It is the saltbox home in which Founding Father and second president of the United States, John Adams, was born in 1735.

The house, a 2+1⁄2 story wood-frame structure sheathed in wooden clapboards, is a classic New England home with two lower and two upper rooms built around a massive central chimney.

Extensive alterations were made over the years, including the building of a lean-to in the 18th century that added two downstairs rooms and two small upper chambers.

President John Adams refers to the fact that his father built the house in a letter to Benjamin Rush of July 19, 1812.

After sitting vacant, Charles Francis Adams Jr. authorized the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to use the house as meeting space.