Abigail Adams Smith
Abigail Adams Smith (July 14, 1765 – August 15, 1813), nicknamed "Nabby", was a daughter of Abigail and John Adams, founding father and second President of the United States, and the older sister of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States. She was named for her mother.[1]
This article is about the daughter of U.S. president John Adams. For his wife (and this article's subject's mother), see Abigail Adams.
Abigail Adams Smith
Death[edit]
In 1812, Smith finally started to feel well and returned to the family farm in New York.[7] In early 1813, she began feeling pain in her abdomen and spine, as well as suffering from painful headaches.[7] At first a local doctor in New York said that the pain was from rheumatism, but later that year new tumors began to appear in the scar tissue as well as on her skin.[7] She then returned to Quincy, telling her husband that she preferred to die at her parents' home.[7] She died on August 15, 1813 at the age of 48.[4][7][8][9][a] She was buried at Hancock Cemetery in Quincy.[11]
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden[edit]
The Abigail Adams Smith Museum, now known as the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden, was a carriage house built in 1799 by a wealthy New York china merchant on property purchased from Smith and her husband. The carriage house was purchased by Joseph Hart and converted into a day hotel. Day hotels were popular at the time as they provided the burgeoning New York middle class an escape from the overcrowded and oppressive city. It was called the Mount Vernon Hotel after George Washington's home in Virginia and functioned in this capacity from 1826 to 1833. The property changed hands again when it was purchased by Jeremiah Towle. It served as the Towle family's private residence until 1905 when, with the spread of industrialization, it was purchased by Standard Gas Light Company. The building was preserved until its ultimate purchase by the Colonial Dames of America in 1924. In 1939, the building was opened to the public as the Abigail Adams Smith Museum. The Colonial Dames of America reinterpreted the house as a day hotel and reopened it as the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden in 2000. It remains open to the public with museum tours daily (except Monday).[13]