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Kate Clifford Larson
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Contact: Jim Roberts, 617-566-7937
Brookline, MA — On Thursday, September 13, 2018, John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site will celebrate Rose Marie “Rosemary” Kennedy’s 100th birthday. Rosemary was born at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, the same house as her brother John. She attended the Coolidge Corner School and was baptized at Saint Aidan’s Roman Catholic Church. Rosemary was Joseph Sr. and Rose Kennedy’s first daughter and was born with intellectual disabilities. Helping her, and others like her, became a long-standing mission of the Kennedy family that continues today. At 3:00 p.m. the site will host Dr. Kate Clifford Larson, author of Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, for a presentation of her work and book signing. Refreshments will be available. Throughout the day, Rosemary’s early life will be uncovered through guided tours of her birthplace and in the film, “Life to Remember”. We hope you can join us to celebrate. For further information, please call 617-566-7937 or visit www.nps.gov/jofi.Visitor hours for the 2018 summer season at John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS are 9:30 AM until 5:00 PM, Wednesday through Sunday. Guided tours of JFK’s birthplace will be available on the hour and the half-hour from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with the final, ranger-led tour beginning at 3:30 PM. From 12:00-1:00 PM and 4:00 to 5:00 PM, visitors are welcome to follow Mrs. Kennedy's self-guided tour through the first and second floors of the house. Hand-held audio-players are available so that visitors may follow the tour in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. Admission is free.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS preserves the birthplace and early boyhood home of the 35th President of the United States. The modest house was the first home shared by the president’s parents, Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. John F. Kennedy, the second of nine children, spent his formative years in Brookline as his family began its rise to national prominence.
The president’s mother Mrs. Rose Kennedy returned to 83 Beals Street in 1967 to commemorate her son’s life, recreating his birthplace to her recollection of its 1917 appearance.
Today, National Park Rangers provide tours of the nine-room house where Kennedy family furnishings, photographs, and mementos personally collected and arranged by Mrs. Kennedy are on exhibit. In addition to ranger-guided tours, John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS invites visitors to step back in time and share Mrs. Kennedy’s memories of her family’s early home via cell phone; normal usage rates apply. One can also take a virtual ranger-led tour of the site and another of the North Brookline neighborhood. To access these tours, dial 617-992-9172. The tours can also be accessed via the web at https://jofi.oncell.com.
During the May to October visitor season, park rangers offer guided tours of the house and JFK’s boyhood neighborhood. Children ages 5-12 can participate in the site’s Junior Ranger program. Printed materials, including brochures and tour books, are available in Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Spanish and Vietnamese.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS is located just outside Coolidge Corner at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. The site is a ½ mile-walk from the Coolidge Corner T-Stop (Green Line, C-Cleveland Circle). Free on-street parking is available on Beals Street for up to two (2) hours. For more information please call (617) 566-7937, or visit www.nps.gov/jofi.
Last updated: August 22, 2018