The Josiah Quincy House , located at 20 Muirhead Street in the Wollaston neighborhood of

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

, was the country home of Revolutionary War soldier Colonel Josiah Quincy I, the first in a line of six men named Josiah Quincy that included three

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

mayors and a president of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

History

Having inherited the land from father

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and ...

, Josiah built his mansion on a farm called the "Lower Farm," which had been in the family since 1635.Information provided by the

Eastern Nazarene College The Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) is a private, Christian college in Quincy, Massachusetts. Established as a holiness college in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1900, the college moved to Rhode Island for several years. With its expansion to a four-ye ...

History of the Babcock Arboretum, published in 2003, written by Gerry Wood
founder. Found in the Nease Library, Reference Section. The house was built in 1770 and was originally surrounded by fields and pasture overlooking

Quincy Bay Quincy Bay is the largest of the three small bays of southern Boston Harbor, part of Massachusetts Bay and forming much of the shoreline of the city of Quincy, Massachusetts. Locally in the Wollaston neighborhood of Quincy it is known as Wollasto ...

. It is constructed with an unusual hipped

monitor roof A monitor in architecture is a raised structure running along the ridge of a double-pitched roof, with its own roof running parallel with the main roof. The long sides of monitors usually contain clerestory windows or louvers to light or ventila ...

, the oldest known example of this roof style to survive from the original colonies, and includes a Chinese fretwork balustrade and classical portico. Its attic contains four small rooms for servants, one with a fireplace. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, Quincy aided General

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

by observing the British fleet in Boston Harbor from his attic windows. He scratched on a pane of glass in the attic, "October 10, 1775 Governor Gage saild for England with a fair wind." That glass pane has been preserved and now on view in the front hall. In 1895, the house and some adjoining properties were sold to Frank E. Hall of Boston. In 1937, Edward R. Hall arranged for the Josiah Quincy House to become the property of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. The house is now owned by

Historic New England Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England a ...

, a non-profit historical organization, and is open only four Saturdays a year and by special appointment. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1997 for its architectural significance and for its association with the Quincy family.

Notes and references

External links

Historic New England: Quincy House

Eastern Nazarene College history class project on the Josiah Quincy House
Includes an extensive bibliography; maps, prints, and photos; links; and more. {{DEFAULTSORT:Quincy, Josiah, House Houses completed in 1770 Historic house museums in Massachusetts National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts Quincy family homestead Museums in Quincy, Massachusetts Houses in Quincy, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Quincy, Massachusetts Historic New England 1770 establishments in Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Norfolk County, Massachusetts Georgian architecture in Massachusetts

History

See also

Notes and references

External links