To round out our last day in Boston, we decided to dive into history head first and book a tour of Adams National Park. This included the birthplace of John Adams (our second president) and John Quincy Adams (our sixth president) in addition to what is referred to as “the summer white house,” a beautiful estate name Peacefield. Although you can drive to the locations separately, you cannot enter unless you book a tour.

The visitor center is located in Quincy near a parking garage and although you can book your tickets in advance online, we just walked in and purchased for the next tour (it was incredibly hot and I did call to see if they were getting booked, but they said it was a light day- which is why we just drove over). The tours start at 9:15 and run every hour until 3:15. Furthermore, the visitor center has a documentary running on a loop that lasts about 25 minutes so that guests have something to do while they are waiting for the next trolley to take them to the locations. The visitor center also has the only bathrooms that patrons can utilize during the tour.

The trolley stops right in front of the visitor’s center and once all the passengers are on it’s a short ride to the first stop- the birthplaces. Once there, a park ranger meets the group outside and gives the background and history.

As you tour the houses, you are treated with a look back in time at what life was like. Although the furnishings and props in the birthplaces are not original, they are appropriate to the time period.

Our ranger was very energetic and knowledgeable (even in the extreme heat) and she patiently answered questions for everyone in the group. In fact, she spent so much time answering questions that we were a little late for the trolley. The trip to Peacefield was not long. As we disembarked from the trolley, one ranger counted us off so that they could split the group in half. Our ranger brought us to the porch and the other half of the group started in another building. They warned us about the heat in the house and offered us some water. (A word to the wise: the houses are not air conditioned, however, the rangers seemed well versed in making sure all the visitors were safe from extreme temperatures and heat exhaustion.)

Unlike the birthplaces, Peacefield is filled with the actual contents owned by four generations of the Adams family. Each room has remnants from each generation including furniture that had once been in The White House in Philadelphia (before it was moved to Washington D.C.). Our tour guide explained that because the John and Abigail had purchased the furniture with their own money before he became president, they were permitted to take it with them when they moved back to Peacefield since it was not government owned property. The entire tour was full of interesting tidbits and stories not normally found in history textbooks, which added a nice touch.

The house is certainly impressive in addition to being well preserved, and the artifacts on display give the visitor a sense of how important this family was in the building of our nation.

Once our tour in the house was complete, the ranger lead us to what is now my favorite site on this trip: the library.

The library is a separate stone building that houses thousands of books collected by John Quincy Adams and was built by his son, Charles Francis Adams. Although John Quincy Adams had asked for his son to build it, the library was not completed until after his death. It is apparent that Charles took the undertaking seriously and preserved his father’s collection beautifully. This is the only portion of the tour that has air conditioning and even though visitors cannot walk far into the room, it is a spectacular personal library.

As a bibliophile, I was quite jealous and even the teens were impressed (a difficult task, indeed). As our time there came to an end, the ranger fielded any last questions (I had a lot!) and sent us on our way to the trolley. The price of the tour was well worth it and although the heat was intense, the teens enjoyed being able to step back in time and experience something they had learned about in school.

If you’re looking to learn something new or just make history relevant, this tour is a definite stop if you’re in the area.