Quincy — the Adams Homestead

Just south of Boston sits Quincy, the "City of Presidents." I toured Adams National Historical Park — the modest saltbox farmhouse where John Adams was born in 1735, and "Peacefield," the grander home he retired to.

What stays with me is how the Adams family shaped early America across generations, not just John alone: his son John Quincy Adams became the sixth president, and the family stayed politically influential for generations after. Against that, the smallness of the birthplace is striking — a farmer's son who argued for independence, defended his enemies in court after the Boston Massacre, and became the second president.

His cousin Samuel Adams took the louder, more radical road to the same revolution — a good contrast to walk away thinking about.