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Quincy House (1770)

Meet a Revolutionary family (Quincy, Massachusetts)

This country estate overlooking Quincy Bay transports you to the Revolutionary War era and tells the story of a woman’s work to preserve her family’s history more than 100 years later. Revolutionary leader Josiah Quincy built the house in 1770. He and his family played key roles in the social and political life of Massachusetts for generations, producing three mayors of Boston and a president of Harvard.

In the early 1880s Eliza Susan Quincy made it her life’s work to document the significance of her family’s home. She kept journals, inventoried the house’s contents, commissioned interior photographs, and persuaded relatives to return heirlooms so that the house could be a repository of Quincy family history. Today it is a National Historic Landmark featuring extraordinary examples of New England furniture: a high chest that miraculously survived two fires and a rare mahogany bombé chest that is one of only forty of its kind.

Plan Your Visit

Location

20 Muirhead Street
Quincy, Mass. 02170

 

EXPLORE DIGITAL TOURS

Days & Hours

Saturdays
June – October

Tours on the hour
12PM – 3 PM

Admission

$10 adults
$9 seniors and students
$5 children

Free for Historic New England members.

Accessibility

Tour involves standing, walking, and stairs. Visitors with limited mobility may be able to enjoy a first floor tour of the house and grounds. Visitors can access a virtual tour of the museum from their own digital device onsite. Folding chairs are provided for visitors who would like to use them while on tour. The site is not equipped with ramps, elevators, or lifts. Service animals are welcome. We are happy to work with you to make your visit an enjoyable one and we encourage visitors with questions or requests to call ahead.

Directions

From the north, take I-93 to Exit 12, Route 3A (Hancock Street) to Wollaston Center. After 2.2 miles, turn left onto Elm Avenue. Turn left at stop sign, following Quincy Historic Trail signs. Jog right to Muirhead Street. From the south, take I-93 to Exit 19, to Burgin Parkway. At sixth traffic light, turn right onto Dimmock Street. Turn left onto Hancock. Turn right onto Elm Avenue. Turn left at stop sign, following Quincy Historic Trail signs. Jog right to Muirhead Street.

Parking

There is on-street parking in front of the house on Muirhead Street.

Public Transportation

MBTA Red Line to Wollaston Station. Turn left on Beale Street, walk one half mile (Beale Street turns into Beach Street after crossing Hancock Street) to Muirhead Street, turn right. House will be on your left.

 

Contact Information

A 1770 Country Estate

Quincy House's elegant architectural details, including a Chinese fretwork balustrade and classical portico, befit the status of Col. Josiah Quincy.

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  • A 1770 Country Estate

    Quincy House's elegant architectural details, including a Chinese fretwork balustrade and classical portico, befit the status of Col. Josiah Quincy.

  • Hallway

    The entrance hall contains Chinese furniture similar to the pieces that Eliza Susan Quincy tells us came from the family’s home in Boston.

  • West Parlor

    Having captured a fortune from a Spanish ship, Col. Quincy purchased many luxurious items for his estate, several of which can be seen in this room.

  • East Parlor

    A sitting room in the late nineteenth century, this was a good spot to watch visitors approach down a long carriage drive planted with majestic elms.

  • Dining Room

    Josiah Quincy III was a U. S. congressman, mayor of Boston, and president of Harvard. He and his family expanded this space for frequent entertaining.

  • West Chamber

    This room reflects the way it may have looked in the mid-1800s, when it was used by Josiah Quincy III and his wife, Eliza Susan Morton Quincy.

6-monitor_-_364_x_253Colonel Josiah Quincy’s Country Estate

The first Quincy to arrive in America, Edmund, came to the area in 1633. His descendants prospered through the centuries, and Colonel Josiah Quincy was no exception. In 1770 Edward Pierce, a Dorchester carpenter, built a mansion for Josiah Quincy. The house was Quincy’s third home in what was then known as Braintree; the first two were destroyed by fire, the second just the year before.

Quincy House was originally surrounded by fields and pasture overlooking Quincy Bay. Its elegant architectural details include a Chinese fretwork balustrade and classical portico, and an unusual “monitor” roof. The original estate encompassed several hundred acres and reached from what is now Hancock Street to Quincy Bay. When the house was built, the area around it was quite rural.

The house is a distinguished example of New England Georgian architecture. Symmetrical in plan and overall design, Quincy House preserves virtually all of its original carefully crafted features, most of which were derived from architectural pattern books. The corners of the building and the monitor are defined by rusticated quoins. The cornice below the shallow hip roof is decorated with modillions and a dentil course. Molded window caps dress sash windows on the first level throughout the main block of the house. Window trim above the second-story windows is integrated into the cornice, so that the lower moldings, including the dentil course, are set forward over the windows to suggest a cap. A Chinese fretwork balustrade extends around the perimeter of the roof. A balustrade of plain “x” design ornaments the roof of the monitor.

The most distinctive decorative feature of the building and the architectural focus of the main façade is a classical entrance portico. The portico features a pediment and cornice decorated with modillions, a dentil molding and an entablature with pulvinated frieze, supported by fluted Doric columns set on high plinths. Doric pilasters and two-pane-wide, half-length sidelights flank the doorway. Benches with Chinese fretwork backs are placed opposite each other at the sides of the portico.

The construction of this fine home for Colonel Quincy, and ultimately his grandchildren and later generations of his family, coincided with a tumultuous period in America’s and Boston’s history.

By the time Colonel Quincy moved into this third residence, he was about sixty years old and had already lived a long and distinguished life. He was born around 1710, graduated from Harvard College in 1728, and started working as a merchant in Boston. Josiah married Hannah Sturgis in 1733. Not long after they married they had their first son, Edmund, followed by Samuel, Hannah, and Josiah. In 1748 a ship named the Bethel owned by Quincy’s firm was successful in fooling a Spanish ship with a valuable cargo to surrender. The owners of the Bethel divided the $300,000 prize. With this fortune, Colonel Quincy was able to live a comfortable life and purchased many luxurious items for his estate.

Colonel Quincy retired to his country property in Braintree in the 1750s, but continued to be actively engaged in business, which included a glass factory and one that produced spermaceti candles, and in military affairs. Quincy was also a justice of the peace; a young John Adams, also a resident of Braintree, tried cases before him. After Quincy’s first wife died in 1755, Josiah married Elizabeth Waldron, with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth. In 1759 his second wife died and that same year, his first house burned to the ground. He married Ann Marsh in 1762, and they had two daughters, Nancy and Frances.

Josiah’s first son Edmund, born in 1733, became a merchant after graduating from Harvard. “Ned,” a political writer, was a zealous Whig. Declining health sent him toward the West Indies in 1768 at his doctor’s request, but he died at sea.

Samuel was born in 1735 and as a young man followed his father and brother to Harvard. Samuel graduated in 1754, one year before his friend John Adams, with whom he was admitted to the bar on the same day. He was admitted to practice before the Superior Court in 1761, the same year he married Hannah Hill. In terms of personality, Samuel was perhaps more “fun-loving” than his younger brother Josiah. Samuel was known to enjoy playing cards and writing verse.

Josiah Jr. was born in 1744. He graduated from Harvard in 1763 and began studying law with Oxenbridge Thatcher, a prominent Boston lawyer. Thatcher died in 1765; Quincy inherited much of his practice, and was admitted to the bar the following year. Josiah Jr. began his professional legal career just as revolutionary fervor began in Boston, and it wasn’t long before he became an outspoken patriot publishing regularly (although anonymously) in the Boston Gazette, an important mouthpiece for the Whigs. Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, the same year Quincy took over Thatcher’s practice.

In 1767 Quincy published the first of his anonymous essays supporting the patriot cause. In his first works he warned readers about the dangers of the extension of empire and legal authority. An excerpt from the October 3, 1768, piece demonstrates his passion and eloquence:

“Oh my countrymen! what will our children say, when they read the history of these times, should they find we tamely gave away the most invaluable earthly blessings? As they drag the galling chain, will they not execrate us? If we have any respect for things faced, any regard to the dearest treasure on earth, if we have one tender sentiment for posterity, if we would not be despised by the whole world, let us in the most open, solemn manner, and with the determined fortitude of a Corsican, sware [sic], We will die, if we cannot live Freemen.”

In the midst of his active work as a lawyer and published patriot and the growing tension in the city, Josiah Jr. married Abigail Phillips, the daughter of a prominent merchant. She shared her husband’s political sympathies, and later became a confidant while he was abroad in London.

In 1770 Josiah Jr. and John Adams made the unpopular decision to defend the British soldiers who had taken part in the skirmish that became known as the Boston Massacre. Samuel Quincy prosecuted the case, an action that forced the Quincy brothers to defend positions they actually opposed. The soldiers were ultimately acquitted, an action that proved the justice of the Massachusetts laws and fairness of the courts.

In 1774 Josiah Quincy secretly boarded a ship in Salem Harbor bound for England. One reason regularly given for his departure was to improve his failing health, but his primary goal was to encourage a peaceful settlement to the dispute with England. Quincy kept a diary and wrote regularly to his wife during this mission. These documents provide his insights on the potential for a peaceful settlement. After arriving in London, Quincy began meeting with Americans in London, like Benjamin Franklin, and members of the British government, including the Prime Minister, Lord North.

After falling ill, Quincy prepared to return to Boston, despite the fact that his poor health made the passage dangerous. Quincy left London by March 16, 1775. One month later, as his ship was within three days of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, Josiah Quincy Jr. died. He was only thirty-one years old. His repeated wish that he live long enough to meet with Samuel Adams or Joseph Warren and his final statement, recorded by a seaman, indicates his belief that he was delivering critical intelligence. The information entrusted to Quincy died with him. Even if he had lived, it may have come too late; American and British blood had been shed a week earlier in the battles at Lexington and Concord.

Quincy’s wife Abigail and their three-year-old son Josiah III were staying with her brother when they received the news of her husband’s death. Josiah Jr. was mourned deeply by his family and fellow patriots. John Adams wrote to Abigail Adams, “I am wounded to the Heart, with the News this Moment of J. Quincy’s Death.”

Shortly after Colonel Quincy received the news that his youngest son had died serving the patriot cause, his last remaining son, Samuel, left Boston, never to return. Samuel sailed for England from Marblehead in 1775. Samuel was the lone loyalist in the Quincy family. Some of Samuel’s contemporaries sought to explain his reasons for supporting the Tories, including John Adams, who suggested that Samuel was jealous of his brother Josiah’s success; later biographers have dismissed such suggestions. The best explanation for Samuel’s actions probably comes from his own words, “my political character with you may be suspicious; but be assured, if I cannot serve my country, which I shall endeavor to the utmost of my power, I will never betray it.” His wife supported the side of the patriots and his sister Hannah implored him to reconsider his decision to leave America in light of the death of their brother Josiah.

Samuel Quincy felt much distress after leaving his family in America. In 1778 Quincy learned that he was among many loyalists who had been banished from Massachusetts and his real estate was soon sold at auction, making it difficult for him to return to his family. Samuel spent almost the rest of his life in Antigua. In 1789 he and his second wife decided to return to England in hopes of improving Samuel’s health. Unfortunately, like his two brothers, he also died at sea, and like Josiah Jr., due to illness and within sight of his destination.

By the end of April 1775, Colonel Quincy had lost his two remaining sons, one a martyr to the patriot cause, the other still alive, but living as a loyalist an ocean away. He was sixty-five years old by the time hostilities broke out in Boston, and there was little more he could do than observe the upheaval. The monitor (pictured) at the top of the house afforded a clear view of shipping lanes in and out of Boston Harbor, and the Colonel apparently spent hours watching troop movements. On October 10, 1775, he scratched “Governor Gage sail’d for England with a fair wind” into one of the windows of the monitor roof. That pane of glass was carefully preserved by the family, and is on display in Quincy House today.

Although General Gage had departed, the war was not over and Quincy’s observations continued. Colonel Quincy shared what he saw in the harbor in letters to John Adams and General George Washington. One letter to Adams described a plan for building forts strategically on several of the Boston Harbor Islands, which was passed on to James Warren. Adams felt the plan was too “bold and enterprising.” Washington also declined the plan, which would require more powder and cannons than could be spared. Colonel Quincy wrote with other suggestions, such as the use of row gallies and whaleboats in the harbor.

His watch over the harbor and letters to Washington continued until shortly after the British evacuated Boston. Some of the British fleet remained in the harbor for some time after the troops left the city. Washington was concerned about their presence, and asked Colonel Quincy to hire a dozen or more honest men to patrol and potentially question suspicious characters in shipping areas. Quincy was happy to oblige, and in the same letter in which he accepted this duty, provided Washington with an hourly log of his observations of the harbor.

Quincy House, May, 2015Josiah Quincy III’s Summer Home

When Colonel Quincy died in 1784, the house was passed to his young grandson, Josiah Quincy III. Josiah III inherited the house his grandfather had built the year his father defended the British soldiers, and where Colonel Quincy had so intently observed the movements of the British troops. He and his mother spent many happy summers there during his school breaks: “As early as 1780, it was a rule with my mother to take me at least once a year, during the summer vacation, to visit my grandfather at his seat in Braintree, now Quincy. It was always to me a delightful and eagerly expected visit, lasting generally three or four days, and it never failed to be a season of perfect and uninterrupted boyish felicity.”

Josiah III was brought up knowing the importance his family placed on public service. When he was ten years old, his grandfather wrote to him, “…It is indispensably requisite to the forming of a distinguished character in public life that Truth should be the invariable object of your pursuit, and your end the public good.” Josiah III did indeed go on to lead a distinguished life dedicated to public service. He graduated from Harvard in 1790, where he studied law, but soon went on to other pursuits, including serving as a Federalist in the United States House of Representatives, the second mayor of Boston after it became a city, and as President of Harvard University, a post he held for sixteen years. By this time, the family’s influence in their hometown had grown so large that part of Braintree was renamed Quincy in their honor.

Elected mayor of Boston in 1823, just one year after it became a city, Josiah III affected great changes in the rapidly growing city. He improved the water and sewer systems, built Quincy Market (still a vibrant marketplace today), and reorganized the police and fire departments, helping turn Boston into a modern city with adequate public services. He also published many pamphlets, letters, orations, and full-length scholarly works, including History of Harvard University (1840), Journals of Major Samuel Shaw (1847), History of the Boston Athenaeum, Municipal History of the Town and City of Boston (1852), and Life of John Quincy Adams (1858). His work about his father, A Memoir of the Life of Josiah Quincy, Junior of Massachusetts, 1744-1775, however, is widely believed by scholars to be the work of his daughter, Eliza Susan Quincy.

During the time Josiah Quincy III owned Quincy House, he and his family spent summers there, and lived the rest of the year in Boston or Cambridge. His prominent social and political position meant that entertaining was common at the house, and larger spaces were needed. The dining room was expanded, small doorways were opened up, and a porch was built on the side of the house. The porch, eight feet by thirty-six feet, has a hip roof supported by fluted Doric columns and an entablature of Greek Revival proportions. Paint evidence suggests the porch was added c. 1840. A servant’s wing was built in 1808 and then expanded to two stories c. 1850 on the northwest corner of the house. New amenities and more room allowed for entertaining such distinguished guests as the Marquis de Lafayette, Daniel Webster, Commodore Matthew Perry, and Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and James Monroe.

Taking a lively interest in horticulture and agriculture, Josiah III, at the age of eighteen, planted elms along the quarter of a mile drive leading to the house (now Elm Avenue). Quincy was a trustee of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture and published frequently in the Society’s journal.

Josiah Quincy III had seven children; Josiah Quincy IV, Edmund Quincy, and five daughters, Eliza Susan Quincy, Abigail Susan Quincy, Maria Sophia Quincy, Margaret Morgan Quincy Green, and Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy Waterson. Eliza, Maria, Margaret, and Anne were known as “The Articulate Sisters” for their rare knowledge and talents as intellectuals. Josiah III died in 1864, leaving life tenancy of the house to his unmarried daughters, Eliza, Abigail, and Maria. Abigail, who died in 1893, was the last Quincy family member to live in the house.

Quincy House, Hallway and West ParlorThe Articulate Sisters: Preserving Family History

Although all five daughters of Josiah Quincy III and Eliza Susan Morton were accomplished, it was Eliza Susan who was the self-styled historian of the Quincy family and Quincy House. She inventoried the furniture in the house, recorded stories about how pieces were acquired, including the story about her great-grandfather’s pirate fortune, and commissioned photographs of the interior of the house.

A respected historian in her time, she recorded the history of the Quincy family and described first-hand historic events and social occasions, many of them at the Quincy homestead. Her eyewitness accounts include the 1815 proclamation of peace at the end of the War of 1812, and the Boston visits of Lafayette in 1824 and the Duke of Saxe-Weimar in 1825. Eliza and her nephew Josiah Phillips Quincy left thirteen scrapbooks relating to various members of the Quincy family to the Massachusetts Historical Society. She corresponded with well-known persons in her day, who she often met through family associations. Often she presented them with her drawings, as she was an amateur artist as well. In 1831 President John Quincy Adams requested a copy of her earlier drawing of the Adams houses in Quincy for his Washington, D.C., residence. Lafayette also received one of her drawings and “was quite pleased by it.”

Eliza Susan Quincy documented the house, which was her permanent home from 1855 until her death in 1884, and the history she saw being shaped within it. She spent a good part of her life writing about the house, protecting it, and retrieving from far-flung family members the original furnishings. She persuaded many of her relatives to return heirlooms to the house so that they might be on display in their original setting. In 1879 she compiled “the List of Pictures and Furniture in the House built 1770,” and also left behind her finely detailed 1822 watercolors of the house and its view to Boston Harbor.

1-quincyhouseexterior_-_364_x_253An Uncertain Future

Josiah Quincy IV, who followed in his father’s footsteps and was elected the mayor of Boston in 1845, and later was a representative in the Massachusetts State Legislature, inherited the house when his father died in 1864. He did not live in the family estate, but built his own mansion nearby (since demolished). His unmarried sisters retained life tenancy in the family house until the last sister, Abigail Phillips Quincy, passed away in 1893. At that time, Josiah IV’s son, Josiah Phillips Quincy, inherited the house and farm. Although he and his son, Josiah V, carried on the family’s tradition of public service and an interest in history and literature, they did not live in the family estate.

In 1895, Josiah Phillips Quincy sold the entire farm surrounding the house for development. The house and its immediate site he sold to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hall of Amesbury, Massachusetts.

184799hpr_-_364_x_253The Hall Family

The Hall family primarily used the house for their own purposes, but for a short time in the 1930s, the house served as a convalescent home for senior citizens. Whether or not the house was rented to other tenants during the Hall’s ownership is not known.

Quincy House, May, 2015Becoming a Museum

In 1937 Edmund Quincy, the son of Josiah Quincy V, and his cousin, the noted historian Alice Bache Gould, joined with other descendants to purchase the house. They raised the necessary funds and presented the house on October 19, 1937, to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England. Since then Historic New England has maintained the building as a house museum with many of the Quincy family’s original furnishings on display.

From 2012 to 2015, with the help of funding from the City of Quincy’s Community Preservation Committee and from an anonymous donor, Historic New England used 1880s photographs and a historic Quincy family inventory, as well as historic paint analyses, to refurnish the rooms as they were around 1880.

Collections on Display

Landscape with Cows and Sheep

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Game Box with Counters

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Mourning Ring with Miniature Portrait

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Property FAQs

Find out about dog walking, photography policy, and more.

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  • Do I need to take a tour or can I just look around?

    All visitors to Quincy House receive a guided tour.

  • Is Quincy House affiliated with Dorothy Quincy House or the Adams National Historical Park?

    No, Quincy House is owned and operated by Historic New England. Dorothy Quincy House is named for the niece of the first Josiah Quincy. Dorothy married John Hancock in 1775. The house is currently operated by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Adams National Historical Park is owned and operated by the National Park Service. Although the Quincy and Adams families were related, these three historic sites are now operated by separate organizations.

  • What does Quincy House have to do with the City of Quincy?

    The City of Quincy is named after the same family that built Quincy House. When the house was built in 1770, it was in Braintree. Quincy was officially incorporated as a separate town named for John Quincy, Colonel Josiah Quincy’s cousin, in 1792, and became a city in 1888. Quincy is pronounced QUIN-zee.

  • Are there restrooms at Quincy House?

    One restroom is available on the second floor of the museum.

  • Where is the best place to park?

    Street parking is available on Muirhead Street and most adjoining streets.

  • Are dogs allowed on the property?

    Historic New England welcomes responsible pet owners to enjoy our grounds. Dogs must be on a leash and under control at all times. Dog waste must be picked up and properly disposed of, off the property.

  • Can I take photographs at the museum?

    Interior and exterior photography for personal use is allowed at Historic New England properties. For the safety and comfort of our visitors and the protection of our collections and house museums, we ask that you be aware of your surroundings and stay with your guide. Video, camera bags, tripods, and selfie sticks are not permitted. Professional/commercial photographers and members of the media should visit the press room for more information.

  • How do I become a member of Historic New England and get more involved?

    Join Historic New England now and help preserve the region’s heritage. Call 617-994-5910 or join online.

  • Do you provide admission discounts for EBT cardholders?

    EBT cardholders from all fifty states can show their card for $2 admission to house tours for up to four guests per card.

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