After years of attempts, it finally happened. In June, I went to the John Adams historic site in Quincy! I went with my book club friends, and we had a great day together. We had read the David McCullough biography about John Adams a few months earlier. And by "we had read," I mean that I watched the HBO miniseries based on the book 😄(I was busy!). I've long admired both John and Abigail Adams, and it was so neat to tour their beautiful home, Peace Field. It made them more real. I love learning about and getting in touch with history like this.
There it is!
The view from the front porch. It was leafy, shaded, and true to the name of the house, peaceful.
The house has been remarkably well-preserved, with most of the same furnishings that were there when the Adams family lived there! There was a special and unique feeling there that I sensed.
This was the same mirror that John and Abigail looked into.
I took a couple of pictures of my and Beth's reflections in it. Neither of them turned out well. 😆
A funny sort of couch...
A very cushioned booster seat! 😂
The actual desk at which John Adams wrote. And check out the gorgeous dresser in front of it!
(I'm sure he would have liked to have had that modern-day fan back in his day!)
A library hallway upstairs. I had one of these in the townhouse. They work well and are a good use of the wall space.
A downstairs hallway of Adams family treasures on illuminated display...
An old painting of Peace Field
You can't see it well because it's in shadow, but that tall grandfather-type clock in the corner of the kitchen is many centuries old, and it's still running.
This innocuous-seeming ivy-covered building out in the side yard houses a great treasure...one of the most idyllic libraries I've ever seen! This was such a nice surprise, and it was my favorite part of the tour.
Getting ready to enter into a miniature paradise...
LOOK AT THIS LIBRARY 😍😍😍 I absolutely loved it.
Library and book bliss!
It was perfection. Someday, my mansion in heaven will have a library like this in a building like this.
The gardens at Peace Field are beautiful and very well-kept. Some plants and flowers date all the way back to the Adams' time there.
These little hedges, for example, go back to the Adams' time. (And they're right outside the library!)
These are Abigail's roses from 1788!
The house, the library, and the gardens. Heavenly!
I thought these little white flowers were so pretty.
So I took a selfie with them.
I'm including this one too because it shows the gabled windows on the second floor.
Indeed.
Any good historical field trip needs to have some gift shop fun!
Me, Beth, and Christine 😄
I bought a "Lady Editor" book about Sara Josepha Hale that felt personally relevant 😉, and a bookmark and sticker with great quotes from Abigail. She is one of my favorite women from history.
Ain't that the truth!
I'm very thankful for these opportunities to learn about history where it happened. I highly recommend the John Adams historical site. Next time, I'd like to go to the house where he was born (it wasn't open the day we were there). Until then!
