidential history of Massachusetts and the United States. The Presidents Trail is a collaborative historic heritage experience created and maintained by the Quincy Chamber of Commerce, the City of Quincy, the Quincy Historical Society, Adams National Historical Park, United First Parish Church, Quincy, and the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

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Presidents Trail Quincy

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