Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

21 Adams Street

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The remarkably cheerful if inappropriate "Tune-Up America" at 21 Adams Street occupies one of the most prominent sites in the Quincy Center Historic District. Sited at the junction of Adams and Hancock Streets, in earlier days the meeting of the Boston-Plymouth Highway and the Neponset Turnpike, the auto body shop is a portion of a large parcel of land that belonged to the Porter family for over fifty years.

Whitcomb Porter, an insurance broker at 27 State Street, Boston, was the owner of the property at 21 Adams Street in the 1850's and the ownership passed to his son, Charles H. Porter, in the 1880's. The property remained in the Porter family until the 1910's when it was sold to Frances M. Connell and a large one-story T-shaped brick commercial building was erected in 1917.

Honorable Charles H. Porter was elected the first mayor of the new City of Quincy in 1888 and clearly was one of Quincy's most outstanding citizens. Besides a very active political life and being a member of his father's Boston insurance firm of W. Porter & Co., he was a director of the Quincy Water Company , a director of the Quincy Mutual Fire Insurance company and a trustee of the Quiricy Savings Bank.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
Atlas of the City of Quincy, 1897.
Atlas of the City of Quincy, 1907.
Quincy City Directories, 1904, 1910, 1922.
Quincy Patriot Ledger, Souvenir Edition, 1899, p.8.
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ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
In 1940, when this building was built, it was clad in porcelain enamel siding for it was then a gasoline station. Strategically placed at one of the most important intersections of the historic district, it is a simple commercial structure, flat roofed, with a pedimented parapet in the front and large openings to accomodate cars. In 1973, the porcelain panels were removed to reveal brick piers and an arched entrance. It is part of the Quincy Center Local Historic District.

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