President John Quincy Adams Birthplace

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams, was born here to John and Abigail Adams in 1767. The Adams family lived here until 1783, a time in which John Adams helped shape the Declaration of Independence and was a leading voice in discussions about the shape of the national government. John Quincy Adams was a one-term President in the late 1820s and is best known for his nationalist foreign policy as a diplomat in his early years and his leadership. The home is part of the Adams National Historical Park which preserves the home of two Presidents of the United States, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, of U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, Charles Francis Adams, and of the writers and historians Henry Adams and Brooks Adams. The park's main historic features include the birthplaces of the two American Presidents, and the Stone Library which serves as the first presidential library and houses the books of the President John Quincy Adams.

Images

John Quincy Adams - the sixth President of the United States birthplace.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

Just after his marriage with Abigail Smith in 1764, John Adams (one of the founding fathers of America, signer of the Declaration of Independence), moved in the house that his father purchased in 1744. The house is located at just 75 feet away from his birthplace. His son, and the sixth President of America, John Quincy Adams was born in this house on July 11, 1767. A dated brick at the upper left of the fireplace indicates that the main portion of the house was probably built in 1716. The furnishings of this house are not original

John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States and son of John Adams, one of the founding fathers of America, was born in one of the a clapboard houses of the "salt-box" type located in the park. The house is located just 75 feet away from his father birthplace. Both of the structures are the earliest surviving presidential birthplaces in the country.

Today there is less than an acre of land around the birthplaces. It is a hard to imagine ....acres of an 18th Century 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 NHP

Sources

John Quincy Adams Birthplace. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. . Accessed May 26, 2018. http://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/ma/AdamsBirthplace.pdf.