The Adams family resided in this late 18th-century house from July 1785 until February 1788. “We shall live more as if we were a part of the World,” Abigail Adams 2d informed her brother, John Quincy Adams, immediately after moving into the house, “than when in France and we already find ourselves better pleased” (letter of 4 July–11 August 1785, Adams Papers). See the note xiiiunder John Adams' Diary entry of June–July, 1785, p. 180–181.