Massachusetts

John Quincy Adams Birthplace, Quincy, Norfolk County, Massachusetts (42.239059, -71.003405)

Primary Phase Felling Dates: Winter 1712/13?, Winter 1715/16, and Winter 1716/17

The John Quincy Adams Birthplace, built in 1717 or shortly thereafter, facing east, is a two-room plan building with a central chimney and an added lean-to. The framing members remain exposed throughout the house. The major framing timbers are decorated in an unusual manner with a quirked bead at the edges and a coved stop at the ends of the bead (Figure 14). While the bead is an expected feature of framing of its date, its use in combination with stops is known in only one other building in Massachusetts. In the other building, the Benaiah Titcomb House, dated to c. 1700, originally in Newburyport, but now removed to Essex, the quirked bead is much larger at 1 ¼ inches, and the stops are delicate lambs’ tongues.

Deacon Gregory Belcher, a carpenter and shipwright, owned the property when the house was built, and it was inherited by his son, Gregory Belcher, Jr., also a carpenter, who married in 1719. Deacon John Adams purchased the property in 1744. He bequeathed in 1761 the property to his son, John (2nd U.S. President). Future 6th U.S. President John Quincy Adams was born in the house in 1767.

Miles, D H, Worthington, M J, and Grady, A A, 2005b “Tree-Ring Dating of The John Adams Birthplace and the John Quincy Adams Birthplace, Franklin Street at President’s Avenue, Quincy, Massachusetts”, ODL unpubl rep 2005/11

Link to the National Park Service's webpage for the John Adams Birthplace here.

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