United First Parish Church

The congregation first gathered in 1636 as a branch of the church in Boston, becoming an independent church in 1639, known simply as "Ye Church of Braintry," because the whole area was then known as Braintree. It was a Puritan Congregationalist church when first established. In the mid-18th century it became Unitarian, and then Unitarian Universalist in the 20th century.

The 1828 church is constructed of locally quarried granite, and is one of the finest Greek Revival church buildings in New England. It has a Greek temple front, supported by four monolithic granite columns which may have been the largest set in the United States at the time. Each column is 25 feet (7.6 m) tall and weighs an estimated 25 tons. Above the main facade rises a two-stage tower. Its lower section is oblong and unadorned, while the second stage is stepped back and square. It has clock faces on each side, and is topped by an open cupola with eight columns and a dome.[2]

President John Adams financed the church's construction through a land donation, and the bulk of the granite comes from the Adams family quarry. However, the pillars are from another local quarry, as the Adams quarry was not deep enough for a full-height pillar. Its original bell was cast by Paul Revere, but was melted down and recast as it was not loud enough to serve as a fire alarm. The unusual domed ceiling represents a passion flower surrounded by lotuses. The fine mahogany altar is original.

Both John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, together with their first ladies, Abigail Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams, are buried in a family vault in the church's basement. Only one other church in the United States contains a presidential tomb: the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., where the remains of President Woodrow Wilson and First Lady Edith Wilson are interred.

• 
  The church as depicted in a c. 1851–1854 engraving
• 
  Contemporary view of the interior and its decorative plaster domed ceiling

• Church of the Presidents, Long Branch, New Jersey
• Adams National Historical Park
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Quincy, Massachusetts

• United First Parish Church website
• United First Parish Church (Unitarian) Of Quincy's National Historic Landmark summary description
• Historical records for the United First Parish Church are in the Andover-Harvard Theological Library at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.