Kennedy Birthplace Reopens for the Day on Sunday, November 22
Submitted by National Parks ... on Fri, 11/13/2009 - 4:18pm
Date:
11/22/2009 - 10:00am
Brookline, MA – The National Park Service remembers President John F. Kennedy on the 46th anniversary of his 1963 assassination by reopening John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site for the day on Sunday, November 22nd. The Kennedy site at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, which closed for the season on November 1, is the birthplace of our 35th president. It will be open from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm on November 22nd. Admission to the house that day is free to all. In addition, National Park Service staff will hold a brief memorial ceremony outside the house at 12:00 noon. For further information, please call 617-566-7937 Monday through Friday or go to www.nps.gov/jofi.
On November 25, 1963, the Monday following JFK’s assassination in Dallas, Texas, a large memorial ceremony took place on Beals Street. The 83 Beals Street house was in private ownership at that time, bought back by the Kennedy family in 1966 and gifted to the National Park Service in 1969. The National Park Service staff at John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site are now looking for Brookline residents and others willing to share their memories of that event and of the 1960s period during which the site was established. People with memories of the 1963 Beals Street ceremony or who know others with such memories are encouraged to visit the site on Sunday, November 22nd or call the site at 617-566-7937 weekdays.
Guided tours at John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site will be offered beginning at 10:00 am, with the final tour at 2:00 pm.
Friday, May 29, 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site’s official dedication as a National Park Service site. During its 40th anniversary year, the site held a major anniversary celebration in May, launched an important planning process to guide it for the next 20 years, and held a September book event at the Coolidge Corner Theatre with Cari Beauchamp, author
of Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years. The Kennedy site hopes to offer more special programming mark this anniversary year.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site preserves the birthplace (1917) and early boyhood home of the 35th president of the United States. The modest house was the first home shared by the president’s father and mother, Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. John, the second of nine children, spent his formative years in Brookline as his family began its rise to national prominence. In 1967 Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy returned to 83 Beals Street to commemorate his life, restoring the birthplace to her recollection of its 1917 appearance.
Today, National Park Service rangers provide tours of the nine-room house museum where Kennedy family furnishings, photographs, and significant mementos personally collected and arranged by the president’s mother are on exhibit. A taped narrative, featuring Mrs. Kennedy in her own words, is a unique and evocative addition to both the ranger-led and self-guided tours.
A self-guided tour of the neighborhood is included in the site brochure and gives visitors the opportunity to see other nearby sites associated with the Kennedy family, including a second home in Brookline, the location of the family’s Catholic church, schools John Kennedy attended, and the Coolidge Corner shopping district.
Location
John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site
83 Beals St.
Brookline, MA, 02445United States
42° 20' 45.5352" N, 71° 7' 28.2864" W
