John F. Kennedy’s Birthplace: A Presidential Home in History and Memory

John F. Kennedy National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts preserves and interprets the 1917 birthplace of the nation's 35th president. The house was the first home shared by President Kennedy's father and mother, Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, from 1914 to 1920. The historic house, grounds, collections, and neighboring Brookline community document the formative years of the prominent Kennedy family and permit exploration of the early influences which shaped the character and ambitions of John F. Kennedy.

The site was repurchased by the family as a memorial to President Kennedy in 1966 and refurnished to its circa 1917 appearance under the close supervision of the president's mother, based on her recollections. Many pieces in the collection are original to the family's tenure in the house; others are Kennedy family pieces, appropriate antiques, or period reproductions selected for interpretive value. Following the refurnishing, the Kennedy family donated the birthplace to the National Park Service in 1969. (In May 1967 Congress passed legislation authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the Brookline property.)

The National Park Service commissioned this study for two reasons. The first was to situate Joe and Rose Kennedy within Brookline’s Beals Street neighborhood to provide a better understanding of the spheres in which the Kennedy family members lived, worked, and played. The second was to analyze the significance of the creation of the site as a memorial to the recently assassinated president.

This study gives the National Park Service an enriched perspective on the Kennedy years at Beals Street and provides essential documentation for interpreting their home as part of a neighborhood. Using census data and other primary documentation, the study reveals in detail the socio-economic status of the Kennedy neighbors and indicates the level of the family’s social interaction within the neighborhood. The parents limited their participation in the local neighborhood to such activities as household shopping, attending church, and sending their children to local schools; their intellectual interests and social connections remained more cosmopolitan, and were generally focused outside of Brookline.

This is the first historical study to place the creation of the site within the larger context of the US preservation movement and the establishment of two other important presidential homes: George Washington Birthplace in Virginia, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home in New York. The study also incorporates substantial new research on the individual items that Rose Kennedy chose to furnish the home, including items she chose not to include. This section of the study makes clear that the John F. Kennedy Birthplace is both a product of the larger preservation movement and a very personal expression of the president’s mother.