Welcome
back to our blog! In this post, we will
be visiting another location associated with a President, John F. Kennedy
National Historic Site.
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| Entrance sign |
BACKGROUND:
In
1914, newlyweds Joseph and Rose Kennedy purchased a house in the Boston suburb
of Brookline. The two were members of
prominent local political families, Joseph’s father a member of the
Massachusetts Legislature, Rose’s father the mayor of Boston. The two would found a political dynasty, with
Joseph determined that one of his sons become the first Catholic President of
the United States. The son that would
fulfill his ambitions, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was born in 1917 at their house
in Brookline.
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| Exterior of the Kennedy house |
Many
years later, after having risen to wealth and political success, Rose Kennedy
would return to their first home in Brookline with a mission. After the assassination of President Kennedy
in 1963, his mother set about purchasing the home he was born in and restoring
it to its original appearance at the time of his birth. After completing the project, she donated the
house to the National Park Service.
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| The second floor bedroom where President Kennedy was born |
THE SITE:
John
Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site is located at 83 Beals Street in
Brookline, Massachusetts. The site
consists solely of the house where the Kennedys lived from 1914 to 1920, and is the third smallest NPS unit in the country. The interior of the house was restored by
Mrs. Rose Kennedy at her personal expense and from her own memories in the
1960s. The ground floor and second floor
are the restored sections of the house while there is a small visitor center in
the basement.
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| The dining room of the Kennedy house. Many of them items in this room were still in possession of the family and donated by the President's mother. |
TRAVEL TIPS:
John
Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site is located within a residential area
of Brookline, Massachusetts. As such, there
is no parking lot and visitors will need to park on the street. The house is open from 9:30am-5:00pm in the
summer, by appointment only in the winter.
Guided tours of the house run every half hour. There is also a cell phone tour. The site is not handicapped accessible. Passport stamps and a short film are located
in the basement visitor center. The park
brochure also includes a walking tour of sites related to the Kennedy family in
the neighborhood.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
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| A memorial on the front lawn marking the house as the birthplace of President Kennedy |
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| The house's parlor, restored by Mrs. Rose Kennedy, the President's mother |
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| Mrs. Rose Kennedy's office on the second floor |
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