[No doubt Adams saw Nathaniel Rochester’s grave on his tour of Mt. Hope Cemetery. Between West and Glenn Avenues in the R section, the grave is # 15 in the Mount Hope Cemetery Pocket Guide. Photo: David Kramer 7/28/16]
In keeping with our Presidential visits to Rochester series, on July 27th and July 28th, 1843, former President John Quincy Adams visited Rochester, staying in the Eagle Hotel (now the Powers Building) and touring Mt. Hope Cemetery.
Eagle Tavern around the time of Addams’ visit
The Eagle Hotel (now the Powers Building)
The 6th President, John Quincy Adams had a previous connection to Rochester. According to the Journal of the New York State Historical Association, following a proposal by The Rochester Telegraph, in 1824 a group of Rochestarian’s unofficially placed Adam’s name for the presidential nomination. Fitting that tonight a former New York State Senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, accepts the Democratic Party’s nomination in Philadelphia.
From the Journal of the New York State Historical Association (1920)
Adams would win the contested election of 1824, despite gaining fewer popular and electoral votes than Andrew Jackson. New York State did not hold a popular election in 1824; Adams received 26 of the 36 electoral votes. (see King ‘Drew and his new Crew at JCC CenterStage: “Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson” )
In the summer of 1843, Adams toured western New York in his role as a Massachusetts Representative to the 28th Congress. Adams is the only President to serve as a Representative after his term in office, while Andrew Johnson was elected as a Tennessee Senator in 1875.
As seen in the excerpt below from Adam’s memoirs, his tour also included Niagara Falls and Canandaigua. In Mount Hope Cemetery, he surely saw the grave sites of Jonathan Child and the Nathaniel Rochester family. Interestingly, Adams mentions Francis Granger of Canandaigua “alighting from the cars.” The cars most probably refers to the Rochester & Auburn Railroad that began service in 1840.
from from “Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: Comprising Portions of His Diary, Volume 11”
Rochester 10 years after Addams’ visit. Reproduced in 1973 by HISTORICAL URBAN PLANS, Ithaca, New York from a lithograph in the Cornell University Library. This is number 208 of an edition limited to 500 copies. [Owned by David Kramer]
The Presidential Visits Series in its entirety: James Monroe to Donald Trump
