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.