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The house was built in 1731 by a wealthy plantation owner, Leonard Vassall. Following the abandonment of the property by its Loyalist owner, John and Abigail Adams acquired the property in 1787. It became a home to several leaders of the nation, including two Presidents (John Adams and John Quincy Adams), two First Ladies(Abigail Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams), a U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain (Charles Francis Adams), and two writers and historians (Henry Adams and Brooks Adams).A summer President's Home- John came back to Peacefield in the summer months of his presidency. During the last year of his presidency, Abigail nearly doubled the house by adding two large rooms. The third generation Charles Francis Adams and his wife, Abigail Brooks Adams also expanded the home and added the Carriage House, and Library onto the property. In 1946, the family donated the property to the federal government which operates this home and several other nearby sites as part of the Adams National Historical Park.Adams National Historical Park is made up of three sites. During the open season( May-October) tours of each of the homes of Adams National Historical Park are available with a $15.00 fee. The 19th Century garden is free to walk from dawn to dusk and during the open season, trolleybuses offer transportation between Peacefield and the President's Birthplaces and the Visitor Center.

Stone Library on the grounds of Peacefield

"Old House" at Peace field, home to four generations of the Adams family

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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."

Peace Field

This tour of historic Quincy begins at the cairn named in honor of First Lady Abigail Adams and includes numerous sites related to her life and that of her husband and son, two of America's first Presidents. The tour also includes the historic Quincy Library and the first Presidential library.

Here Abigail Adams and seven-year-old John Quincy Adams watched the burning of Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. At the time, Abigail wrote; “the decisive Day is come on which the fate of America depends”. Though the battle took place 13 miles away, Abigail stated that “the constant roar of the cannon is so distressing we cannot Eat, Drink or Sleep.” At age 78, John Quincy retained a vivid memory: “I saw with my own eyes those fires, and heard Britannia’s thunders in the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, and witnessed the tears of my mother and mingled with them my own, at the fall of Warren a dear friend of my father, and a beloved Physician to me.”Abigail Adams provided advice to her husband that spanned decades. He most famous letter, written to Adams as the First Continental Congress met in 1776, included the now famous admonition "remember the ladies.” The future first lady made the meaning of her message clear while framing it into rhetoric that reflected the colonist's opposition to kings and unchecked power. "Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands, " Adams wrote, "Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.”A plaque on the cairn reads: "From this spot, with her son, John Quincy Adams, then a boy of seven by her side, Abigail Adams watched the smoke of burning Charlestown, while listening to the guns of Bunker Hill. Saturday, 17 June, 1775." In 2008, a 112 years old time capsule was found inside the Quincy's 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.

Abigail Adams Cairn

The salt-box style home located at 133 Franklin Street in Quincy, Massachusetts was originally built in 1681. It was purchased by Deacon John Adams, the president’s father, in 1720 along with six acres of surrounding farmland. The frame and clapboard structure have a ground-floor room and upper chamber on either side of a central chimney. Deacon John married Susannah Boylston in 1734. On October 30, 1735, the first son, John Adams was born. During his childhood, his father instilled in him a passion for civic affairs and farming. The young Adams was also influenced by his mother, Susanna Boylston, who came from one of Boston’s more prominent area families. She taught her sons to appreciate the lifestyle and customs of the upper-class society in the city. These values molded the young boy into a man who would add his signature to the Declaration of Independence and lead the country as its second President. Deacon Adams purchased the adjacent property to increase his land in 1744. When Deacon Adams died in 1761, John's younger brother Peter inherited the home of their birth, and John inherited the adjacent home on the land his father later purchased, which stood only seventy-five feet away. The future President purchased his birthplace from his brother in 1774. John Adams and his wife, Abigail, lived in the home next door (the one which he had inherited) and rented out his birthplace during the American Revolution. Abigail Adams became a loving confidant and prolific correspondent to her often absent husband. She assumed the role of "patriot on the home front" and a "farmeress". Both homes were eventually sold to John Adams’s son, John Quincy Adams, in 1803. Over the years, many improvements were made to the property. The leanto was an addition to the rear of the home, and the roof was extended over the leanto in a straight, uninterrupted line. The frontispiece that surrounds the main entrance was another later addition. It features two pilasters on either side of the doorway and a triangular ornament over the top. President John Adams’ third son, Thomas Boylston Adams, moved into the home in 1810. This was the last Adams to live in the houses.Today there is less than an acre of land around the birthplaces. It is a hard to imagine the 140 acres of an 18th Century farm existed. "The Adamses used and appreciated every aspect of their working farm. Whether harvesting apples, planting trees, building stone walls, or tending cows, the working landscape was an important part of family life for multiple generations of the Adams family, in addition to their dedication to careers in government, civic virtue, and patriotism." - Adams NHPThe property remained in the Adams family until 1940, when it was deeded to the City of Quincy. The City and the Quincy Historical Society maintained and gave tours in the John Quincy Adams and the Daughters of the American Revolution maintained and gave tours of the John Adams home.The City ultimately gave them back to the family and they deeded them to the National Park Service (1979) to commemorate the second and sixth presidents of the United States. Now, visitors can go the Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Massachusetts to take a guided tour of the property. Tours are available from May to October. The historic homes are closed from November through April.

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.

Presidents John and John Quincy Adams Birthplaces

The Thomas Crane Public Library was designed in four stages.
The original building was designed by architect &nbsp;&nbsp;Henry
Hobson Richardson and the additional ell with stack space and stained glass were
added to the building in 1908, by William Martin Aiken. H.H. Richardson was
prominent American architect. Richardsonian Romanesque style of Romanesque
Revival architecture was named after him. 

In 1939 the library was significantly expanded by architects
Paul A. and Carroll Coletti, with stone carvings by sculptor Joseph A. Coletti
of Quincy. The most recent extension from the 2001 by the Boston architects
Childs, Bertman, and Tseckares, doubled the library’s size. &nbsp;The museum today has three &nbsp;branches,&nbsp;Adams
Shore Library,&nbsp;North Quincy Branch and&nbsp;Wollaston Branch Library.&nbsp;

The Thomas Crane Public Library was built in 1882. This historic library was established by the Crane family in memory of patriarch Thomas Crane, a wealthy New York dealer in Quincy Granite. The library is notable both for its collection and its architecture. 

Thomas Crane Public Library

Constructed of Quincy granite, the United First Parish Church is the fourth meeting house of a congregation that was initially gathered as a branch of the Church of Boston in 1636. This house of worship, completed in 1828, is also known as the Church of the Presidents because it once counted U.S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams among its parishioners. These father and son chief executives, along with first ladies Abigail Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams, are entombed in the building’s lower level crypt.The congregation that occupies the Church of the Presidents was first gathered in 1636 as a branch of the Church of Boston. These Puritan bodies separated in 1639, and the now independent parish became the fifteenth church in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The establishment of this congregation allowed for the surrounding area to become its own town, and Braintree was incorporated in 1640. In 1792, by which time Braintree had become very populous, the town fragmented into different communities, with its northern precinct becoming the town of Quincy.Eight generations of the Adams family worshiped as members of the congregation, from English immigrant Henry Adams in its earliest days to Brooks Adams, who died in 1927. The second president, John Adams, was baptized as an infant in 1735 in the Hancock Meeting House, named after its first minister, Reverend John Hancock (the father of the governor and statesman). John Adams and his wife, Abigail, were raised as Congregationalists but remained aligned with the church doctrine as it evolved into a Unitarian body.Circa 1822, John Adams – by then out of office and in advanced aged – approached local leaders about the prospect of replacing the wooden Hancock Meeting House with a stone temple that could better accommodate the congregation. His idea was well-received, and Adams assisted in the planning. He also donated land from which the granite for the building was to be quarried. Adams died in July 1826, prior to construction, and joined First Lady Abigail Adams in Hancock Cemetery, beside the meeting house. That September, John Quincy Adams – their son, as well as the sitting president – wrote asking permission for his parents’ remains to be removed to the stone temple, which was to be erected next door to the Hancock Meeting House. Their coffins were lowered into their new crypt in April 1828 amid the new building’s construction.The stone temple was designed by Alexander Parris, who had recently completed Quincy Market in downtown Boston. It is Greek Revival in its style and incorporates elements of both Quincy Market and the Pantheon in Rome. A dedication service was held on November 12, 1828. President John Quincy Adams wrote a hymn for the occasion. He subsequently purchased pew #54 and sat there for services when he was in Quincy. Louisa Catherine Adams, his wife and first lady, attended a local Episcopal church.John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams died in 1848 and 1852, respectively, and were laid to rest in the family tomb at Hancock Cemetery. Their son, Charles Francis Adams, soon arranged for the crypt in the First Parish Church to be expanded, and the sixth president and his first lady were transferred there in December 1852. The crypt beneath the church was private Adams property until 1903, when it was conveyed over to the congregation. It was then open only via appointment until 1976, when the History and Visitors Program began leading daily tours. The church, officially referred to as the United First Parish Church since a merger with the Wollaston Unitarian Society in 1958, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971.Independent from the active congregation, the church’s History and Visitors Program conducts daily tours of the sanctuary and crypt from mid-April until mid-November

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.

Church of the Presidents

In 1822 President John Adams established a fund to build a new town church and to found a college preparatory school for boys. Adams specified the site on which the school was to be built, in order to honor his colleagues in the Revolution—Hancock and Josiah Quincy, Jr., whose family had later lived at this location. (The house burned down in 1758.) The Adams Academy opened in the fall of 1872. The Academy building featured a distinctive use of native Quincy granite and combined its Gothic style with modern architectural principles. Despite a distinguished faculty and a reputation for excellence, the school closed in 1907.At the Adams Academy, the Historical Society maintains a museum on the history of Quincy from Native Americans to the early 21st century and a library of materials on local and regional history and holds a variety of school and public programs.

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.

Tour of Quincy, Massachusetts

Peace Field

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information