Buried: United First Parish Church (Church of the Presidents), Quincy, Massachusetts
Sixth President - 1825-1829
Born: July 11, 1767, in Quincy, Massachusetts
Died: 7:20 p.m. on February 23, 1848, in Washington, D.C.
Age at death: 80
Cause of death: Stroke
Final words: “I am content” or “I am composed” (accounts vary)
Admission to United First Parish Church: $4.00
The easygoing Monroe was followed by John Quincy Adams who candidly described himself as reserved and austere. The son of our second president arrived at the White House in 1825 after a fractious election. None of the four presidential candidates captured a majority of electoral votes, so the race was decided in the House of Representatives.
Our sixth president kept in shape by walking between the White House and the Capitol. As befit his cold personality, he was also fond of skinny-dipping in the chilly waters of the Potomac. His British-born wife, Louisa, was the only first lady born outside the United States. Unhappy in her position, she avoided social occasions whenever possible.
After losing the presidency to Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828, John Quincy Adams embarked on yet another political career as the only former president to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1830, he was elected to represent a Massachusetts district. He returned to Washington and resumed his early morning swims, a habit he continued until just before his death.
Eighteen years later, at age eighty, though his health had deteriorated after a minor stroke in 1846, he was still serving in Congress. On February 21, 1848, at his desk in the House chamber, Adams suffered a second and more serious stroke. After vehemently voting to reject more decorations for some Mexican War generals, the Congressman fell into the arms of Ohio Representative David Fisher. His colleagues carried him to the Speaker’s Room, just off the House floor, where he was attended by five physicians, four of whom were fellow Representatives. Accounts of Adams’s last words vary. Some claimed to have heard him whisper, “I am content.” Others recalled the words, “I am composed.” He slipped into a coma and died at the Capitol two days later.
Adams’s body lay on view in a House committee room for two days, where thousands filed past to see him. Funeral services were conducted by the House chaplain on February 25, with the coffin resting before the Speaker’s rostrum in the House chamber. Adams’s body was taken in a grand procession to a receiving vault at Congressional Cemetery in Washington. A few days later, it was transported back to Massachusetts by train, accompanied by a member of Congress from each state. Mourners lined the route and a public memorial service was held at Faneuil Hall in Boston. At the end of the journey, Adams was laid to rest in the family vault at the Quincy cemetery. He was eventually buried in the Adams crypt at the United First Parish Church in Quincy alongside his parents. His wife Louisa was also buried there when she died in 1852.
Sign outside the Adams crypt at the United First Parish Church (Church of the Presidents)
Touring John Quincy Adams’s Tomb at United First Parish Church
United First Parish Church (Church of the Presidents) is located in Quincy, Massachusetts, about ten miles south of Boston.
From Boston: Take Interstate 93 or Route 128 south. Take exit 7, onto Route 3 South to Braintree and Cape Cod. Take the first exit off Route 3 South, marked exit 18 for Washington Street. Continue on Burgin Parkway through six traffic lights. At the seventh light, turn right onto Dimmock Street. Go one block and take a right onto Hancock Street. The church is located at 1306 Hancock Street.
The church is also accessible via the Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority’s subway system. From Boston, take the red line train to the Quincy Center station. Go right when exiting the train and continue up the stairs. Take a left at the top of the stairs and exit onto Hancock Street. The church is located at 1306 Hancock Street.
The Adams family graves are located in the basement crypt. To reach the crypt after entering the church through the main doors, take a right, go down the stairs, and take a left.
Guided tours of the crypt are also available for $5.00, beginning at the Adams National Historical Park Visitors Center, located at 1250 Hancock Street. The tour also includes the John Adams birthplace and the Adams family home. Tours operate from April 19 through November 10, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is $5.00, free for those under sixteen.
For additional information
United First Parish Church (Church of the Presidents) 1306 Hancock Street (Quincy Center)
Quincy, MA 02169
Phone: (617) 773-0062 / Fax: (617) 773-7499 www.ufpc.org
Adams National Historical Park Visitors Center 1250 Hancock Street
Quincy, MA 02169
Phone: (617) 773-1177 / Fax: (617) 847-3015
www.nps.gov/adam/
“…the sarcophagus provided for…JQA was too small for his elaborate coffin…”
—Richard Norton Smith
Upright and unadorned, the Quincy meetinghouse reflects the characters of the two presidents who, with their wives, share a subterranean crypt carved from solid granite. John and Abigail Adams were placed there in 1828. Twenty-four years later the area was enlarged to accommodate the remains of John Quincy and his wife Louisa. As it happened, the sarcophagus provided for the second President Adams was too small for his elaborate coffin, forcing a halt in the ceremony while stonemasons were summoned to widen the enclosure. Somehow it made perfect sense, given Adams’s failure while in the White House to fit his spacious views within the cramped vision of nineteenth-century agrarianism. Almost forty years would pass before the iron grillwork fronting the Adams crypt swung open to admit the general public.
—RNS
John Quincy Adams lies next to his British-born wife Louisa in the Adams crypt