JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

Inscription

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
LEGEND OF PRES. JOHN QUINCY
ADAMS SUMMER HOME HERE TOLD
BY 1927 WHEN FORMER ESTATE OF
REV. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WAS
ACQUIRED BY LAND DEVELOPER.
NEW YORK FOLKLORE
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2024

In the hamlet of Deer Park in Suffolk County, New York, a local legend has persisted involving the 6th President of the United States, John Quincy Adams. A story is told that the president owned a summer home in Deer Park. However, ownership of the property belonged to a Rev. John Quincy Adams, a well-known Baptist clergyman from New York City, who owned the land around 1872, 24 years after President John Quincy Adams had passed away in 1848.

The story of the John Quincy Adams summer home in Deer Park has seemingly been told ever since a land developer acquired the property in 1927. For reasons unknown, ownership of the property was then attributed to the president, rather than the reverend, and this attribution has been retold over and over ever since, thus becoming the stuff of legend.