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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
Get a QR Code for this tour
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.
