The date of November 22, 1963 lives in infamy in the hearts of all Americans who were around to see the assassination of our 35th President John F. Kennedy. He will live on in history as an effective leader who was restoring good faith in our goverment when his life was taken at the age of forty-six. He led the country through turbulent domestic issues in Cuba and Vietnam, Civil Rights reform, and founded the Peace Corps. He was also the first President to have previously won a Pulitzer Prize and remains the youngest man ever elected to office. It is difficult to predict what may have come to pass if he had lived through his entire term and went on to a second one.
Over the course of five years, I have managed to visit the bulk of the JFK Presidential sites, as highlighted below:
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 – John F. Kennedy Birthplace – JFK’s father Joe purchased a home in Brookline, Massachusetts, for his new bride and himself to move into following their honeymoon in 1914. They were the third owners of the home, which was built in 1909. John’s older brother Joe Jr. was born on May 19, 1917, in the bedroom of his parents. The family remained in the home until 1920 after the birth of the next two Kennedy children, Rosemary and Kathleen, at which time they moved into a house a few blocks away. Joe sold the home to his advisor Edward Moore.
The JFK birthplace at 83 Beals Street in Brookline
Plaque in the front yard commemorating JFK’s birth
Eventually the home found its way back into the Kennedy family in 1966, and at that time, JFK’s mother Rose Kennedy had it restored to look the way it did during the hour of his birth (as indicated on the clocks). Roughly 20% of the furnishings in the home belonged to the Kennedy family. Once it was complete, Rose donated the home to the National Park Service in 1967.
The house is now the John Fitzgerald National Historic Site, and thus has no admission costs. We were provided a great tour of the home by our ranger Steven. Photos were permitted, but no flashes, although we had to bend that rule a bit to get a good shot of the birth room. Apparently the bed in which he was born is the original, while the second bed in the room is not. The third floor, which were the servants’ quarters, were not restored as Rose had little memory of what they looked like, so these are used as administrative offices of the park.
The living room – and the original piano that was given to Rose as a wedding gift from two of her uncles
Tiny table where young John and his older brother Joe would sit in the dining room. The bowls are original and display the monograms of the two boys.
The Master Bedroom – with the original bed (closest to the window) in which John F. Kennedy came into the world
The nursery, including the bassinet that would hold each of the nine Kennedy children
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 – John F. Kennedy boyhood home – As the Kennedy family continued to grow, the family moved a couple of blocks away from their Beals Street home, to a larger house on Abbottsford Road. The family lived here from 1920-1927. JFK’s younger brother Bobby, who would go on to much fame of his own was born in this house. When the family sold this house, the relocated to New York. The house is currently a private residence and not open to tours.
The Kennedy home at 51 Abbottsford Road in Brookline
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 – Site of John F. Kennedy’s Baptism – Saint Aidan’s Catholic Church in Brookline, Massachusettes, was the church where the young Kennedy family attended weekly service. The Kennedy matriarch Rose would take the kids for walks every day and they would visit the church. Young John was baptized in this church and served as altar boy.
Saint Aidan’s today, now a place for people to live
Sadly, the church no longer exisits, but the building does. It has been converted into condominiums of all things, and is now known as the Freeman Street Condominium. I did not go inside.
Sunday, July 8, 2012 – Site of John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy’s Wedding – JFK and Jackie Bouvier were married on September 12, 1953, in the St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island. This church in the oldest parish in the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island. The structure was built between 1848-1852. It was designated a National Historic Shrine in 1968.
Me in front of St. Mary’s
Sign in front of the church
My friend Bob and I attended part of the Catholic Mass during our visit. The inside was beautiful and I snapped a photo of it during the service. I was immediately forgiven.
During the Sunday morning Mass
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 – John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum – The construction of the JFK Library was years in the making, having genesis as far back as 1963, one month prior to his death, when JFK himself chose the Harvard Campus as his preferred site. After numerous delays, the plans were scrapped and the plans were changed to have the library built in Boston. It was finally completed and dedicated in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and members of the Kennedy family.
Outside the JFK Library and Museum
Presidential Seal in the foyer of the museum
I found the museum to be on par with several of the others that I have visited, not the best nor the worst. We began our visit with an orientation film, and then progressed through the artifacts and exhibits. Prominently featured was new exhibit that included a long hallway of photos and relics with narration that was recorded in 1964 by Jacqueline Kennedy. The exhibit was called In Her Voice, Jackie Kennedy: The White House Years.
The Oval Office section was a bit odd, as it was only about 1/3 of it, and was fashioned to look as it did during Kennedy’s address to the nation regarding the moral crisis of racial discrimination – complete with the TV cameras. Other displays included the 1960 Campaign, the Kennedy-Nixon debate, Space, the Peace Corps, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s office. The museum comes to an abrupt end as we reach Kennedy’s death on November 22, 1963. There is no coverage whatsoever of the assassination.
Campaign poster for JFK and LBJ for the 1960 election
The Fitzgerald family Bible, an 1850 edition which contains Fitzgerald family notes as far back as 1857, wsa the Bible on which John F. Kennedy swore the oath of office
The Oval Office reproduction
Emmy presented to Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy for her TV broadcast The White House Tour
Display cabinet that included the actual coconut shell on which Kennedy carved a rescue message when his PT 109 was obliterated by a Japanese Destroyer in 1943 and his crew were stranded in the Solomon Islands
A chunk of the Berlin Wall
In the Pavilion overlooking Boston Harbor sits an example of the Profile in Courage award, so-named after the book of that title written by John Kennedy, which is presented annually to a public official whose actions exemplify political courage
Overall, it was a great experience to visit the JFK Library and Museum. I picked up the mandatory magnet on the way out.
Saturday, July 7, 2012 – John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum – Located in Hyannis, Massachusettes, this musuem houses a small collection dedicated to the many years that the Kennedy family have spent at their compound in Hyannis Port. The musuem is basically a display of about 80 photographs of the family taken between 1934 and 1963. The best that can be said for the museum is that the photographs were very cool, but that’s pretty much all it was. Since I didn’t get to see the actual compound (which is not open to the public), I guess this was the next best thing.
The entrance and statue outside the JFK Museum
The beginning of the photo tour
A photo on display of photos on display
The JFK Hyannis Museum or bust! My vote: bust.
Thursday, October 4, 2013 – Site of Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech – One of the most famous quotes from a United States President came on June 26, 1963. During President Kennedy’s visit to West Berlin, he spoke of the United States’ support of West Germany 22 months after the Soviet regime had erected the Berlin Wall to separate East and West Germany. The full quote spoken by Kennedy was: Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is “Ich bin ein Berliner!”… All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner!”
The speech took place in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg, the city hall located in the Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. The square in which it is located was renamed John F. Kennedy Platz immediately following his assassination.
I visited this location during a family trip to Berlin and was delighted to check out the memorial plaque (in the German language) dedicated to Kennedy and the famous speech that he delivered there. The building was open to the public so we looked around a little bit, but there didn’t appear to be any displays inside devoted to Kennedy. Nevertheless, it was an awesome feeling to add this location to the Presidential sites I’ve visited.
The Rathaus Schöneberg
The plaque dedicated in honor of President Kennedy and the speech that he delivered here
Me and the plaque. It’s pretty big.
Saturday, March 29, 2008 – JFK Assassination Site – Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository located in downtown Dallas, Texas hold a very distinctive place in the minds and hearts of those who were cognizant of the days events of November 22, 1963. For me, I was only familiar with the site from the repeated viewings of home movies, newsreel footage, Oliver Stone’s JFK, and various documentaries that were filmed there.
When I visited the area for the first time with my friend Bob, I felt as if I had been there before having had seen it so many times before on television. It was eerie in a sense, much like walking on hallowed ground. Onlookers quietly stared at the various areas and snapped pictures. The Book Depository, the grassy knoll, the triple underpass, the pergola shelters and fence from where other shots were potentially fired. They were all there. Because the area is designated as a National Historic Landmark, little has been changed since 1963. There was a white X in the street marking the spot where Kennedy received the final, fatal gunshot to the head.
On the spot in the street where Kennedy took the fateful blow to the head
The triple underpass and grassy knoll
There were absolutely no photos allowed inside the former-Texas School Book Depository, no home to a sixth floor museum about the life and career of President Kennedy, along with a play-by-play of the assassination day’s events and videos of the traumatic footage, and the aftermath news announcements and the JFK funeral. Only the small corner where Oswald allegedly fired the shots and the area where his rifle was found was preserved in its original state, enclosed inside glass with stacks of schoolbook boxes reconstructing the crime scene. From the window, I could see the X in the street.
The seventh floor contained an area to view home movies that were shot in Dallas on that fateful day in their entirety (including footage of the various photographers’ families shot before the motorcade). Many of the cameras used that day were on display in the museum. The first floor contained the gift shop and information area. The rest of the building functions as public offices.
Pointing at the sixth floor window (furthest right) from where Oswald fired the shots
With the Memorial plaque outside the Texas School Book Depository
Nearby, just a block away was the JFK Memorial and Cenotaph (which I honestly think is rather ugly unfortunately) that was created by artist Philip Johnson and erected in 1970.
At the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial
The Kennedy cenotaph
Friday, April 4, 2008 – Parkland Hospital – Site of John F. Kennedy’s Death – After Kennedy’s shooting in Dealey Plaza, his limosuine immediately drove him to Parkland hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:00pm in the trauma room. It was rather eerie to be surrounded by so many locations that had their named mentioned in the frantic news recordings taken on that fateful day – among them Industrial Boulevard, the triple underpass, and Parkland Hospital. It is odd to be scouting a busy, functioning hospital as a historic location, but that’s just what we did.
Bob and I parked in a garage and walked to the hospital to see if there were any markers indicating where President Kennedy had died. (Coincidentally, Oswald died in the trauma room in which Governor Connelly had been treated – and Jack Ruby also died in the same hospital four years later). It was hard to find anyone to direct us, one of them sending us to the McDonalds housed in building, which in fact was actually adorned with photos of the Kennedys taken during their visit to Dallas. The emergency room where Kennedy died has been remodeled but there are plaques up in the trauma area honoring the death of President Kennedy and the fact that Johnson assumed office while in the hospital.
While we did get photos of these plaques, apparently there are additional plaques in the area that was once the trauma room (now the X-Ray waiting area) showing the exact locations where President Kennedy died. I guess I’ll have to get back to Parkland one day!
With the plaques commemorating the place where Kennedy “ceased forever to breathe the air of freedom” and Johnson “became the 36th President in Parkland Memorial Hospital”
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 – Kennedy Family Burial Site – Located in their hometown of Brookline at the Holyhood Cemetery is a family burial plot that includes the final resting places of JFK’s parents Joe and Rose Kennedy, as well his sister Rose Marie, and two sons of Robert Kennedy, David and Michael.
Overview of the Kennedy burial site
With the parents, Joseph Patrick and Rose Fitzgerlad Kennedy
Summer 1998 / Saturday, August 11, 2007 – John F. Kennedy Grave – JFK’s grave at Arlington was the third grave that I visited twice (the others being Hayes’ and Nixon’s). The first visit was during a trip with Lisa and her Mom and sister to Washington D.C. when we took a trolley tour through the cemetery. Although we didn’t stop at the nearby William Howard Taft grave, we did get out to see the Kennedy gravesites.
JFK’s grave in 1998
Robert F. Kennedy’s grave (and my shadow) in 1998
In 2007, during my road trip with Bob, we walked the cemetery and were able to see both graves – and many others. Buried nearby is JFK’s brother Robert Kennedy (seen here). Next to JFK is his wife Jackie, their two-day old son Patrick, and stillborn daughter Arabella.
It was a bit frustrating to fight the crowds to see and get a photo of the President’s grave, but it was also gratifying to see the masses still turning out to pay their respect to our ‘fallen king’.
Me and John F. Kennedy
The grave of the First Lady
The Kennedy family and Eternal Flame
Continue to the next President…
Return to the 1998 Washington D.C. visit… (under construction)
Return to Saturday in Virginia 2007…
Return to Saturday in Texas 2008…
Return to Friday in Texas 2008…
Return to Wednesday in Massachusetts 2012…
Return to Saturday in Massachusetts 2012…
Return to Sunday in Massachusetts 2012…
Return to Wednesday in Berlin 2012…
Huh. That’s pretty interesting. I’m not all that interested in gravesites. If you ever make it to Colorado, you MUST go to Buffalo Bill’s grave, though!
Amber
January 21st, 2008
Nice Site!
But there needs to be a slight correction in your commentary.JFK won the Pulitzer Prize, because his father Joe Kennedy Sr. bought 100k copies of the book. Because of this, JFK was on the NYT Best seller list for several weeks. All part of the “image build” on the part of Joe Sr.
Thank you!
john
February 2nd, 2010
Nice commentary, Brad. I love history and museums. Thanks for the tour.
Nancy Brumfiel Doyle Spencer
July 31st, 2012
I was born one month and 19 days prior to the inauguration of the 35th President of the U.S.
For me, president Kennedy represent a light and a hope of a better tomorrow – and he spoke the words of “Ask not…”, “The proudest boast is Ich bin ein Berliner!” and “Problems are manmade and therefore they may be solved by man. No problems are beyond human beings”.
I visited Elm Street, Dallas, in January 1988 and Arlington National Cemetery in November 1989. I honor his memory: JFK will always be in our hearts!
Ulf, Sweden
December 4th, 2012
I have a memorial plate for robert f. kennedy and john f. kennedy. unable to find one like it. call me ASAP (606) 768-2590. Its black and white with gold rim.
rose huff
January 24th, 2014