John Adams and John Quincy Adams Birthplaces

The house at 133 Franklin Street in what was then the township of Braintree (now Quincy) was built around 1681 and was the birthplace of John Adams on October 30, 1735. The adjacent house at 141 Franklin Street was built by John Adams himself around 1663 as a wedding present for his father, and it became the birthplace of John Quincy Adams on July 11, 1767 — making father and son the only two presidents ever born within a few hundred feet of each other.

Both houses are classic New England saltbox structures, their small rooms and low ceilings a reminder of colonial domestic life that stands in sharp contrast to the White Houses each man would later occupy. John Adams lived in the 133 Franklin Street house until his marriage to Abigail Smith in 1764; John Quincy Adams spent his earliest years at 141 Franklin Street before the family moved to the larger Peacefield property in 1788.

Abigail Adams — one of the most influential and politically astute women of the founding generation — grew up in nearby Weymouth and spent much of John’s diplomatic absences managing the family farm and finances from these houses. Her correspondence from Braintree, preserved in the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society, forms one of the richest primary sources on daily life and political opinion in Revolutionary New England.