Peacefield, Massachusetts

In 1788, after returning from Europe, John Adams became Washington’s vice president, and moved his family to a larger farm house he bought a few miles north of his 17^th century farmhouses on Franklin Street, to a place he called Peacefield. He was living here when he became the second president of the USA in 1797, and continued to live here after his four years of the presidency. He died at Peacefield in 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. His son, John Quincy Adams, was born in 1767, at the family farm at 141 Franklin Street. In 1803, having graduated from college and now practicing law, John Quincy Adams purchased his birthplace, and his father’s birthplace next door, from his father. He lived there until 1807, when he moved to Boston. He spent much of his life abroad or in Washington DC, including during his presidency, from 1825-1829, visiting his parents at Peacefield, and eventually using Peacefield as his summer home. After serving his single term as President, John Quincy Adams stayed active in state politics until 1848, when he died at the age of 81. Peacefield continued to be owned and occupied by Adams’ descendants, who maintained the expansive gardens and land until 1927. In 1946, the National Park Service took over the property from the Adams Memorial Society. The Park Service owns and operates both Adams locations–the old houses on Franklin Street, and Peacefield, and operates a visitor center in between the two locations,  inside an office building in downtown Quincy (a town, incidentally, named after John Quincy, the grandfather of John Adams' wife Abigail). Visitors can travel to the two Adams family locations by a trolley, which stops outside. Across the street is the church where John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and their wives, are entombed.