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Josiah Quincy House

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1770, Edward Pierce, builder. 20 Muirhead St.
  • Josiah Quincy House (Keith Morgan)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)

In 1775 Josiah Quincy observed from the monitor roof of his new house that General Gage was sailing for England, thus witnessing a major victory for the patriots. This illustrious family for whom the city was named also produced Josiah Quincy III, a six-term mayor of Boston and the builder of Quincy Market ( GC5). Originally, the mansion stood amid one hundred acres, part of the 1636 four-hundred-acre grant to Edmund Quincy I. A distinguished example of New England Georgian architecture, it reflects the Renaissance classicism of England conveyed primarily through eighteenth-century architectural books. The entrance portico is derived from William Pain's Builder's Companion and General Assistant (1762), and the Chinese fretwork of the roof balustrade is modeled on Abraham Swan's Collection of Designs in Architecture (1757). The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England, Inc.) has owned and maintained the mansion since 1937.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Data

What's Nearby

Quincy Homestead
Adams National Historic Site
Adams Academy
Quincy City Hall
United First Parish Church

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Josiah Quincy House", [Quincy, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-QU13.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 557-557.

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