Kennedy Compound | |
Location | 50 Marchant Avenue Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, U.S. |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°37′47.928″N70°18′8.4954″W / 41.62998000°N 70.302359833°W |
Area | 6 acres (24,000 m²) |
Built | 1904 |
Architectural style | Clapboard |
Part of | Hyannis Port Historic District (ID87000259) |
NRHP reference No. | 72001302 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 28, 1972 |
Designated NHLD | November 28, 1972 |
Designated CP | November 10, 1987 |
The Kennedy Compound consists of three houses on six acres (2.4 hectares) of waterfront property in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. [2] [3] It was once the home of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., an American businessman, investor, and diplomat; his wife, Rose; and their nine children, including U.S. President and Senator John F. Kennedy and U.S. Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy. As an adult, the youngest son, Edward, lived in his parents' house, and it was his primary residence from 1982 until he died of brain cancer at the compound, in August 2009. [4]
Purchased in 1928, the compound became the place that the Kennedy family most associated with home. [5] [6]
John F. Kennedy used the compound as a base for his successful 1960 U.S. presidential campaign and later as a Summer White House and presidential retreat. In 2012, the main house was donated to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. [7] As of 2020, Robert Kennedy's widow Ethel lives in their home adjacent to the main house.
In 1926, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. rented a summer cottage at 50 Marchant Avenue in Hyannis Port. Two years later, he purchased the structure, which had been erected in 1904, and enlarged and remodeled it to suit his growing family's needs. [8] In and around this house, their nine children spent their summers and early autumns, [9] acquiring a lifelong interest in sailing and other competitive activities. [10] The Kennedys previously spent their summers at a home in Hull, Massachusetts (where Joseph Jr. was born in 1915). [11] [12] In the mid-1920s, the Kennedys explored purchasing a home in Cohasset, Massachusetts, but when Joe Sr. applied for membership at the exclusive Cohasset Country Club, he was blackballed. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote that in Cohasset, "Irish Catholics were still looked down upon by the reigning Protestant (WASP) establishment." [13] Joe Sr., who had connections with the members at the Hyannisport Golf Club, was accepted in spite of it being another "Yankee stronghold." [14] [15] It was a deciding factor for Joe Sr. to purchase a house in the seaside village. [16] In 1941, the Hyannis Port home became the family's primary (legal) residence. [17]
In 1956, John bought a smaller home of his own at 111 Irving Avenue,( 41°37′51″N70°18′13″W / 41.6308°N 70.3035°W ) not far from his father's home. In 1959, Edward acquired the residence at 28 Marchant Avenue ( 41°37′48″N70°18′11″W / 41.63°N 70.303°W ) adjacent to the other two, but in 1961 sold it to Robert and his wife Ethel. Edward lived in the main house at the compound until his death. [18]
In 2019, one of Robert Kennedy's granddaughters, 22-year-old Saoirse Kennedy Hill (daughter of Kennedy's daughter Courtney), died of an overdose in a residence at the compound, where her grandmother Ethel Kennedy lives. [19] [20]
All three buildings are white, frame, clapboard structures typical of vacation residences on Cape Cod. Except for specific occasions at the Main House, the buildings are not available for public visitation.
Joseph Sr.'s home, the Main House and the largest of the three, is surrounded by well-tended lawns and gardens and it commands sweeping views of Nantucket Sound from its long porches.
On the main floor are a living room, dining room, sun room, television room, kitchen, various pantries, utility rooms and the bedroom that John used before he purchased his own house in the compound.
On the second floor are six bedrooms, a sewing room, packing room, and four servants' bedrooms. The house has a full attic.
The basement contains a motion-picture theater and a hall covered with dolls from all around the world. The dolls [21] belonged to Joseph Sr. and were gifted to him from a number of different acquaintances during his time as the 44th US Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
The house has changed little, either structurally or in furnishings, since President Kennedy's association with it.
In 2012, the main house was donated by the Kennedy family to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. On the grounds are an enclosed swimming pool, tennis court, a four-car garage, and two guest houses.
There are two circular driveways with flagpoles standing in the middle, a boathouse and several large stretches of lawn area where many of the family touch football games were played.
Other parcels of land that assorted members of the family have purchased remain as well-tended as those of the more prominent homes; for example, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a house on Irving Avenue, next to President Kennedy's former home (which now belongs to Edward Kennedy Jr.).
The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office, serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947, when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts, until 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy II retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and politician. He is known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children and was a patriarch of the Kennedy family, which included president John F. Kennedy, attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy, and longtime senator Ted Kennedy.
Hyannis is the largest of the seven villages in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States. It is the commercial and transportation hub of Cape Cod and was designated an urban area at the 1990 census. Because of this, many refer to Hyannis as the "Capital of the Cape". It contains a majority of the Barnstable Town offices and two important shopping districts: the historic downtown Main Street and the Route 132 Commercial District, including Cape Cod Mall and Independence Park, headquarters of Cape Cod Potato Chips. Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis is the largest on Cape Cod.
Hyannis Port is a small residential village located in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States. It is a summer community on Hyannis Harbor, 1.4 miles (2.3 km) to the south-southwest of Hyannis.
Ethel Kennedy is an American human rights advocate. She is the widow of U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy, and the sixth child of George and Ann Skakel. Shortly after her husband's assassination in 1968, Kennedy founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, a non-profit charity working to reach his goal of a just and peaceful world. In 2014, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. She is the oldest living member of the Kennedy family.
Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend is an American attorney who was the sixth lieutenant governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran unsuccessfully for governor of Maryland in 2002.
Michael LeMoyne Kennedy was an American lawyer, businessman, and activist in Massachusetts. He was the sixth of eleven children of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy. Kennedy also served as the manager of the non-profit organization Citizens Energy. He died in Aspen, Colorado, in 1997 after inadvertently skiing into a tree.
The Kennedy curse is a series of deaths, accidents, assassinations, and other calamities involving members of the American Kennedy family. The alleged curse has primarily struck the descendants of businessman Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., but it has also affected family friends, associates, and other relatives. Political assassinations and plane crashes have been the most common manifestations of the "curse". Following the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969, Ted Kennedy is quoted saying he questioned if "some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys." However skeptics argue that it is not improbable for a large extended family to experience similar events over the course of several generations.
Virginia Joan Kennedy is an American socialite who was the first wife of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.
The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site is the birthplace and childhood home of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. The house is at 83 Beals Street in the Coolidge Corner neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. Kennedy is one of four U.S. presidents born in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. The property is now owned by the National Park Service; tours of the house are offered, and a film is presented.
Cape Cod Hospital is a not-for-profit regional medical center located in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, as of 2011 it is the largest hospital on Cape Cod. The administration is headed by CEO Michael K. Lauf.
Hy-Line Cruises is an American family owned and operated Massachusetts ferry and cruise company. The company currently operates the second largest passenger ferry service between mainland Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The company also operates sightseeing cruises and fishing charters. The company's main office is located at 22 Channel Point Road in Hyannis.
Robert Francis Kennedy, also known by his initials RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Like his brothers John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, he was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and is an icon of modern American liberalism.
Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy was an American philanthropist, socialite, and matriarch of the Kennedy family. She was deeply embedded in the "lace curtain" Irish-American community in Boston. Her father, John F. Fitzgerald, served in the Massachusetts State Senate (1892–1894), in the U.S. House of Representatives, and as Mayor of Boston. Her husband, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., chaired the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1934–1935) and the U.S. Maritime Commission (1937–1938), and served as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1938–1940). Their nine children included United States President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith. In 1951, Rose Kennedy was ennobled by Pope Pius XII, becoming the sixth American woman to be granted the rank of Papal countess.
The Hyannisport Club is a private club located in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The club's origins spring from a late 19th century summer resident and golf enthusiast named John Reid who created a handful of holes against Nantucket Sound. Over subsequent decades, the club purchased more land and eventually expanded into a full 18-hole course. In the 1930s, Hyannisport was re-designed by the famed golf course architect Donald Ross. The course is also strongly associated with the Kennedy family. It was a "deciding factor" for Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. to purchase a summer house in the village and was the home course of President John F. Kennedy. Hyannisport remains one of the most notable clubs in the state, having been voted one of the top courses in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe and Golf Digest.
Barnstable is a town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod, and is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipalities that have been granted city forms of government by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts but wish to retain "the town of" in their official names. At the 2020 census it had a population of 48,916. The town contains several villages within its boundaries. Its largest village, Hyannis, is the central business district of the county and home to Barnstable Municipal Airport, the airline hub of Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Additionally, Barnstable is a 2007 winner of the All-America City Award.
Jean Ann Kennedy Smith was an American diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and author who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. She was a member of the Kennedy family, the eighth of nine children, and youngest daughter, born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald. Her siblings included President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver. She was also a sister-in-law of Jacqueline Kennedy.
The John F. Kennedy Memorial is located on Ocean Street in Hyannis, Massachusetts. It overlooks Lewis Bay, where President Kennedy often sailed while in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The memorial is a large stone wall with a bronze medallion on each side. President Kennedy's left bust profile is on the front medallion, facing the bay. The Great Seal of the United States is on the back, facing Ocean Street. The memorial’s landscaping includes plantings, lawn, a large concrete terrace, bluestone benches, and a reflecting pool and lit fountain that invokes the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame at Arlington National Cemetery. The reflecting pool is surrounded by bluestone engraved with the quote, “I believe it is important that this country sail and not lie still in the harbor.” It comes from President Kennedy's Radio and Television Report to the American People on the State of the National Economy given August 13, 1962.