Quin-zee

Yesterday, Katie and I made our way down to Quincy (pronounced Quin-zee here in MA) for opening day at the Adams National Historical Park. It was pretty crowded there (because of opening day combined with the HBO series most likely) but we had an enjoyable time visiting the Adams' church, John Adams and John Qunicy Adams' birthplace and their later home (The Old Home).

The church was beautiful. Adams donated the land and much of the granite that was used to build the church.

View from the outside.

View from the inside.

One thing I learned which I hadn't known was that both Adams were Unitarians, rejecting the deity of Christ. Both were very influenced by the Enlightenment and felt that God could be 'proven', but the deity of Christ could not. Adams did read the Bible first thing every morning, but apparently he was reading a Christ who was not the Son of God, but a great philosopher/prophet/teacher. While this country was greatly built on Christian foundation and by Christians, it is interesting to realize how some of the key men were certainly outside what would be called orthodoxy (Jefferson, Franklin).

Inside the church, there is a crypt which holds the remains of both presidents and both first ladies.
































After the church we went on the National Historical Society tour. It's a 2 hr tour taking you to the birthplaces and their later home (all for $5! can't beat that!).

















The birthplace of John Adams. Next door is the birthplace of John Quincy Adams.

The Old Home was a bit less modest than the birthplace home and was in the Adam's family for many generations, and thus contains additions in the house from many generations. One of my favorite parts was the library upstairs, which was where Adams spent much of his time and penned all those letters to Jefferson which are now so famous. It was a large room with a big fireplace. Must have been a great place to read and write. That room was only surpassed by the new library that was built a couple generations later, a dream of John Adams (to protect the books from fire). The building now contains 14,000 books. Those old books covers look so much cooler than the covers these days. It was two levels of books with a huge table in the middle and comfortable chairs around the room. Unfortunately pictures weren't allowed inside, but here's the outside:

















Library on the left, Old Home on the right.

An inside picture from the website: