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Saturday, January 16, 2010

Quincy - The Town of Presidents - Home of John Adams and John Quincy Adams


The Adams Home closed for the winter.

South of Boston on the red train line is the Town of Quincy. John Adams - John Quincy Adams - and John Hancock were all born in this town. It was famous for shipbuilding and granite.

This afternoon I decided to visit Quincy and hopefully tour the National Historic Site. To my surprise - it was all closed up for the winter - but the grounds were wide open. Although the paths were snow covered I walked around and got a few nice shots of this northern "white house." Again - I had the place to myself - not another soul was present.

I vaguely remember Sears advertising "weather beater" paint on this house. This house is not in the greatest repair - but it did have a thick coat of the light yellow Sears paint on it.

Behind the home is a large granite out building that looks a bit like a summer kitchen - separate from the house. On closer inspection - one learns that it was the presidential library from many years where 14,000 books owned by both of the Adams presidents were stored. The collection has since been removed to a more substantial building in town for safe keeping.

Both Adams presidents are buried inside the church downtown. A large Asian population has settled in to Quincy - with plenty of cultural shops in the downtown. For a Saturday - very few people were milling outside. The name Quincy came from Adams's in-law family.

Adams left an endowment to the town to support Adams Academy - a  prep school built on the site of John Hancock's birth home. The school closed in 1905 - and has been turned into a Historical Society.

The weather was nice - maybe 45 degrees - but the sun was setting and it was cooling off. It was time to catch the train back to the hotel where I could watch the FSU Seminoles beat Virginia Tech in basketball.




This is the back entrance to the home of both presidents. Note the Sears "weather beater" paint.


Adams Academy was built on the birth site of John Hancock. Hancock was the president of the colonies and first signer of the Declaration of Independence.

The granite building behind the house was once the presidential library.


John Adams (Number 2)

 John Quincy Adams (Number 6)

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